Lesson Learned 10/21/15

The lesson I took away today was how to create a WebQuest.  I read a little bit about WebQuests from Chapter 6 in the text; therefore, today's lesson, with the Romeo and Juliet example and a break-down of each section, really helped me understand WebQuests much better.  I learned how effective including images, numbering steps like in a checklist, bolding and underlining key points, and  providing clear instructions for everything,  I also learned how to embed hyperlinks and how significant it was to include extensions for students and other teachers to take the next step.  WebQuests are super interactive, student-centered, and goal-oriented.

CHAPTERS 5 & 6

5 Teaching Information Literacy and Digital Citizenship

*STRATEGIES FOR CONDUCTING EFFECTIVE SEARCHES WITH STUDENTS*

“A search engine has no way of knowing who asked the question…as a teacher, you must sort through masses of material to find what is relevant and age-appropriate for the class curriculum” (Maloy, Verock-O’Loughlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2013, p. 110).

            Through elementary school and middle school, my main source for researching was library books.  However, nowadays, there is a shift to research being done through the Internet, even among the younger students.  A main issue with students using the internet is that there may be inappropriate information or false information that they may come upon when researching freely; therefore, it is our job as teachers to ensure them a safe and enjoyable experience with internet research. According to the text, the strategies suggested for teachers on how they can use search engines with students safely and effectively include the following:  introducing the search sites that are actually designed for students with age-appropriate material, teaching students to critically evaluate and question search results instead of merely acting the information at face value, using visual search tools that display visuals (like images and videos) instead of a list of URLs, and guaranteeing students with safe online experiences through preselecting sites for students to visit and adding them to the bookmarking tool for student access (Maloy et al., 2013, p. 110-112).

*RESPONSIBILITIES OF DIGITAL CITIZENS*

“Digital citizenship is a broad concept covering all aspects of appropriate technology use, from using social networks safely, to always citing sources, to plagiarism…Many schools have responded to the challenges of teaching digital citizenship by adopting Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) that state the rules of technology use and the consequences of breaking those rules” (Maloy et al., 2013, p. 117).

            The central goal for teachers is to be able to shape their students into great citizens who can contribute to the country.  Similar to how teachers are shaping their students into becoming outstanding and upright citizens, teachers must also shape students into becoming great citizens of the digital world by teaching them the ethics and etiquette of the digital world.  This is due to the fact that the world today is filled with technology, and the digital world has grown so large and has rules and regulations that citizens must follow similar to how they do outside the digital world.  I thought that it was interesting that with AUPs, there are stiff penalties that befall students who violate the rules of the digital world.  This makes it so much more apparent that violating the rules in the digital world can result in consequences that are very real and tangible, even if students feel as if the things they do in the digital world, beyond the screen, should not impact them.

6 Fostering Online Learning with Educational Websites and Apps

*DESIGNING SUCCESSFUL WEBQUESTS*

“For teachers, designing a successful WebQuest means answering four questions:

1. Who are the students and what are they capable of doing?

2. What are the primary ideas you wish to teach?

3. How will students at different skill levels productively work together?

4. Is technology integrated seamlessly into the assignment?” (Maloy et al., 2013, p. 140).

            Because I never created a WebQuest before, let alone experience one myself, I thought it was important to note some questions to keep in mind while creating my WebQuest for this course.  I think these questions would serve as great guidelines in addition to the information provided by the teacher, for I can constantly reflect on my work and keep myself in check.  I think that these questions are effective not only for WebQuests, but also for any lesson and activity teachers plan because they are general questions that do strike the heart of a lesson.

*TAKING VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS*

“Virtual field trips are a flexible teaching approach…many museums, science centers, and other educational organizations have developed online field trip and virtual tour programs that do not require any human-to-human interaction, so no reservation is needed” (Maloy et al., 2013, p. 140-141).

            I think that virtual field trips are an amazing tool that teachers can use to further their students’ learning.  Of course, field trips that students can physically go on are also important, but virtual ones are so significant because they enable students to experience things and places vicariously and learn from those experiences.  These field trips can be just as exciting as the 4-D theaters in attraction parks, as students are experiencing places as if they are traveling through them with their own two feet.  Moreover, virtual field trips make venturing to places a long distance away, such as the Palace of Versailles and the Great Wall of China, possible.  Furthermore, virtual field trips are awesome because some programs do not require reservations, which may be a hassle to do when planning field trips.

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***FOOD FOR THOUGHT…***

1)    What steps would you take to ensure your students a safe and enjoyable Internet research experience?

2)    If you were to give a lesson on how to become great digital citizens to your students, how would you motivate your students and make sure they internalize the message you want them to leave the lesson with?

3)    Besides the four questions the text suggests for teachers to ask themselves while designing a successful WebQuest, what question would you ask in addition?

4)    Where would you bring your students to for a virtual field trip?

Work Cited

Maloy, R., Verock-O’Loughlin, R., A. Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (n.d.). Transforming

learning with new technologies (2nd ed.). Pearson

Lesson Learned 10/14/15

Today, I learned a lot about the controversial topic of Wikipedia.  Based on what my teachers always told me, Wikipedia was a "hands-off" source we could never use for our research papers.  However, Wikipedia is a website that has many pros and cons and can be used for many different purposes.  Although many people can edit Wikipedia pages, there is actually a team censoring the changes; thus, the site is trustworthy for its information.  I was very interested to learn that the website was started for the purpose of forming a Utopia for the Hippies on the internet.  They believed in sharing knowledge, and that knowledge is in the shaping and is constantly evolving.  Anybody who wants to contribute their knowledge can do so in a democratic way.

Lesson Learned 10/7/15

Today, the lesson that I learned was that learning comes in many forms.  Learning is done through repetition, remembering, applying, teaching someone else, creating, demonstrating, mastering, and showing off skills.  There are so many different levels of learning, for learning itself is a layered process.  Therefore, learning can be demonstrated in multiple ways.

Another lesson I took away from today was that educational theories are there to help us predict and plan.  Theories of Learning give us teachers different perspectives, different lenses to look through. There is behaviorism, cognitive information processing, and constructivism.  Each theory defines learning a little differently, and have their own ways of assessing learning.  In behaviorism, learning is defined as a change in the probability of a behavior occurring, and assessment can come in the form of observations.  Cognitive information processing defines learning as a change in knowledge stored in memory, and assessment can come in the form of creation and retrieving information on exams.  Lastly, constructivism defines learning as a change in meaning, which is constructed from experience; assessment may come in the form of observations of students' reflection of their learning experience.