Webquests... timing could be everything

 I have used WebQuests before with success, but...

In April of 2005, for a 12th grade English Language Arts class, I had built a WebQuest that had the students exploring the radio events of October 30, 1938. We were studying narrative and media literacy. Specifically, for this WebQuest, they were looking at a particular broadcast that was put on by Mercury Theater on the Air. Of course, most of the 12th graders that year were familiar with trailers and previews of a movie that released in June of 2005: War of the Worlds.

That specific War of the Worlds WebQuest was quite successful in all sections of the class that I taught that year. It's success was wrapped up in the hype for a Tom Cruise movie that also starred the young starlet, Dakota Fanning. The students were extremely engaged learning about the original radio broadcast that lead to panic in and around New York City. The students where equally as fascinated to find out that the event was duplicated here in Western New York. A broadcast from WKBW in Buffalo, 1968 (30 years and 1 day after the original), resulted in the Canadian military storming the Peace Bridge to protect their country from the martian invaders who had landed on Grand Island.

On their own, students located other War of the World events around the world, one that is particularly interesting was in Ecuador, 1949.

Despite my lack of a solid task, that particular WebQuest was successful. Driven by Hollywood hype, an interesting historical event and a parallel event close to home, with locations that the students have been to before, the students made huge connections with narrative, motive, media literacy and cultural literacy. The students were so engaged that they even went out on their own to do some independent learning.

That being said, I do not think that WebQuest would be successful today.

I know that I would have to have a much more solid task (honestly, I know it was weak because I don't even remember what it was). I also know that I could not ride the hype for that specific movie. I would have to find another movie that is being hyped and find other versions of that story that have made significant history. That alone sounds like a daunting task. All-in-all, timing was the most crucial factor in that WebQuest and I think that the unintended success was more focused on sociology, U.S history and cultural literacy than it was ELA, but we got there.

PowerPoint

There are a lot of great uses for PPT in the classroom. 

Letting students use it to do a presentation is usually not one of them.

Students need to learn how to design PowerPoints

In my personal experience, students are under the impression that ALL of their presentation should be included on the PPT slides. This simply is not true - ever. 

The other misconception that students have with PPT is that a lot of movement and sounds enhance the understanding of the PPT content - they don't.

If given time in class to create PPTs students typically spend the majority of time Google-ing or Bing-ing images and other content to include in the slide show presentation. I'm not convinced that is the best use of classroom time, especially in preparation for a five to ten minute presentation.

Finally, most students completely miss what the PPT is supposed to do; clarify the presented information.

Teachers 

PowerPoint is more than the presenting a lecture...

In fact PPT can be a completely  interactive classroom experience. If you have the know-how, a well designed PowerPoint, a SMART Board and a Koosh Ball - you might be able to create a learning experience that is unforgettable.

 

Think about it...

Virtual Homework?

FLASHBACK

The year was 2006 - texting is is growing but is still primarily for teens and techies. High schools do have computer labs, but more sites are blocked than allowed. MySpace is all the rage and kids can't get enough of the flash game Kitten Cannon. I was teaching tenth grade ELA that year.

I was fortunate in that I got to choose which Shakespeare text I taught. She's the Man came out that year so I knew that Twelfth Night would resonate with the students. 

Because of My Space and teens now hiding their cell phones in their purses and book bags to text, I took a chance at trying to create a virtual space for my students to use. I created a google.pages site for each of my classes and assigned small groups a specific character to make summaries of what had happened through each act of the play. 

This worked to some extent, but the main issue was that each group needed the admin password to add and create pages to the site that I set up. Most students were clumsy at best at creating webpages. It caused a lot of chaos and confusion.

FAST FORWARD (seven years)

Facebook has taken hold. Almost everyone has at least one profile. MySpace is a very specialized site for artists and musicians. Facebook offers the option to create multiple group pages with very little effort; sites are easily created and deleted.

The question I ask Myself as I get ready to again teach high school students: Would I expect them to post to a FB page? 

The answer - Yes... and... No. Seven years later, I expect so much more form them. I want hyperlinks, I want Prezzies, I want to see that they are plugged in and know how to work their phones, how to get the most from their tablets and their computers, I expect that they control some space in the cloud.

College and Career Ready Is Not What It Used To Be...

Even though I am a full time graduate student, this past year I have not purchased a single physical textbook. Instead I opted to buy an eBook reader and get all of my textbooks electronically. The result so far is that I have saved a lot of money (included the cost of the reader). I really don't see this changing for future students.

In my own work experience, I have occupied office space in Faridabad, India for about 18 months without ever stepping outside of the United States. The world is shrinking rapidly and as educators it is a priority that we not only teach our students to work virtually but also how to make sure they understand how to do it. It's really not an option anymore.

Open the Gate

"Web 2.0 has created an environment in which the web becomes interactive. Social media allows us to connect not only to the people we know but indirectly to many, many more people. In education, both Web 2.0 and social media are lauded and criticized for different things. What are your thoughts going into this course pertaining to education and Web 2.0 and social media? How might these tools best support education or should they be left completely out of education?" - Jennie Goldman Schaff

I bought a Commodore 64 (yes that is a whole whopping 64mb of data storage capacity and 20mb of pure processing power!) with my paper route money some time in the early eighties. I was somewhere between ten and twelve. 

The computers in the lab at school were Macintosh, and had green graphics. My C64 was connected to a color TV and had a FULL 12 color display! I sat alone in my room and taught myself basic programming and even purchased a cradle modem to place the handset of my home phone on to connect to other people using C64s. I could listen to the beeps and boops of the computers connecting and see text appearing on my screen. It was amazing! And my parents had no idea why I wasn't using my television to watch TV...

Fortunately for my parents the internet was still fledgling at best and home users had very limited access. I was limited to who I could contact with my modem, I only had my friends numbers and only three of them had C64s. Also, other than copying video games from each other (yes, piracy is as old as the household computer) I had no malicious intent for my computer. It was a gaming system and a item of curiosity. 

Could you imagine leaving a ten to twelve year old boy alone in his room, with the door closed, on a computer, for hours at a time?

We need to teach students to swim. 

It is a dangerous and tragic neglect to all students and teachers to leave social media and and Web 2.0 out of education. I would equate it to locking the gate to the public pool during the day when the life guard is on duty and UN-locking it at night when nobody is watching. 

Unfortunately, often, this is sadly the case.

Even in the schools where computers and technology are used, Web 2.0 is weakened and social media nonfunctional due to the firewalls and blocked access of the servers - the gate is locked. After school, kids go home often to empty houses, the PS3, the Wii, whatever current game system you can imagine, the tablet, the desktop and the smartphone are all connected to the web and right there waiting... and mom or dad won't be home for a couple of hours.

I know this because I am "friends" with about 60-70 students around Monroe County. I know what they post. I see when they post it. Most of it is by phone. But, I also know that when I set up groups on FB for us to discuss particular issues and events, their posts reflect the values of the group that they are posting to. I have rarely had to remind a group member about appropriateness. It's a shame that schools don't teach kids how to use these sites and then leverage that natural inclination of students to use them. 

I do believe that if students were taught, with parental permission, and teacher supervision to use social media at a younger age, it would cut down on cyber bullying. It would cut down on the number of kids that are taken advantage of by sexual predators, it might also cut down on the number of inappropriate posts that are happening right now.

I know that I only answered the last half of the question, but I've written enough and still have more to say...