Photobiography

Photobiography

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WebQuest

The two best WebQuests:

1. Where is My Hero?
This provides students an opportunity to explore values. They will
do research on heroes and form personal opinions. Students will also
interview others to get different viewpoints. They will define what a
hero is and present it in a creatively in a poster format.

2. Unraveling the Underground Railroad.
Student will work independently and in groups. Journaling will develop higher
level thinking skills by individual reflection. This project also requires students
to look at situations from another's viewpoint. Though this will take more than one class
period it can be broken down into subunits.

Worst Webquests
1. Ancient Egypt.
Not able to determine what age group this site is geared for.
Layout of site unappealing. Not organized well.

Your Impressions: Altitudinist

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Grow School Greens	Problem solving: Students will learn to: State the problem. Identify the alternatives. Select an alternative. Recommend. Implement. Evaluate. Present and persuade. Document. Collaboration	Long term project, 15 weeks. If seedlings fail to grow in 10 – 12 weeks then project may take longer. Would deny students opportunities to explore other types of real world problems.
Where is My Hero?	Identifying personal views. Exploring views of others. Assessing information and weighing opinions. Expression of individual ideas. Learning to sift through information to find key points. Presenting ideas in a short and concise manner. Collaboration and integration of individual ideas with other viewpoints.  Creativity – make poster to present ideas	Will take more than one class period and will require the student to work on the assignment outside of class.
Underground Railroad	Students will need to conduct research. Understanding different viewpoints. Individual reflection. Group collaboration. Presenting information in a creative way that engages the audience. Rubric for grading Can be broken into subunits.	Time consuming. Will require more than one class period.
Ice Cream	Structured. Students will learn to: State the problem. Identify the alternatives. Select an alternative. Recommend. Implement. Evaluate. Present and persuade. Document. Collaboration	Might be better to complete worksheet as a group.
Ancient Egypt	Interesting topic  Individual work and group collaboration.	Wordy Not sure who audience is. Objectives not clearly defined.

Activity: Glass Giants

Double Journal Entry #12

Quote: “The society that has a great educational system becomes the prominent society because that's the way the human race survives... People seem to forget this fact, and often these are the same people who are running the society. They would rather spend money on the military than on the educational system, unaware that the military will bring them zippo.” (Lucas)

Reaction: No doubt, education levels the playing field and gives more people an opportunity to achieve more success. However, equal opportunity does not mean that there will be equal results and critics and zealots alike unfairly ostracize the educational system for not producing children equally alike. If children were equal in learning abilities, desires and interests, we could use a cookie cutter approach. But that isn’t reality and we have learned that with the shortfalls of the No Child Left Behind Act.
             Lucas does point out that we the way we communicate now has changed, and therefore the way we teach children to communicate must change. I don’t agree that throwing more money at education is the answer without serious reform, such as tying student performance to teaching effectiveness in a viable way. Flooding educational institutions with more revenue isn’t going to accomplish in a system if mediocrity continues to get protected. Alluding to military spending as the reason we don’t have more money to spend on education is not an answer either. American citizens have an open society and secular public education system because of our military personnel who defend our freedoms, and are willing to stand up for citizens anywhere in the world who want the same freedoms.
            Mr. Lucas’s work in digital technology and film is transferable to the military, space research, and other industries where simulations play an important role in research and job preparation. Let us not pit education spending against military spending; both are important. In fact, the military needs people who have highly developed critical thinking skills and leadership abilities. It provides excellent career opportunities that is perfectly suited to some students. If there is any lesson to be learned from this article, it is that we shouldn’t label or pigeon hole students, but instead expose them to a wide variety of learning experiences to help them find their passions and develop a purpose.

Daly, J. (2002, September 14). Life on the screen:Visual literacy in education. In Edutopia. Retrieved November 13, 2011, from http://www.edutopia.org/lucas-visual-literacy

Additional Resources:

The resource below is found on PBS LearningMedia (both links are provided). It features a video on how visual learning is integrated into lesson plans and delivered in a cyberlearning environment.

KQED, . (n.d.). What is cyberlearning?. In PBS Learning Media. Retrieved November 13, 2011, from http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/content/cyb11.pd.cyber.overview/

PBS LearningMedia, a next-generation digital media service, empowers PreK–16 educators to re-imagine classroom learning, transform teaching, and creatively engage students. It brings together the best of public media, produced specifically for educators, from PBS, WGBH, and over 55 public media partners. High-quality content tied to Common Core and national curriculum standards is freely available to all educators as a basic service. PBS LearningMedia, a next-generation digital media service, empowers PreK–16 educators to re-imagine classroom learning, transform teaching, and creatively engage students. It brings together the best of public media, produced specifically for educators, from PBS, WGBH, and over 55 public media partners. High-quality content tied to Common Core and national curriculum standards is freely available to all educators as a basic service.
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/

Double Journal Entry #11

Larry Magid makes some valid points in his article, "Social-networking ban for sex offenders: Bad call?" He wrote this in response to an Illinois law banning anyone listed as a sex offender from participating in social net-working sites. The legislation is an example of a well-intentioned law to protect children but will have little impact.  Magid cites sources that indicate that it is unlikely a predator will actually physically meet and harm a child as a result of conversing with them online. He suggests that many cases which involve intimacy are due to teenage girls actively seeking contact with young adult males. In such cases, the young adult males can be found guilty of being a sex offender regardless of whether any intimacy is consensual. Magid suggests that it may be unfair to ban someone under these circumstances from social-networking when the intent was not malicious. Other examples he gives that may be unfair include individuals labeled as sex offenders for silly acts like urinating in public and streakers. Being registered as a sex offender is harsh and carries with it the assumption that it must be for an aggregious act such as child molestation.

I understand the intent of the law, but Magid makes a very valid point that the law has far reaching consequences. The punishment does not necessarily fit the crime and perhaps the law should have been more explicit so that individuals convicted for lesser crimes (public urination, streaking, etc.) would not be banned from participating in social sites.

Wikipedia: Kantian Ethics

      This page appears to be a reliable source for Kantian Ethics. The names of Kant's parents were in red text, indicating that there were no active links to a page of each of his parent. However, it may be that there exists little informaiton on his parents.
      I checked the links for six of the resources listed. They appear to be legitimate and many of the sources are quoted from professional journals and experts from educational institutions to name a few. I am comfortable using information from this particular source [Wikipedia].

This article or section has multiple issues.	No
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.	No
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
The factual accuracy of this article is disputed.
This needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling.
This may contain material not appropriate for an encyclopedia.	No
This article only describes one highly specialized aspect of its associated subject.	Yes
This article requires authentication or verification by an expert.
This article or section needs to be updated.
This article may not provide balanced geographical coverage on a region.
This is missing citations or needs footnotes.	Yes
This article does not cite any references or sources.	No

2. Read through the article and see if it meets the following requirements:

Is it written in a clear and organized way?	Yes
Is the tone neutral (not taking sides)?	Yes
Are all important facts referenced (you're told where they come from)?	Yes
Does the information provided seem complete or does it look like there are gaps (or just one side of the story)?	Slight gaps

Wikipedia: Friend Not Foe

I am cautious when using Wikipedia. It can be a good starting point for research if one is willing to do a little deconstructing of the Webpage visited. I scour the resource links and dig in to see if the sources and citations are legitimate. The article, " Wikipedia: Friend Not Foe" did not change my mind about using Wikipedia as I was aware of the pitfalls of using it (prior knowledge). I will likely suggest to students that they use Wikipedia as a source to get to other sources, and not quote Wikipedia but the original source.

About Wikipedia

a. What is Wikipedia? 

An online open source directory with a purpose of being a vast collection of human knowledge.
b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”

The reliability is questionable with non-experts able to cite opinions rather than facts.
c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation? 

The creators place their trust in wiki users to put information through a vetting process. They trust that most contributors are genuine in wanting to provide accurate information.
d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia? 

Philosophical differences about how the information in Wikipedia should be reviewed or monitored. (additional source used:
http://drjon.typepad.com/jon_cogburns_blog/2010/07/slate-interview-with-larry-sanger-cofounder-of-wikipedia.html).
e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page? 

Text edits to a site that someone else authored; removing sections without an explanation; adding material without citations; making claims that are not supported by facts or links to experts; nonsense material.
f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal? 

The Virginia Tech tragedy is an example of how people can collaborate to provide information. The entry continued to evolve as more information became available and facts were revealed.
g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful? 

It engages people and allows them to contribute knowledge in real time. It is a forum for people who have a passion about a particular topic or about knowledge in general.
h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising? 

Advertising would influence the content. This is the same reason that newspapers publishers require that the editorial department operate autonomously from the advertsing department. The purpose is to provide information without bias.
i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?

It identifies who is behind edits so one can infer whether the edits are made with a bias or not.

Online Reading Strategies

Think aloud

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