WebQuests

WebQuests are a fun online tool for teachers to use in the classroom. Before learning about them in class I had not heard about them. A WebQuest is an online project in which students research information on the web. WebQuests can help students learn a new concept with a short project that takes a couple days or they can explore a topic more intensively by creating something to aid in understanding. In some cases, WebQuests can take a week or up to a month. Many students now enjoy using the internet and WebQuest offers a way to integrate the use of the web in a classroom project or assignment. This could be very engaging for a student and also an exciting way to vary teaching methods. I will definately consider using WebQuest in my future classroom.

Wiki Websites

This week we have been learning how to create and use a wiki. This is a pretty neat technology that I have always thought ,”how does that work”, and now I know! A wiki is a collaborative work of multiple authors. Each author can post information as well as edit information posted by other authors. This will be a useful tool as a teacher to communicate with other educators. I am currently starting a wiki with several other Elementary Education majors in efforts to come up with useful teaching website that I hope to one day use in my classroom!

Evaluating Websites

This week we learned how to evaluate websites to ensure their reliability. This was a very helpful activity seeing as how many teachers and students now rely on the internet to get their information on a subject for a class discussion, report, or paper. By using a checklist, we were able to evaluate a website of our choice and decide whether or not it met the criteria for a reliable source. Some of the criteria we looked at included: who is the author of the site, is there a publishing body, does the site show a bias, is the information supported by additional sources, and is the information current. After evaluating all these criteria we were then able to to determine if the site would be a good source to use in the classroom. This activity was definatley useful and I am sure I will take these things into consideration before choosing a website to use with students in my future classroom.