Factors Impacting Curriculum Webs in Schools

Curriculum webs are a great way to engage students in learning, and elicit higher-order thinking in the classroom. However there are many different factors that need to be considering when we think about their implementation in schools. Well obviously we need internet access, but what else is involved? First there are the people to consider, the teachers, the learners (some of which are most likely special needs in your public school classrooms), classrooms, computers, computer labs, connectivity, software, and e-mail. Now within each of these topics there are a broad range of smaller factors that will no doubt impact the use of a curriculum web in schools, but those are the main factors.

My advice, prepare for everything that can go wrong! If you are doing it in school, make sure that you print out copies of the necessary websites just in case the network decides to crash that day, or the computers won't turn on. In that case, the students are still able to complete some of the task and the period is not wasted. Make sure that if you want the students to work independently that there are enough computers for them to do so. You may want to have an option for them to work in pairs, so that you can improve your chances that there will be enough working computers for your students to use. Also, make sure that they all can navigate the curriculum web and work in tools to help anticipated student problems along the way. By over preparing on what the students will need help on and working it into the curriculum web, you will be better prepared to handle other situations that arise such as misbehavior, or computer problems. Try to eliminate the problems before they arise!

Podcasting

So this week my group and I did a presentation to the class about podcasting. My only experience with podcasts before I started my research on the topic consisted of me coming across a free download for Japanese pods, which were a series of podcasts on learning Japanese. These were broken up into small manageable pieces from which I could listen to and practice saying the words. Other than that podcasts in my mind were located in a separate section at the iTunes store.

What are podcasts exactly? Well the definition comes right from the word. Pod comes from "iPod" and cast referring to "broadcast". The name is really just as creative and explicit as macaroni and cheese. I mean, how much simpler can it get? Well, it can't get much simpler, but it can get more complicated! Don't worry though it's not too bad, there are the regular audio podcasts which I mentioned above, and then there are vidcasts which have video along with the audio, and finally there are enhanced podcasts with still frame pictures that go along with the audio.

Lastly, how is it going to relate to you as a teacher? Well, this is a great resource if you have a projector or a smartboard in your classroom. Instead of listening to you explain a topic for the third time, you can show a vidcast of another teacher, or even other students explaining a topic. You can even get the students more engaged and involved in the whole idea if you have the resources to have your students create their own vidcasts or podcasts. This is a great way for students to showcase their knowledge, and be creative and have fun with it in the process.

What makes an effective website?

Have you ever come across a website that you just thought was awful? Maybe, the pictures came up as boxes with question marks, or had html code all over the screen. Clicking on links that don't even work, bringing you to another page that doesn't exist. Or perhaps all of the information is there, but in one big chunk, or not easy to navigate. These are some elements among others that make a website ineffective, and you want to make sure that those are avoided at all costs when creating a website.

In order to make an effective website there are many different elements involved. You need to decide who your audience will be. If you don't know who your audience is there is no way for you to direct the content and style of your site to fit their needs, and will lack the structure necessary for it to be an effective website. Your website should have a visual theme, and should not look like a mosaic of different elements haphazardly put together. Unless of course this would be appealing to your audience. The information on your site should be broken into manageable pieces, similar to the way you give your students pieces of information one at a time as you go through a unit. Links should work, and be provided for navigation within your site, so the back browser button is not needed to return to a different page or the home page. And lastly, each page should be designed, there should not be pages left unfinished, or unorganized with elements missing.

It's also important to keep in mind what people are looking at when they evaluate your site. Who is the person behind the site? What is the site about, and is it useable? When was the site created and last updated? Where is all this stuff coming from? Why am I looking here for this information and not somewhere else? If you have all the elements above, and you do not fail when you ask yourself the questions people are asking about your site, then you are on your way to a great website!

What is the value of webquests in education?

Webquests are a great resource for involving students in higher-order thinking. Imagine a school, where you go in every day, and answer questions from a textbook or workbook. Now imagine a school where students go on the computer and are researching a topic, analyzing the information found, making comparisons, and drawing conclusions based on these activities. The latter are the types of work that make students think, that go beyond giving definitions, or answering short questions, but move into the higher-order thinking processes of analysis and creation. Webquests allow students to work at their own pace, and are of great value to education due to the critical thinking and analysis aspects contained within.

These webquests can take place over a short period of time (one to three class periods or a weekend homework assignment), or take place over a couple of weeks. Longer webquests however are more difficult to implement in the classroom, because it is difficult to provide all of the information and tasks needed for a longer webquest on one website that is manageable for the students. By merely bringing in the use of a computer with my smartboard, I have found in my own classroom that math suddenly becomes much more engaging for students. Now give them the opportunity to explore websites on their own, and you will be pleasantly surprised at the new found excellent work ethics in students. Just make sure that their searches are geared towards obtaining the learning objectives at hand and not spent on finding out the scores from the games on tv last night!

Planning Instruction & Assessment

Classroom instruction and assessment are c0-dependent and tied together throughout a lesson. There is no way to decide what to teach, without first understanding what your students already know about a topic. When explaining material, teachers must also look at the body language of their students as they are explaining concepts, listen to students' answers to questions, and react to students' responses. A curriculum web needs to have built-in to it these aids that the teacher provides in person to students to help them along the way. In order to do so it is extremely important to anticipate these needs of the students. Instructional supports on a curriculum web may include; glossaries, visual organizers, links to videos, examples, review pages, etc. 

In order to assess learning it is best to use authentic assessments, in other words, assess them in a way that is relevant to the real-world. However, often standardized testing methods are also implemented in my classroom as students will need to be able to perform in these environments as well in the academic setting. In all assessments however, it is crucial that they are linked to the learning objectives to assess whether or not these have been met. Creating a rubric for a project is a great way for both students and teachers to assess students work. In this way students have the opportunity to assess for themselves how they are meeting expectations.