My Webquest Worksheet

In my opinion, the two best projects were the "Grow School Greens" and "Underground Railroad". I think these make good use of the time it would take to accomplish them, they incorporate many school subjects into one project, and they give the students a chance to collaborate and learn to work in groups.

I think the two worst projects were "Where is My Hero?" and "Ice Cream". As I mentioned in the worksheet above, the Hero project would require a lot of the work to be done at home. The Ice Cream project would be messy, and it only incorporates one school subject.

To me, "best" means the most efficient. I appreciate projects that made good use of the time spent on them, and also incorporate as many subjects as possible. "Worst" would be the opposite--too long without actually teaching anything, and only incorporating one content area.

Week Twelve

DEJ #12

Quote- "The way we are educating is based on nineteenth-century ideas and methods. Here we are, entering the twenty-first century, and you look at our schools and ask, 'Why are we doing things in this ancient way?' Our system of education is locked in a time capsule. You want to say to the people in charge, 'You're not using today's tools! Wake up!'"

Response- Before this class, I had given little thought to ways I might include new forms of technology in my classroom. I grew up lugging heavy textbooks around in my backpack, taking notes with my pencil and paper while the teacher lectured, and filling in the bubbles on a multiple-choice test. But like this quote points out, those medieval methods are becoming a thing of the past. I'm very glad I took this class, because it has opened my eyes to so many new forms of teaching and learning using modern technology. I'm excited to see what will be out there for me to use in my classroom when I become a teacher!

Daly, James. "Life on the Screen: Visual Literacy in Education | Edutopia." K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work | Edutopia. N.p., 14 Sept. 2004. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. .

Related Resource

My Autobiography

Getting To Know Me

View more presentations from hevans4.

Glass Giant Photos

DEJ #11

The author of this article, Larry Magid, argues that the newly-passed Illinois state law which bans sex offenders from accessing information on social networking sites might actually do more harm than good.

For example, he points out that the audience which this law is trying to target, namely people who use the internet to contact children and then from there make attempts to sexually exploit them, actually very rarely succeeds in their endeavors. He goes on to say that in cases when there was sexual contact between an adult and a minor, it was more often than not the child who was actively seeking the contact. He also brought up the fact that not everyone who is forced to register as a sex offender is actually a child-molesting monster. Many people are on the list for things like urinating in public, and engaging in consensual sex with a fellow minor.

Although I believe that it's better to be safe than sorry, I would have to agree with Magid. I believe that once you serve the required punishment for a crime you commit, you should be free to go on with your life in any (legal) way that you see fit. This law hinders that freedom, and I don't think it's fair.

Kurt Cobain

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.	No
The factual accuracy of this article is disputed.	No
This needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling.	No
This may contain material not appropriate for an encyclopedia.	Possibly
This article only describes one highly specialized aspect of its associated subject.	No
This article requires authentication or verification by an expert.	No
This article or section needs to be updated.	No
This article may not provide balanced geographical coverage on a region.	No
This is missing citations or needs footnotes.	No
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)? It is complete.

 1.  Did the class activity about Wikipedia and this article change your opinion about the value of Wikipedia to society in general and education specifically?


Not exactly. I still have the same opinion about Wikipedia that I have always had, which is that it's a good reference for general information. I would never use it for a research paper or any kind of school project, but I do use it for obtaining information quickly and will continue to do so.

2.  Describe how you might direct students to use Wikipedia in your future classroom.

The only way I would allow a student to use Wikipedia in my classroom is as a starting point for research. For example, the student could use the sites referenced on the Wikipedia page, or conduct a new search of their own to find out if the information they found on Wikipedia is legitimate.

Wikipedia Questions

a. What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is a multi-lingual, online encyclopedia run by a non-profit organization called Wikimedia Foundation.

b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”
I think it all depends on who's doing the editing. Sometimes it can be helpful, because if only one person or a group of people do all of the editing for such a large site, information probably wouldn't get updated very often.

c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation?
The general public. In their words, "the wisdom of crowds".

d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia?
He believed that it should give more authority to experts.

e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page?
Spelling and grammatical errors, misinformation being presented as facts with no credidation, etc.

f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal?
The site is continuing to grow and expand around the world.

g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful?
I believe it's because it is an easy and free way to find general information quickly that you might not be able to find elsewhere.

h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising?
Ads are usually biased, and they're probably afraid that people would begin to view their site as a sort of scam.

i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?
It helps to weed out misinformation, and records the IP addresses of the users who post the false facts. It also helps protect from biased posts made by government or business officials.

My Think Aloud

Think Aloud

View more presentations from hevans4