Final Project Reflection

Gypsy Frix & Rebecca Dosch
Final Project Reflection
ECOMP 7007
We designed a WebQuest for our final project. The students take on the role of FBI agents working in conjunction with the CDC. Students work in pairs researching viruses and bacteria that pose a threat to mankind. The final culminating product is a poster that advertises the danger of the bacteria or virus to the public.
This project took a lot of planning. We decided to focus on bacteria and viruses because the topic is relevant to the science curriculum in Georgia. It was a bit overwhelming sorting through the thousands of websites and resources that are available online. We made a hotlist of sites that we thought would be beneficial for our students to explore. Eventually, we narrowed down the websites that we wanted our students to use to complete the WebQuest.
We designed rubrics using Rubistar. This program was extremely easy to learn how to use. It allowed us to set up our rubric exactly as we needed it for our WebQuest. The website also allowed us to see other teacher’s ideas and rubrics. It is very helpful to have the opportunity to compare your rubrics with other educators.
We used the website www.weebly.com to publish our website. We had not used Weebly before so this was yet another program to learn in order to complete our final project. We found Weebly easier to use than the Dreamweaver program we worked with in class. However, we would probably use another program the next time we make a website. Weebly limited us a little bit with our ideas but was a great introductory program for web design.
In order to use pictures we found online, we had to gain copyright permission. This consisted of emailing the person who had the rights to the pictures and gaining his approval. His stipulations were: we had to use images that contained the visible copyright, we needed to place a photo credit and link to his site (www.denniskunkel.com), and we had to provide him our URL once we published the website.
We believe this project is easily implemented into any science teachers plans. The teacher should have access to a computer lab and a basic understanding of viruses and bacteria before assigning this WebQuest.
Overall, while this project took a long time to complete, it is something that can be used more than once and be shared with other teachers. The project can easily be updated on the website to stay current and relevant with state and national standards.

Rebecca and Gypsy's Web page/webquest

Visit our web page and check out the Bacteria and virus webquest!
http://gypbec.weebly.com

OMG: Universities are Change…Change…Changing???

In this reading these feeds/blogs, not necessarily this one, I am a little bitter. I am just frustrated with being told that the way of teaching is changing. Don't get me wrong, I love change and I love the new technologies . It seems like a wonderful idea but how can we teach this new technology if every site is blocked. I mean, I am frustrated enough that I can not even get on these sites to do our Lesley assignments at my high school. When I asked the IT at school if he could make these sites available, I was turned down because "students may not use them properly." Don't we need to trust our students integrity at least a little? Especially under supervision! If they are completing there assignments and completing them well, why shoud it matter if they check their email at school? I just want to know where we can go from here.

Web-site evaluation

Rebecca Dosch and I will be working together for the web presentation.Come join us in exploring and evaluating the following site:

http://www.brainpop.com

Listen up teachers because this site may be of interest to you and if not, something along these lines may be..

WebQuest-Final Project

For our final project, Rebecca Dosch and I will be creating a WebQuest. Students will chose to be either an FBI detective or a biologist for the CDC and research a molecular or chemical threat such as anthrax (harmful bacteria or virus). They will need to devise ways to prevent the spread of the chemical and inform the public about how to deal with threat

The ABC’s of Web Site Evaluation: Teaching Media Literacy in the Age of the Internet

Teaching Media Literacy in the Age of the Internet

Again this is another article that explains and gives tips on how to decipher whether information on a website is viable. I am not going to go over all of these because I have spoken of them in other articles I have read or several other people have touched on them. I will, however, touch on the parts that I found insightful for myself.

I know in reading articles with hyperlinks that I often find myself skipping from site to site reading here and there. This article states that sometimes you are linked to the middle (or some other part) of an article. When this happens you to go back and read the rest of the article because you can be misguided or misled due to not getting all of the facts that are in that particular link swaying you to a specific opinion.

Five W’s in research: who wrote it and are they an expert in the field? What does the author say is the purpose of the site? When was the site created, updated, and last worked on? Where does the information come from? Why is the information useful for my purpose?

Link Like You Mean It! Selecting Web Sites to Support Intentional Learning Outcomes

This article was great for giving examples and types of websites they suggest. I will go through and give you a smaller description of each website. This should help when doing the final project (webquest).

Huge Links- used for exercising literacy skills and work on long-term research skills for the higher learning, more focused students.

Info-rich sites- these sites are more specific and direct the student to pertinent information (target search).

“Emotive” sites- these go for the emotions so student may relate. They connect the students to real life.

“Typical” sites for (conceptual understanding)- these types of sites a student has to read and draw their own thoughts instead of just memorizing.

Perturbing sites (critical thinking)- these are sites that contain stereo types, bias, add, and those sort of things. These sites are more of a teacher structured site but help the students to use critical thinking. The students learn to recognize when bias or stereo types are being used and call it out (know that information is not up to par).

These descriptions should help both students and teachers chose what is good and not good in what they research and use.