Final Project

I did a combination of assignments for the final project. Hope you like!

First Assignment Hyperlinks:

Exploring Biomes: A Virtual Field Trip Across the World

Angela and I used www.weebly.com to create a website for students to complete virtual field trip to all the biomes of the world. Students will use Google Earth to visit each preprogrammed location. During their virtual field trip students take notes on their graphic organizers, develop a project, present their findings to the class and create a document to research information about their chosen biome. If you'd like I can email the Google Earth itinerary file the students will open. Just let me know.

Second Assignment:

I decided to "spruce" up my wiki page and give it a different look. I still used edu.glogster.com, but decided to change it up a bit. Let me know what you think.

Mr. Hastings' Wiki Page

Response to Article: Six Uses of the Internet to Develop Students’ Gifts and Talents by: Del Siegle, Ph.D.

I'm on the DIRT (differentiated instructional resource team) committee at my current school and I found this article very interesting. I'm really glad they pointed out the use of the Internet as a way to differentiate learning.

Last year I had a gifted student and honestly I was not impressed with the quality of their work. It was sloppy and rushed, but when I pointed it out I always got the same answer, “well, I completed the assignment.” Even after I gave him higher expectations I never really got the level of work I expected.

Now, I can differentiate instruction using the Internet and Web 2.0 tools for gifted students. I plan to start off small so I don’t get overwhelmed, but I’ll keep everyone posted!

Response to Article: The Student WebQuest by Maureen Brown Yoder

When I first heard the term WebQuest I immediately associated it with an online Scavenger Hunt, another busy work assignment for students to zip from one website to another to find fun facts and trivia about certain topics. Boy was I wrong!

Maureen Yoder’s article, “The Student WebQuest: A Productive and Thought-Provoking Use of the Internet” does an incredible job giving an in-depth look at what WebQuest are and ways to effectively integrate them into the classroom. I really liked how she explained each building block of a WebQuest (Introduction, Task, Process, Resources, Evaluation, and Conclusion) and I’ll definitely keep this article as reference for when I create my own WebQuests!
I can’t wait to use WebQuests in my classroom next year!

Response to Article: YouTube Comes to the Classroom By Anna Adam and Helen Mowers

YouTube, like with anything on the Internet, must be monitored and used appropriately. I've been in both school systems where one didn’t allow YouTube in the classroom and like at my current school which does allow it in the classroom. In my personal experience, "safety and security risks" have not been a major issue and the benefits have outweighed the risks. It was very frustrating to know YouTube videos could have benefited my classroom educationally, but wasn’t an option because it was blocked on the server by the school system.

However, last year I did have a student ask me to watch a video she put on YouTube of herself dancing. Well, I knew right away it wasn’t something that needed to be published for the world to see, so I spoke with my team and we decided to speak with her about the content and the dangers of posting material like that on Internet (she was dancing very provocatively to say the least). We also spoke with her mother and of course she had no idea her daughter posted video of herself on YouTube. Needless to say, after we spoke with her mother later that day the video was removed.

It just goes to show that as teachers in an ever growing technology-rich world we don't need to assume our students know what is and isn't appropriate behavior on the Internet. Kids need to be taught and then need to be reminded often of what is and isn't appropriate Internet behavior.

And, interestingly enough when I was at the bank depositing a check I noticed on the counter a booklet entitled, "New Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online" put out by www.onguardonline.gov which is full of information to teach students how to be responsible and safe on the Internet.

If you'd like to order free copies of the brochure, visit bulkorder.ftc.gov

The booklet also has a glossary that defines online vocabulary such as cyberbullying, firewall, hacking, badware, P2P, sexting, and spyware.

I plan to go over them during the first week of school, and to quiz them before they are allowed to use computers “freely.”