As I will be getting a degree in Secondary Education, I navigated to the Secondary Corner of the Integration Corner on the textbook website. The link to WebQuests caught my eye. I had done a few WebQuests in middle school, and I couldn’t recall all of the details. Basically, a WebQuest is a form of finding information about a certain topic on the internet. Many of them have pre-selected websites for the students to use while following the directions given by the instructor. Some of them are very involved, such as a WebQuest that involved students rewriting, acting out, filming, and editing a scene from a Shakespeare play using the iMovie software. Others involved creating hypothetical businesses, or making a virtual pilgrimage.
These WebQuests are great, because they give you a framework to build your own. WebQuests are so versatile. You can use them for any subject; you can even create some that are cross-curricular. WebQuests can really immerse your students in the technology that surrounds them, and show them how to use it in ways other than connecting with friends. Some students may never have used movie editing software, or may have never used online business tools. These activities give them some experience with technology in a completely different context than they are used to. This is yet another way that technology is opening new doors in the classroom.
Monday, August 30, 2010
The Next Generation of Learning
There is a whole new world of technology out there, just waiting to be utilized. Some of it, like blogging, can easily be used in a classroom setting. Teachers could have a class blog, or encourage students to keep a blog as part of an assignment. Blogging can open up so many opportunities and invite new ways of thinking into your classroom. It can be used to communicate with the next generation of students, and their parents.
Incorporating blogging into your curriculum would be quite simple. You could ask students to think about blogging as an online journal. Many historical figures kept journals. Ask students to create and maintain a blog for a period of time, as if they were a certain historical figure (e.g. Marie Antoinette, Thomas Jefferson, etc.) Students could document their science projects by means of a blog, posting pictures, graphs, videos and other information. Blogging can help create a truly engaging curriculum.
Aside from incorporating blogging into the curriculum, blogging can help teachers communicate with students in a more 21st century kind of way. Students are on their computers so often these days. How easy would it be for them to check the blog for their English II class while they catch up with friends on Facebook? The answer is so easy. A blog for a class might include lesson summaries, homework assignments, a calendar of test dates, etc. As long as teachers are interacting with their students online in an appropriate manner, the possibilities are endless.
Incorporating blogging into your curriculum would be quite simple. You could ask students to think about blogging as an online journal. Many historical figures kept journals. Ask students to create and maintain a blog for a period of time, as if they were a certain historical figure (e.g. Marie Antoinette, Thomas Jefferson, etc.) Students could document their science projects by means of a blog, posting pictures, graphs, videos and other information. Blogging can help create a truly engaging curriculum.
Aside from incorporating blogging into the curriculum, blogging can help teachers communicate with students in a more 21st century kind of way. Students are on their computers so often these days. How easy would it be for them to check the blog for their English II class while they catch up with friends on Facebook? The answer is so easy. A blog for a class might include lesson summaries, homework assignments, a calendar of test dates, etc. As long as teachers are interacting with their students online in an appropriate manner, the possibilities are endless.
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