Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Thank you for the invite

I look forward to sharing many interesting and thoughtful exchanges on your blog. I enjoy reading your posts on the weekly posts.

Monday, March 24, 2008

WebQuests

Another popular and powerful web-based teaching and learning tool is WebQuests, which was created by Bernie Dodge and Tom March of San Diego State University. Today the term WebQuest registers 664,000 page hits on Google. Dodge listed approximately 2000 WebQuests on his site (webquest.sdsu.edu) and he believes that there are tens of thousands of others on the Internet. Tom March discussed how WebQuest supports scaffolded learning, uses Internet resources, and supports authentic tasks. According to March, WebQuests are not a tool to develop technology-enhanced products by students, rather a real WebQuest should help students to acquire knowledge through “transformative learning” and authentic learning. WebQuest uses Internet resources, scaffolded learning, and authentic tasks to motivate students to investigate an open-ended question, develop individual expertise, and work in a group environment. The entire process transforms acquired knowledge through these activities into “sophisticated understanding,” helping students to see “thematic relationships,” “(inspiring) them to contribute to the real world of learning, and reflect on their own metacognitive process.” WebQuest integrates learning strategies with effective use of the Internet to provide constructivist approaches such as differentiated learning, situated learning, thematic instruction and authentic assessment. Relevant and compelling authentic tasks and real world feedback from professional people from the industry motivate students, and inspire confidence. Open ended questions help students to make connections between their prior knowledge and curiosity to investigate and find a better understanding of the material.

Introduction, task, process, resources, and evaluation are the critical attributes of a WebQuest. Introduction section prepares and hooks the student, creates the learning situation, and engages them through a compelling and relevant question or problem. The task section describes the learning activities and what students have to do; the process section describes how the task needs to be accomplished, and includes steps and tools. The resource section provides relevant links to websites that would help accomplish the task; and the evaluation section provides the criteria and standards students need to meet and demonstrate. There are usually two different kind of WebQuests: short-term and long-term. Short-term WebQuests may take one to three sessions and long-term WebQuests may take one week to one month. Short-term WebQuests mainly involve students in knowledge acquisition and focuses on the integration of new knowledge with prior knowledge, whereas long-term WebQuests help the learner extend and refine their knowledge and information through analysis and demonstration.

Teacher’s Role

The constructivist learning environment and integration of Information and communication technologies are changing the role of the teacher in the classroom. Teachers are now expected to learn new skills in order to incorporate new technologies in their classroom, keep pace with new technologies, be flexible and above all, teachers have to know how to use new ICT in teaching and learning environments, not just as a teacher but also as a guide, tutor, and facilitator. The art of teaching and learning is now influenced by modern ICT. A teacher shouldn’t just focus on the operational use of the instructional tool but really needs to have an understanding of high order use of the instructional technology. The high order use of ICT promotes cooperative learning, role playing, simulation, problem solving activities, and authentic task. Teachers need to keep up with the advancement of the ICT to promote quality education in constructivist environments, the concept of using online shared resources, share learning spaces, opening up the classroom, collaborative learning, and electronic management of learning environments are impossible without the knowledge of ICT. Therefore it is crucial for teachers to learn and understand technology in order to foster learning in technology-led classrooms.

Use of BLOG in education

Blogs can be used as powerful instructional tool and can be incorporated into curriculum. However teachers have to be enthusiastic about blogging and know how to integrate into teaching and learning activities to support different instructional and learning theories.

According to Richardson (2006), “Thousands of teachers and students have already incorporated Weblogs into their classroom and into their practice. Blogs, as they are known, are easily created, easily updateable Websites that allow an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection” (p. 8). Further, he reported that according to Fernette and Brock Eide’s research blogs can:- Promote critical and analytical thinking- Be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking- Promote analogical thinking- Be a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information- Combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction (Eide Neurolearning Blog, 2005) (p.20)I think it is important to note blogs are not just communication or web publishing tool. High order use of blog for academic purpose can also support scaffolding and collaborative learning. Blogs can also be very useful tool for reflective journals, networking, share resources, share ideas, and content creation. Richardson (2006) stated that, “Blogging can teach critical reading and writing skills, and it can lead to greater information management skills” (p.38). In an online or blended learning environment I see that blogs can be use to support various activities such as networking, knowledge management, content creation, knowledge sharing, course announcements, reflective journals, e-portfolios, share resources and so on. Blog can be used to create constructivist conditions for learning such as social negotiation, collaborative learning, multiple perspectives and multiple modes of learning.


Reference

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.