Reflection: http://lansingwebquest.weebly.com/
I decided to do a WebQuest because I believe that a WebQuest is a good way for the students to learn information, but in a different setting. They can work at their pace. In a sense, they won’t be feeling pressured to answer questions or to keep up with notes during class. The assignment brings in a lot of different technologies. For the most part, the technologies used in this assignment are pretty basic. If I believed that the technology was a little difficult, I included a video that each student can watch to help them through.
I think this is a great assignment for my content area. First, the biggest part where we see students struggle on the MEAP/MME is on reading graphs and maps. The first part of the project helps address that issue by having the students identify roads, lakes, rivers… etc. Secondly, this is something that can easily be related to them. Most of the students have heard about MSU, the Breslin Center, Spartan Stadium, or the Sparty Statue, but have never had a personal experience with it. This lesson allows them to come to a better personal understanding of this things. I could definitely see my kids, after doing this assignment, going home and saying, “Guess what I learned about MSU today.”
As said early, there are plenty basic technologies in this classroom. I believe that all students enjoy looking at Google Maps. It’s fun. It’s easy. It’s interactive. It lets them see things that they may never see ever in their life. The YouTube videos that I created myself also help make this assignment more personalized. Some students will probably be amazed that I was actually there at those sites. This will only help increase the interest in the assignment. Finally, using the Weebly website was a great way to organize the lesson. Students can easily transition from one part to the next without having to go through a bunch of loop holes.
Bringing in Animoto at the end is a great way to make sure they actually learned something through this process. It tells me that they put a lot of thought into their research or that they simply blew right through it. This is a great way to spur creativity. I left the directions for the Animoto video open because I don’t want to hinder their creativity. It is also a piece of technology that they could use in other classes as a means of presentation.
Finally, by putting all of this together, the students are learning through different, diverse ways. They are learning through maps, videos, and text. This variety of input will only help the retention rate. The lesson is something that I believe most students would be interested in because it’s different. It isn’t me up in front of the class room rambling about some nonsense. The lesson allows the students to be creative and also feed them information through multiple sources. Hopefully, I can have someone use this lesson in their class.
Jeffrey Fisher 