Mmmm….Cookies! A Chocolatey Webquest Exemplifying Collaboration

1. Mmmm….Cookies! A Chocolatey Webquest Exemplifying Collaboration ***Be sure to view this presentation with Speaker Notes*** Created by Susan M. Eley, Graduate Student Indiana University School of Library and Information Science October 26, 2005

2. Authentic learning and the school media center “Authentic learning for today’s student is not bound by the textbook, the classroom, the library media center, or the school. By linking students with the unlimited learning opportunities available throughout the learning community, the school library media program provides a bridge between formal, school-based learning and independent, lifelong learning” (AASL/AECT, 1998). • School media specialist knows the curriculum, technology, and has access to a wide variety of resources.

3. Collaboration is important Collaboration (sometimes called “team teaching”) between media specialists and subject area teachers in guiding meaningful student inquiry is just one link in the “learning community” web. This type of collaboration, however, is powerful in its use of shared resources.

4. A Powerful Recipe Subject knowledge and skills of the subject area teacher + The technological expertise and skills of the school media specialist + The use of information resources accessed in and beyond the school media center + Student’s rich background of knowledge = A mini-learning community that fosters “intellectual ties between students and their teachers” (Pasco, 2003)

5. Study Results • “A number of studies from CO, PA, AK, OR, TX and IA indicate that students in schools with better-funded library media centers and with library media specialists who play a collaborative, instructional role achieve higher average achievement test scores” (Pasco, 2003).

6. Theory-to-Practice • In this presentation, I will examine how a teacher and media specialist could collaborate while using a learning tool garnering much attention these days – a WebQuest. • www.webquest.org

7. What a real WebQuest IS “A scaffolded learning structure that uses links to essential resources on the World Wide Web and an authentic task to motivate students’ investigation of a central, open-ended question, development of individual expertise and participation in a final group process that attempts to transform newly acquired information into a more sophisticated understanding” (March, 2005).

8. What a real WebQuest IS NOT: • “a worksheet with URLs” (Dodge, 2002). • Students must be guided to do more than regurgitate information found on the internet. • Example: Students who may create a cookbook or a list of best websites found on the Internet need to do more than just compile the list. • “To make a compilation task qualify as a true WebQuest, there needs to be some transformation of the information compiled” (Dodge, 2002).

9. What a real WebQuest IS NOT (cont.): • A brand-new concept in education. • Authentic, inquiry-based learning is not a new concept, but the tools are. • A WebQuest is simply “a way to integrate a number of sound learning strategies while also making substantial educational use of the Web” (March, 2005). Students involved in a WebQuest activity are not simply memorizing content, they are assimilating concepts and transforming them to create a product that’s all their own.1

10. Six Critical WebQuest Components • Introduction • Task • Set of information sources needed to complete the task (including interactive, information-rich websites) • Process • Guidance on how to organize the information acquired • “Conclusion/reflection that brings closure to the quest, reminds the learners about what they've learned, and perhaps encourages them to extend the experience into other domains” (Dodge, 1997)

11. The Example WebQuest • Written by Grace Vaknin of Collier County (FL) Public Schools • “Chocolate Chip Cookies: To eat or not to eat!” • A lesson for 3rd-5th graders that integrates science, math and language arts http://collier.k12.fl.us/weblessons/cookiewq/index.htm

12. Outline of Vaknin’s Chocolate Chip Cookie WebQuest

13. Introduction

14. Task – students are placed into groups of 4, 2 are “researchers,” 2 are “scientists”

15. Eight websites are provided for researchers to gather information

16. Each group presents findings using a display board or technology tool

17. Conclusion – Students prepare and present their findings and complete their KWL chart

18. Authentic Assessment Rubric – “Assessment is more likely to be reasonably objective and consistent from lesson to lesson and from student to student, especially useful in team teaching situations that involve collaboration among the library media specialist and other teachers” (Callison, 2003). Checklist – “A list of criteria that can be used as a guide for project development and assessment. It often includes items for checking both process and product” (Lamb, 2005b).

19. Project Evaluation # 1 – Rubric(group evaluation) (Only one area of evaluation is shown here - other areas include technology skills integration, research tools, oral presentation and collaboration) 3-5 Technology Standards Rubric Student: ___________________________ Teacher: _________________________ Date:___________

20. Project Evaluation # 2 – Checklist(individual folder evaluation)

21. What makes this WebQuest so effective?

22. Inquiry-based, Meaningful Learning2 • WebQuest based on inquiry and constructivist teaching principles.3,4 • Callison’s (2003) ideas about constructivism: “Learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge” “Knowledge construction results from activity” “Meaning making is prompted by a problem, question, confusion, disagreement, or dissonance (a need or desire to know) and so involves personal ownership of that problem.” • True learning occurs when students are involved in a problem or situation5 , using their critical thinking skills6 to question7 and draw conclusions. • Here, students are involved in a question bigger than themselves8 – Are chocolate chip cookies healthy? In the process of solving this problem, they use both hands-on and cognitive activities, fostering deeper learning.

23. Standards, Standards, Standards • This WebQuest fully integrates content standards with information literacy standards.9 • Vaknis provides extensive information on the standards fulfilled here: http://collier.k12.fl.us/weblessons/cookiewq/CAWQ.htm • Includes 30 Florida State curriculum standards in math science and language arts, Florida state assessment test standards, school district product design standards, and National Educational Technology Standards.

24. All nine of AASL’s Information Literacy Standards for students are fulfilled in this Webquest10

25. ILS Standard 1 - Accesses information efficiently and effectively Students access rich web resources to gain information.

26. ILS Standard 2 - Evaluates information critically and competently Students are required to cull through websites to pull the most relevant information and to draw conclusions about health after observing the fat:mass ratio of each cookie.

27. ILS Standard 3 - Uses information accurately and creatively11 Students use factual information to create a interesting product of their own design, following careful standards set by the teachers.

28. ILS Standard 4 - Pursues information related to personal interests12,13 Have you ever met a kid who doesn’t like cookies? This project is certain to be interesting to most students, and when the project is interesting, they are motivated to learn. For variety, each team could have a different flavor of cookies.

29. ILS Standard 5 - Appreciates creative expressions of information A WebQuest is a creative way to present the information required for this project. Students appreciate the use of creative graphics and interactive sites within the website, and are inspired toward creative methods to present their own product. They appreciate other groups that present their findings in creative ways.

30. ILS Standard 6 - Strives for excellence in information seeking and knowledge generation • From the start, students are aware of the rubric criteria for their product evaluation and they want to excel in fulfilling the rubric requirements. • The WebQuest itself is high-quality, using MS WORD links, Macromedia Flash, and HTML design to exemplify excellence to the students.

31. ILS Standard 7 - Recognizes the importance of information to a democratic society Students are asked to answer the “big question” of whether or not cookies are healthy for the general public, and then they use readily-available information (from the Internet) to draw conclusions. Without the use of this readily-available information and the use of the Internet, their products would be severely lacking.

32. ILS Standard 8 - Practices ethical behavior in regard to information Students must not plagiarize information and must share resources.

33. ILS Standard 9 - Participates effectively in groups to pursue information • Students are placed into groups at the start of the project and collaborate to synthesize their findings and present them as a group.14 • The construction of the WebQuest is also perfectly suited to different learning styles,15,16 requiring some students to analyze scientific data and ratios, and others to make hypotheses based on textual facts pulled from the internet. Inter/intra-personal skills are also developed, and artistic sensibilities can be indulged in the creation of an interesting product.

34. Effective Collaboration17,18 between teachers - Finally, teachers can collaborate for student assessment. During the process, informal assessment techniques like questioning students or conferencing could be used to determine how each student group is functioning. Using the provided presentation rubrics and checklists within the student folders, each teacher can effectively assess student learning at the project’s conclusion.19 Perfect example of a lesson that could be co-planned and co-taught by school media specialist and subject area teacher (or teachers). - Initial session to map out the lesson goals and standards fulfilled School media specialist could create and/or modify the WebQuest, help students evaluate and assimilate the information on the web resources provided, and aid students in the use of technology for their presentations. Subject area teachers could work with students on content-related material such as the use of graphs to plot data, mathematical computations of ratios, and problem-solving techniques.

35. Technology • One of the things that makes this particular WebQuest so effective is its use of excellent Internet resources and a wide variety of technologies.20,21,22 • Using computers in the school media center or the classroom, students access eight websites from which to pull factual information for their reports. (Use of relevant print resources found in the school media center could also be encouraged.) They must use Microsoft Word to download, modify and print documents. For final product creation, if they choose something other than a traditional display board, they can use web design software or PowerPoint for a final presentation.

36. Technology (cont.) • Tom March states: “it seems reasonable that a WebQuest would link to resources on the Web. However, it should be noted that these are "essential" resources. Those activities that only point students to encyclopedic briefs, textbook digests or worse, word searches and coloring books, do not take advantage of the Web’s ability to present resources that might be interactive, media-rich, contemporaneous, contextualized, or of varied perspectives. A quick question often resolves whether the Web (and thus a WebQuest) is worth using: ‘Could this learning be achieved just as effectively without the Internet?’”(March, 2005). - In this case, the answer is NO.

37. Technology in a learning community • “How does technology fit into the concept of community? At a minimum, it enables flexible and powerful information retrieval, analysis, and production in a shared environment. More ideally, technology allows members of the community to communicate and share information across barriers of distance or time and creates a means by which they collaborate in synthesizing and presenting what they have learned” (Harris, p. 173 Stripling/HH).

38. Resources for Teachers Create your own WebQuest or search for others’ Webquests! WebQuest.org - http://webquest.org/questgarden/index.php (“There will be no cost for membership until September 1, 2006. After that time, membership will cost (tentatively) $20 for a 2-year subscription”) Filamentality - http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/

39. Bibliography • AASL/AECT (1998). Information power: Building partnerships for learning. Chicago: American Library Association. • Callison, Daniel (2003). Key words, concepts, and methods for information age instruction: A guide to teaching information inquiry. Baltimore, Maryland: LMS Associates. • Dodge, Bernie (1997). Some thoughts about WebQuests. Updated May 5, 1997. Available: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html • Dodge, Bernie (2002). WebQuest taskonomy: A taxonomy of tasks. Available: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/taskonomy.html • Dodge, Bernie. WebQuest Portal. Accessed October 26, 2005 from http://webquest.org/ • Harris, Frances Jacobson (2003). Building learning communities using technology. In B. Stripling and S. Hughes-Hassell (Eds.), Curriculum connections through the library (pp. 171-187). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

40. Bibliography (cont.) • Lamb, Annette (2005a). Key Ideas for Information Age Instruction. Accessed October 26, 2005 from http://www.eduscapes.com/info/keys.html • Lamb, Annette (2005b). Key Ideas: Assessment. Accessed October 26, 2005 from http://www.eduscapes.com/info/assessment.html • March, Tom (2005). What WebQuests Are (Really). Accessed October 26, 2005 from http://bestwebquests.com/what_webquests_are.asp • McGregor, Joy (2003). Collaboration and leadership. In B. Stripling and S. Hughes-Hassell (Eds.), Curriculum connections through the library (pp. 199-219). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. • Pasco, Rebecca J. (2003). The role of libraries in learning communities. In B. Stripling and S. Hughes-Hassell (Eds.), Curriculum connections through the library (pp. 189-198). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. • Vaknin, Grace (2005). Chocolate Chip Cookies : To eat or not to eat! Accessed October 25, 2005 from http://collier.k12.fl.us/weblessons/cookiewq/index.htm