Christina WebQuest Extravaganza

1. Christina WebQuest Extravaganza www.christina.k12.de.us/webquests Joe Ambrosino, Brian Conway, Minnie Hutchison Joyce Nerlinger, Alyssa RosenthalDelaware Instructional Technology ConferenceApril 10, 2002

2. The Finished Products • Save Recordiahttp://www.christina.k12.de.us/webquests/recordia/ • The Great Owl Search http://www.dcet.k12.de.us/teach/hutch/webquest.html • Creating Historical Fiction: Civil War Journal http://www.christina.k12.de.us/webquests/civilwar/ • Technology Integration http://www.christina.k12.de.us/webquests/integratetech/

3. Process • Volunteers from the district • 5 meetings from November to March • Worked with Pat Sine from UD through in-person and virtual consulting http://www.udel.edu/sine/christina/index.html

4. Parts of a WebQuest • Introduction • Task • Process & Resources • Evaluation • Conclusion

5. Task • Most important part of a WebQuest • Should be stated in a single sentence • Must require higher order thinking • Great examples: http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/tasksimap/

6. Our Tasks • From the point of view of a participant in the events of  the Civil War (1861-1865),  create a journal with five entries that capture what you witnessed during some important event of the Civil War. (Civil War Journal) • Your group must go back in time (on the Internet) to gather information about the culture in Medieval and Renaissance Europe to create a journal, a castle model, and a tapestry to complete Cacophony the Wizard’s 4 challenges. (Save Recordia)

7. Our Tasks • Your task is to find an instructional technology integration activity that supports State Standards and Principles of Best Instructional Practice, to be shared at the end of our session. (Technology Integration) • You are to choose your favorite owl and then sculpt it out of clay.  Your teacher will show you many techniques for working with the clay but not until you can show her that you know the characteristics of a real owl. (Sculpting an Owl)

8. Process and Resources • What the students will do to accomplish the task • The resources (electronic and traditional) to get the job done • Few enough resources to not overwhelm • Enough resources to support all learners

9. Process and Resources • Familiarize yourself with the 13 Principles of Best Instructional Practice and choose one on which to focus. • Familiarize yourself with the Activity Evaluation Chart. • Use the resources to find an activity: • that supports your chosen principle.    • that aligns with State Standards.    • that uses technology, not as an add-on, but as a tool integral to accomplishing the instructional objective. • Use the chart to record your findings. • Be prepared to share your findings with the group. (Technology Integration)

10. Evaluation • Rubric-based so that students know what’s expected of them • Includes ALL elements of the task to be accomplished, especially the standards that are to be achieved

11. Evaluation Sample from the Civil War Journal WebQuest

12. Introduction and Conclusion • Least important parts but easiest to create • Sets the context coming and going

13. Introduction and Conclusion • Hooray!!!  Your class has been given the honor of creating realistic owl sculptures to decorate your school.  Before artists can begin to make a sculpture of an animal they have to learn as much as they can about that animal. Therefore you will have to learn about owls before you begin to create a realistic owl sculpture. You will be working with a partner to find out as much as you can about owls but each of you will make your own sculpture. (Sculpting an Owl)

14. Introduction and Conclusion • If you have completed the task of creating an owl sculpture you have  something that you can treasure all your life.  What makes it more special is that you worked the way artists do.  You researched your subject (an owl), learned all about it and really looked at its characteristics. You also learned how to See like an Artist.  You looked for the geometric shapes that make up the owl.  You can do the same thing whenever you look at something to draw, paint, or sculpt.  Always look for the basic shapes first, draw them, then add the details.(Sculpting an Owl)

15. Summing Up

16. Where We Fell Short • Difficult to change gears from the “lesson-planning” and activity mode to WebQuest mode • Maintaining the commitment as the challenges grew (lost 3 along the way)

17. Where We Were Challenged • Matching WebQuest aims to Delaware standards and curriculum demands • Maintaining a balance between learning the skills of creating and publishing a WebQuest and the skills of writing a quality WebQuest

18. Where We Succeeded • Reflecting on the process and presenting it to colleagues at our districtwide inservice • Using an immersion process to develop a district corps of experts

19. Our Advice • Writing WebQuests is hard but worth the effort if you can invest the time • There are lots of good and bad WebQuests out there. Carefully evaluate before you try one in the classroom.http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquestrubric.html

20. You can find us on the web at www.christina.k12.de.us/webquests.