I just thought I would leave with some final thoughts about my experience with using edublogs and exploring diferent technologies over the past month before my blog gets marked for my university subject entitled ‘Current Issues and Applications in Educational Computing’.
My knowledge has truly expanded in the time that I have spent using my blog and researching ways to use eductional technology in the classroom. Consequently, I am sure to use all that I have learnt both now when on my pracs and in the future when I have a class of my own. As well as this, I am sure to especially integrate the use blogs and webquests into my classroom, both now and in the future, due to the knowledge that I have gained as a result of doing this subject at uni.
I have just visited Tim’s blog and on his blog he has a post on digital storytelling. This made me think that digital storytelling would be a great task to use in a webquest activity because it shows that students have engaged in the content area and thus has created something as a result. As Gaskill, McNulty & Brooks (2006) comment, a feature of a webquest is when “learners analyse a body of knowledge, transform it in some way and demonstrate in-depth understanding of the material by creating a final product that others can react or respond to” (p.133). Therefore, digital storytelling allows for students to do this. However, it would have to feature in a longer term webquest, because making a digital story that demonstrates in-depth understanding will take a longer period of time than just one lesson.
Ref. Gaskill, M., McNulty, A. & Brooks, D.W. (2006). Learning from WebQuests. Journal of Science Education and Technology. 15 (2), pp.133-136).
Dan has come across a really good technology that is an add on for Mozilla Firefox. This add on can change the physical appearance of a webpage to change the font colour, size etc. This add on is another tool that would make the internet more accessible to students with special needs. Consequently, making webquests more accessible to students with special needs also.
Having just read Linda’s post on Northcott CATS, I wish to further talk about the topic of assistive technologies for people with disabilities. I have just been reading an article and in it it describes a type of software which can be used on webpages to translate text in the webpage into synthesised speech. I thought that this type of technology would have a huge impact on the ability of people to use the internet and be able to comprehend the vast amount of information found on it. In the article I read, the authors Skylar, Higgins and Boone (2007) list 2 types of software that can do this. The first one is called Text Aloud (2004). This uses a “text-to-speech converter with humanlike voices” (Skylar, Higgins & Boone, 2007, p.22). The other is called Read & Write Gold (2004). This one has additional components, “such as one that highlights each word as it is read aloud, word prediction features, and an online talking dictionary” (Skylar, Higgins & Boone, 2007, p.22).
Ref. Sylar, A. A., Higgins, K. & Boone, R. (2007). Strategies for adapting WebQuests fo students with learning disabilities. Intrevention in School and Clinic. 43 (1). pp. 20-28.
I have just found a very useful webpage which focuses on staff development in regard to webquests. It contains different modules which deal with the various aspects of webquest design and webquests themselves. Click here to see this website!
The video below contains Bernie Dodge, the original creator of the notion of webquests, explaining in what ways blogs and wikis can be used in a webquest as well as briefly the features of each.
I have just found another excellent website that is in the form of a webquest building template. This would be really helpful for teachers when creating their own webquest because it goes through each step of the webquest building process in a very simple and teacher friendly manner. Click here to navigate to this webpage!
Below is a sample of the what the website looks like.
I have found a really helpful website that goes through all the different types of tasks that a webquest can be. For example, retelling task, compilation task etc. This is really useful if you want to create your own webquest or even if you just want to know more about them. Click here to check it out!
I have also done a more in-depth reflection on the website, which also basically outlines the content of the article.
Narelle has made some really interesting comments in regard to how children speak in an informal context as opposed to a formal context. It is a really interesting development in recent years due to technology increasingly becoming more common place in society. I know that I have experienced it first hand by constantly shortening words even when I speak, such as lol, gtg, btw etc. However, I have no problem in switching to formal language and speech when it is needed. Therefore this reflects the code switching which Narelle talks about in her blog.
