My experiences so far...
Too often I have witnessed teachers assigning online research projects, telling students which websites not to use, and sending them on their way to start researching. From this point, I watch the students waste a lot of valuable classroom time because their instruction lacked any real direction. Incorporating a variety of instructional models that use the internet add value to classroom lessons but should be taught with explicit instruction. Sometimes, we have too much confidence that our students will be the technological experts. Sure, they can use websites like Facebook and Twitter, but when it comes down to it, do they have the knowledge to use the internet for educational purposes?
Incorporating technology into my lesson plans….
What do I do?
Where do I start?
When I write lesson plans I am constantly looking online for new ideas and activities I can bring into the classroom. As Leu, Leu, & Coiro (2004) discuss, having the internet as a tool for lesson planning is extremely valuable. I have folders bookmarked with different websites and I am going to spend some time on Delicious to see if my favorite teaching websites can lead me to other resources. I really liked the idea about internet workshop because every student can bring something new to the table and it also allows for student collaboration. I would like to try collaboration between different schools in different parts of the country or even different parts of the world. In addition to internet workshop, I like the student created web folios. The e-mail from Sara Silverman, the Rewards of Project Based Learning, really touched on all of the things I want to do! (Good thing for this blog because now I can go back and look at all the things I saw- and they’re organized in one location rather than piles of paper in multiple notebooks!
What is difficult for me is I do not know what I am going to be teaching. Will I be teaching English Language learners? Or will I be a Social Studies teacher? I think I have mentioned this before, but it really stresses me out. Luckily, literacy development is important across all subjects! Incorporating webquests into the ESL classroom can be challenging because many websites have sophisticated language that English language learners will not be able to comprehend as well as complex navigation which may provide difficulty to students learning English. (Sox & Avila 2009) The same is true with students with disabilities. (Skylar, Higgins & Boone 2007) When designing classroom web quests they need to be planned with English language learners and students with disabilities in mind. If I was designing the web quest and I needed to make student accommodations I would create two or three different web quests for different student needs.
More to come soon...
Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that online research projects are often poorly directed for students. I remember being in high school and having a list of about 5 appropriate websites we could visit for all of our content area classes. We all just stopped using the internet and reverted back to encyclopedias. Students have to be given the freedom to explore the internet in order to learn navigational or critical literacy skills.
I enjoyed reading your blog :)
Happy Blogging.
--Emily
Hi Michelle!
ReplyDeleteI also liked the idea of internet projects in the classroom - any opportunity to help my students see beyond themselves and their own experiences is soooooooooo important - many of them do not see beyond their own homes and environment. Conversing about and questioning literature with students from another area of the world would be a positive experience for them - and an opportunity to see through other lenses. Of course, I usually struggle with the motivation factor - getting them to WANT to do this is always the challenge.
I was glad to see that you brought up the point of a structured environment - I was drawn to the portion of text in the Sox and Rubinstein-Avila article that said we often assume our students are "cyber-savvy" - but this doesn't always mean that they are well versed in using the technology for academic purposes as we direct.
I think that once you do end up in a classroom you will find that things will "fall into place" well - you are smart to be doing so much investigating on your own now. It will put you ahead of the game and the fact that you are thinking about it will result in more meaningful lessons once you are there. It can be hard sometimes to do all of the legwork while you are in the midst of teaching... but the positive side of this is that there are immediate results and outcomes which allow you to alter and revise your activities accordingly.
Blog looks good!
Jen!