New WebQuests for Spring

About once a day, someone submits the URL of a WebQuest they've developed for possible inclusion in the matrix of examples on the WebQuest site. We're working our way through the backlog and just added a new batch. Join Bernie and June Dodge for a look at some cool new quests.

TappedIn Transcript - March 23, 2000

Started recording in After School Online Room (#1460)[TappedIn] at
Thu Mar 23 17:28:35 2000 PST.

Judi [to Bernie]: "shall we get started?"

ErikW arrives from another part of TAPPED IN.

BJB [HelpDesk] waves to Sue and Erik

BernieD says, "OK, J... kick it off por favor."

Judi [to Bernie]: "or give a few people more chances to get here...."

ErikW waves hello

Judi sees people are still arriving in droves.

BernieD says, "OK... let's wait."

Judi . o O ( what's a drove exactly.... )

KathleenHW . o O ( is it more than gobs? )

JaneBr says, "Could someone explain the recorders? Instruments? Tape recorders? What am I missing?""

Judi [to JaneBr]: "yes they are tape recorders... and they provide you wth a transcript"

Judi says, "we can send you a transcript of this session"

TomJM has arrived.

Judi says, "and then get you one later if you'd like"

Judi [to Bernie...]: "i say let's go for it"

ErikW [to Judi]: "A drove is a bunch of cattle being driven on a trail"

Judi says, "We always start After School Online Sessions (ASO's) with introductions....."

BernieD says, "OK... banging gavel."

ErikW looks attentive

Judi says, "and Bernie's our leader"

Judi says, "so I'll let him start the intros"

BernieD I'm Bernie Dodge and I'm a professor at San Diego State University in the Department of Educational Technology. I've been working with teachers since the days of Apple II's, and I love my job more than ever now that the Web is available to us as a resource.

For the last three years I've been involved with San Diego Unified School District's two Challenge Grants (which are heavily about WebQuests). More recently I've started work on a Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology grant in which we'll be reinventing the way student teachers learn about computers.

Judi bows to Bernie

BernieD asks, "next?"

Judi gives people a chance to type

Judi projects Judi.

Judi Fusco--a researcher interested in studying and using virtual communities. Judi is the community activities director here in TAPPED IN. She loves to help teachers get started in TAPPED IN. If you have anyquestions or suggestions feel free to let her know.

BJB says, "I'm an art teacher in Pennsylvania and an associate educator at TAPPED IN and a HelpDesk volunteer."

ErikW projects bio.
---------------
My name is Erik Wilson. I am a biochemist and a fellow with the National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship program for Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology Education. I study ways to use the internet to support K-12 science teachers. I work with the Science and Health Education Partnership at the University of California, San Francisco. The parntership is an organization that joins teachers and scientists in an effort to improve science education in the San Francisco school district.

http://www.ucsf.edu/sep/
erikred@itsa.ucsf.edu
---------------

KathleenHW says, "I am an intern Kinder. teacher in Northern CA, with New Haven Unified, which has a site here at Tapped In."

GloriaA says, "My name is Gloria Antifaiff. I'm the technology coordinator for three rural school divisions in Saskatchewan."

JaneBr says, "I'm Jane Brody, instructor at Santa Barbara CIty College. I'm working on my fourth WQ for reading/writing and lit classes.""

SueE says, "I'm Sue Espinoza, and teach grad ed computing courses at Texas A&M University-Commerce."

PamB suddenly disappears.

BernieD asks, "Is that everyone?"

TomJM says, "I'm Tom March. I now live in Australia and try to help people create WebQuests"

Judi smiles

Judi says, "and last but not least... :-)"

BernieD says, "OK... the hour passes quickly, so let's begin"

BernieD projects MarTopic.

DebbieB has arrived.

Judi waves to Debbie

BernieD says, "What I'd like to do is to describe each of 7 new quests, project them and give everyone"

BernieD asks, "a chance to look them over and react. Sound like a good plan?"

Judi goes OUT.

ErikW exclaims, "sounds great!"

KathleenHW says, "ditto"

BernieD says, "Then here we go..."

BernieD projects egMar1.

BernieD asks, "I'm about to project a page now. Everyone ready for that?"

DebbieB says, "ok"

BJB asks, "does everyone know about URL projections?"

ErikW nods

KathleenHW nods too

DebbieB says, "yes"

BJB [HelpDesk] projects Projections.

GloriaA says, "yes"

BJB . o O ( actually, Bernie is doing the projection )

BernieD projects egMar1p.

BernieD says, "spend a few minutes scrolling through this one and then we can talk about it."

BernieD asks, "So... what do we think about this one?"

JoanWM has arrived.

BernieD asks, "Still reading?"

JoanWM says, "yes, looks great"

BernieD asks, "What do you like about it, Joan?"

SueMR has arrived.

GloriaA says, "I'm impressed with the extensive organization of the web quest. The teachers notes and suggestions at the end are a nice touch."

JaneBr says, "I thought it was impressive but so far from what I teach that it's difficult to judge. I was selfishly pleased to find no rubric as I have a very hard time with those.""

JoanWM says, "It's very easy to understand"

BernieD says, "Ah... you're not the first to say that, Jane."

KathleenHW exclaims, "I like that is shows how the project will be evaluated. Would they write their reflection in the journal? Sorry, I teach Kindergarten so I'm not quite up on all this!"

BernieD says, "Is everyone clear on what exactly the kids will make/do? I could use some help getting it."

TomJM asks, "What do you think about using an organizing central, essential Question or questions?"

BernieD asks, "What would be a good question for this one, Tom?"

Mara [guest] has arrived.

BJB [HelpDesk] waves to Mara

BJB [HelpDesk] catches Mara up

BernieD says, "Thanks, BJ."

TomJM says, "Not sure, but the topic is really rich. At least I'd want to look at race and whether we're better at Museusms and Black History Month than our society is at jobs, equality, etc."

BJB [HelpDesk] shows Projections to Mara [guest].

TomJM says, "I know this is 7-8 grade, but it seems a really vital topic."

TomJM says, "I love the museum idea."

BernieD says, "I'm wondering whether central questions are best when the product is an answer of some kind (written, oral) and maybe not so useful when the product is something else."

ErikW says, "I like the museum theme ... it could be carried on during the year and the studetns could add more displays and do a grand tour presentation at the end of the year"

ShayneR has arrived.

BJB [HelpDesk] waves to Shayne

BernieD says, "The way I think about these things, this seems to be a combination of a design and compilation task. Some higher thinking required."

BJB [HelpDesk] shows Projections to ShayneR.

BernieD says, "If I were advising the author, I'd like a bit more detail in how/what to make the museum. There's missing info here that the actual teacher implementing it would have to fill in. I like it though."

BernieD asks, "Shall we look at another now?"

ErikW nods

JaneBr says, "Are you getting many WQ examples from secondary/college levels or primarily elementary WQs?""

BernieD says, "again... for late arrivals... these are some recently submitted WQs created by teachers all over the place."

BernieD says, "Jane.. .from all grades, with the centroid being middle school, I guess. More adult ones lately."

BernieD projects egMar2.

BernieD asks, "Any thoughts on this one, other than the fact that 20 variations in font and style are used?"

GloriaA asks, "How long do web quests usually take to complete?"

BernieD asks, "Anwhere from an hour to a month. How long do you think this one would take?"

TomJM says, "I thought this was terrific for a few reasons: 1) ALthough it could fall info fact retrieval mania, the emphasis in the group process was to use or "Transform" ;-) that info. I also like the explicit process for this transformation. A great soc studies + writing activity."

GloriaA says, "I'm not sure but I'm guessing a couple of weeks."

BernieD says, "Yup. You don't see enough of the Writing Process structure these days."

BernieD asks, "If you had a week to add something to this one to make it better, what one thing would you spend your time on? Anyone?"

KathleenHW asks, "What can you do to adapt WEb quests such as this one, for English Language Learners?"

ShaneG arrives from nowhere.

BernieD says, "You could streamline the writing, rewrite some of the external sites. add links to the Webster dictionary like Tom did in Searching for China... lots of things."

KathleenHW asks, "I'd like to see them act out their stories. Would it be too wild?"

BernieD says, "Great idea."

TomJM asks, "How about having students really study the Hollywood movie format - then use or abuse it in their script?"

TomJM says, "Video a key scene would be cool."

BernieD says, "That's what I would spend my week on, exactly. Scaffolding the plot structure part."

BernieD says, "Without providing some guidance on what makes a good story, most kids would turn this into an action flick withexplosions and car chases."

BernieD asks, "Shall we move on to another one?"

BernieD projects egMar3.

BernieD asks, "There's a lot here to look at, and we won't have time to do that now. Anyone have a reaction to this one?"

KathleenHW asks, "I found a link that was no longer current. How do you monitor that as a Web quest designer?"

BernieD says, "You read your mail every morning and someone will let you know about it :->"

ErikW exclaims, "this is slick!"

ErikW . o O ( as in nicely produced )

BernieD says, "I think the final product would be a real motivator to these kids."

DebbieB says, "I like this one a lot."

DebbieB says, "It's very easy to understand, and the tasks are doable in a fairly short time"

BernieD says, "Well... the transcript will have the URL, so let's roll on to the next one."

BernieD projects egMar4.

NancyWH [TaxTime:-(] arrives from nowhere.

JaneBr has lost her link.

ShaneG goes home.

NancyWH goes home.

BernieD asks, "What say y'all?"

ErikW exclaims, "I like it!"

NancyWH [TaxTime:-(] arrives from nowhere.

SueE I like the way it tells up front how long it should take. :-)

BernieD says, "Always a good idea, although it's a WAG."

SueE asks, "WAG?"

KathleenHW asks, "What it WAG?"

BernieD says, "wild guess."

ErikW smiles

KathleenHW exclaims, "You left out a word!"

SueE says, "Yes, but it gives an idea. :-)"

KathleenHW smiles slyly

BernieD says, "I wish there was a bit more there about the endgame. Some help for other teachers to guide the discussion and resolution at the end."

BernieD says, "It's slick and timely and authentic, though."

DebbieB says, "I don't like the conclusion much. It seems unnecessary, redundant"

BernieD asks, "We have 10 minutes more before the Kiwanis come in and claim the room. Shall we see one more or just go into informal chat?"

GloriaA says, "I'd like to see one more."

DebbieB says, "One more, please"

KathleenHW says, "ditto"

BernieD projects egMar6.

BernieD says, "Sorry... it's a Tripod site. You'll have to spend time skeetshooting the windoids."

BJB . o O ( slow loading for me )

BernieD says, "It's because you're 3000 miles from Yellowstone, BJ."

NancyWH [TaxTime:-(] has disconnected.

DebbieB says, "Science makes my brain numb"

GloriaA asks, "Bernie, I know our time is almost up but do you have any webquests for primary grades to show?"

BJB [HelpDesk] nods to Bernie

DebbieB says, "I see they use url projections, too. I'd like to know how to do that"

BernieD says, "Actually, I do."

SueMR says, ""I would also like some primary webquests"

BernieD projects egMar5.

BernieD says, "another skeet shoot."

BernieD says, "If you go down to Task 2 and click on Mail Match Activity, you'll see the letters themselves."

BernieD says, "It's a clever puzzle-type activity, and it should draw the kids into looking for clues and trying to figure out which letter goes with with envelope and thus learn some geography. Not deep thinking, and not a big, core task at the endbut..."

BJB says, "Our time is about up. I'd like to thank Bernie for another (as usual!) wonderful session."

KathleenHW has disconnected.

BernieD says, "A pleasure to see you all here. Please put the chairs back where you found them."

BJB asks, "There will be a transcript in the ASO emailer....did anyone need a copy sent to them?"

SueE asks, "Why are the letters blinking? Or is it just my computer?"

TomJM says, "Thanks, Bernie. 'Hope to see you around NECC of SD."

BernieD says, "It just gave you a virus, Sue."

BernieD says, "We'll do lunch at least, Tom."

SueMR says, "Thanks"

GloriaA exclaims, "Thank you!"

DebbieB says, "I'd like one, to dbrittenham@walnutvalley.k12.ca.us"

ShayneR [to BJB]: "Could I have a transcript please? I arrived late tonight!"

BernieD says, "We'll have another meeting here in the last week of April. No date yet, but watch the Tapped In calendar."

Mara [guest] says, ""Thanks""

DebbieB says, "Thanks"

BJB [HelpDesk] nods to Shayne

GloriaA has disconnected.

BJB [HelpDesk] peruses Membership Directory...

TomJM says, "Take care, bye."

BJB [HelpDesk] waves bye to Tom

BJB says, "nice seeing you again."

TomJM has disconnected.

BernieD has disconnected.