The section that was most informative was the section that had the class looking at sites that publish information that is not accurate at all, for example the site on "Saving the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus". The site was so well created and contained numerous visuals, something that would make anyone looking at the site believe that it is real or authentic. This site for me emphasized why it is so important to teach our students to be wise disseminators of knowledge as well as selective in the way they receive knowledge on the web.
I also loved the the text book "Reading the Web" by Eagleton and Dobler. In that book there is a wealth of knowledge and handout sheets that would help the students as you structure a web lesson that teaches them how to be more critical as they use the web. As Dr. Thornburg advocate, we need to guide students into asking good questions. As their minds are stimulated thus they will begin to not just settle for second best but will want to search for answers that will lead to deeper meaningful study.
Something that this course also taught me is that I do not have to be afraid of having the students complete a webquest. By using the steps outlined in the course it made the thought of web questing a lot easier. The QUEST model of questioning, Understanding Resources, Evaluating, Synthesizing and Transforming information was a necessary tool in learning how to manage resources on the web, as it guides you into formulating your web quest giving the students the latitude they need as they create their own questions.
Alan November in his book " Web Literacy for Educators", gave us an insight into how we can be better validators of web information. Having learned this I plan to incorporate this information into my curriculum to help my students as they research the web. Although it is so much easier to plan quests for science and social studies, there are time when I am stumped to figure out something for math. The good news is that there is a lot of information for teachers on the web where they can find works by other that can be applied in the classroom with a bit of tweaking for your own curriculum.
I also plan to have students complete a math web quest each semester, using the web tools learned they will present their quest to the class and hopefully to the educators web, so that other students may be enlightened and encouraged by their work. As we become more proficient at this then my students will be required to complete at least 2 quests per semester. In order to accomplish this I will need to begin planning how the webquest will be organized and the facts that they would need to identify in order to meet NCTM standards for math. I will also have my students visit the sites suggested in the book and this course to help them identify sites that contain misleading information, and to sharpen their web literacy skills.
I know that it will be an uphill struggle, as the school system has filters in place that do not always provide us with the freedom to incorporate many of the educational sites that are ideal web 2.0 learning tools for our students into our curriculum planning. However, I will still endeavor to find alternatives that they do allow so that the students will be exposed to the collaborative learning that is needed for the 21st century work world.
References
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.
November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.
Thorburg, D. (2004). Inquiry: The art of helping students ask good questions. (Executive Briefing No. 402). Retrieved from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/inquiry.pdf
