APPLICATION 2: Student Web Resources
Student Resources
on the
Web
Rochelle Henely
July 7, 2006
#6662 T1002
Students in today’s school systems can no longer learn just reading, writing, and arithmetic. Students need to gain information through many different medias. Educational websites or projects are a great resource for educators in the classroom. Whether your students are using their skills to create a site or using a site to learn new skills, the benefits are boundless. As with any vast library of information, websites must be evaluated for student appropriateness. Using a resource such as Filamentality can assist a teacher in preparing a list of appropriate sites for student use. View my Hot list at http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listtessellahe.html .
Not all websites
are practical and/or appropriate for student use. Kathy Schrock provides useful
tips and strategies at Kathy
Schrock’s Guide for Educators to help teachers determine the value of a web
site. One of the most important criteria of a good web site is the credibility
of the site. There are simple methods to evaluate this as discussed in the
critical evaluation information link.
Another important aspect of a web site
is the maintenance. Checking when a site was created and last updated will
inform the viewer up-to-date the site information is. In the exploration of
pages and links, it is frustrating when the links are not available. This cannot
always be avoided and there are many good sites that have inactive links. It is
the responsibility of the teacher to screen and evaluate the value of web sites
used in the classroom.
There are numerous web sites on any theme imaginable on the WWW. The curriculum theme that I selected in week one is tessellations. This is a very project oriented theme that can utilize all of the literacy’s of the internet; textual, numerical, and visual. Of the many websites viewed, the following best fit the needs of this assignment.
I have used the website Tessellate! by The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc. for years. As a teacher, I knew this was a valuable tool for my students. The criteria for a good web site as located at http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html reinforced this assessment. Through the thorough evaluation of this site, I have found so many more valuable resources then I was aware of in the past. The site lists the standards that are fulfilled, has exploration questions for teacher use, along with various lesson plans that can be utilized. In planning for project-based lessons, a site such as this helps the teacher tremendously with prep time.
A particular source to reference when looking for sites and projects to use in lessons is ThinkQuest. ThinkQuest is a library of education websites created for and by students (http://www.thinkquest.org/library/ ). The project Totally Tessellated was created through the collaborative effort of three high school students in 1998. These students resided in Georgia, Virginia, and California. The use of the internet for projects such as this inspires teachers to further study avenues of similar study for the students. From the start, this web site grabbed the attention of the viewer. It loaded quickly and forced the viewer to focus on the splash page for quick entrance into the site. Navigating through the different links was easy. The designers of the site adhered to the basic rules of a good website as discussed in Week One of Exploring New Technologies and presented by Tammy Payton (n.d.) in her web evaluation rubric. In viewing the guestbook, it would seem that many teachers use this site for student research. I look forward to having the students explore Tessellate! further in the coming school year.
The last part of my Hotlist for tessellations includes three WebQuests. I find these of great value in leading the students through investigations of tessellation prior to creating their own. This past year I had each student find a unique WebQuest on tessellations. This worked well in that the students had very unique tasks. At the conclusion of the project, the workload was a bit overwhelming due to the many different sites that the students used. At this time, I have listed three sites that I found very thorough for student investigation. Most WebQuests include the introduction, task, process, resources, evaluation and conclusion. What drew me to the first two sites was that they also included standards addressed. This was one of four of the criteria listed by Kathy Schrock as important for teacher use; again, utilizing this material will shorten lesson-planning time, an important part to any teacher resource. The third WebQuest I listed I always utilize for my students that need a simpler format, thus fulfilling an important part of any lesson, differentiated instruction.
In conclusion, the creation of a Hotlist for students opens many doors to using the WWW in the classroom. It also will help the teacher prepare lessons for all that are user friendly and self-guided. What a better way for a student to learn; through discovery and research. As stated in the beginning of the Hotlist, I hope that these links will guide the student through explorations in the topic of tessellations. From descriptions to samples to creation, these links will excite, engage and entice the viewer into the world of visual math.
References
Henely, R., (2006) Tantalizing Tessellations Located at http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listtessellahe.html
Leusner (n.d.) Tessellation Webquest. Retrieved July 5, 2006 from http://www.ims.k12.nj.us/webquests/tesselation/tesselation.htmParker, C., (2004) Our
Schrock, K., (1995-2006) Kathy Schrock’s Guide for educators. Retreived July 5, 2006 from http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html
Parker, C., (2004) Tessellation project – geometric patterns. Retrieved July 5, 2006 from http://www.sumter17.k12.sc.us/alicemiddle/webquests/tess/
Payton, T., (n.d.), Web evaluation for secondary grades. Retrieved May 11, 2006 from www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/edu/rubric3.htm.
The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc., (1997-2006) Tessellate! Retrieved July 5, 2006 from http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/tessellate/index.html