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CI 5472 – Media Studies
Amanda Bekkum
Michelle Schneekloth
May 22, 2003
Project Reflection
Why a Webquest?
After looking around at numerous webquests and at filamentality.com, we decided
that doing a webquest would be most appropriate and interesting for our objectives.
This webquest was designed to introduce students to a new way of studying
and writing poetry, as well as reflecting on their own lives. The webquest
simulated a “journey” or a way of looking at different time perspectives
in the students’ lives. We were able to simulate this by having the
students interact with different forms of media on the Internet, i.e. viewing
art pieces, listening to music, and viewing/listening to a poetry reading.
Students take a very independent, active, inquiry-based role in their own
learning. There are a couple of ways this is done. One way lies
in the fact that the student needs to decipher or find their way through
the webquest; along the way they will be able to use the hyper-links in order
to extend their learning, i.e. vocabulary hyperlink, poetry web-site hyperlinks,
and interactive hyperlinks. Another way students are active lies in
their responsibility to accomplish each task, fulfilling the webquest / poetry
unit learning objectives.
The long term objectives for this webquest was to activate prior knowledge
and experience, as a way into the themes and ideas of the drama Raisin in
the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. The final task of the webquest is a
lead in to the play – making the transition between what the students already
know and what they will they will be learning or ideas they will be thinking
about.
The Process
We have both had experience creating websites so the process wasn’t completely
new. However, this project was unique in that we needed to make sure
that the tasks and activities were coherent and organized in a manner that
would guide students and help them meet the end objectives. This included
dividing the unit into different perspectives / smaller tasks. By organizing
the webquest in divisions, it was necessary to create a site that was easily
navigable, with links and resources. Eventually we wanted the students
to navigate their way through the webquest into the drama. Therefore
we structured our website to conclude with a task directly related to the
poetry which influenced Raisin in the Sun.
Future Purposes / Professional Development
Since both of us have a sufficient working knowledge of technology we understand
its usefulness to guide, instruct, and engage students in learning in the
classroom. We both see ourselves continuing to use these types of teaching
tools by creating future webquests and class websites; where different forms
of interactive media are used. This experience allowed us to recognize
the many different learning styles and levels that can be met with the use
of media. Now that we have become more familiar with the webquest ‘medium’
we see that it could also be beneficial for students to become the creators
of their own interactive webquests/activities, helping them to actively construct
meaning independently.
As we start to authentically use the webquest in our future classrooms we
plan to reflect on and evaluate its usefulness in regards to reaching our
objectives and engaging students in learning. This obviously is something
that needs to be done as not only our teaching styles change, but also the
needs and learning styles of our students.