Welcome to WebTech! We are going to be doing some exciting things together!  I hope each class session will make you anxious to get back to school and implement the wonderful activities and projects you develop.  We will be creating and implementing a variety of Web-based projects and activities including a Scavenger Hunt, WebQuest and a Class Web site. In addition, we will be participating in a number of Internet projects and activities.  Therefore, we need you to do a little "preplanning" before you arrive on Day 1.  The more preplanning you complete in advance, the more you will be able to accomplish during our seven training days together.

Building Blocks | Day 1 Prep | Day 2 Prep | Day 3 Prep | FrontPage

Building Blocks
WebTech is based on six areas fundamentally important to teaching with the Web:

Research 
Communication 
Resources 
Online Activities 
Internet Projects 
Web Publishing

Day 1 Prep: 

Day 1 Prep:  Scavenger Hunt

A Scavenger Hunt is a list of questions for students to research on the Web. Teachers should use scavenger hunts when they want students to gain some solid knowledge on a topic! The basic strategy is to find Web pages that hold the information you feel is essential to understanding a given topic. 

The scavenger hunt includes a list of links to exact pages--not the home page of a huge Web site--for students to use to conduct their research. This helps to focus student research and to prevent students from wasting class time searching unproductively on the Web. 

To challenge students to think at higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, teachers should include a "Big Question".  Including a culminating "Big Question" allows students to synthesize what they have learned and shape it into a broader understanding of the total picture.

To prepare for the Scavenger Hunt you will be publishing on Day 1, click on the following link to see some examples.

Scavenger Hunt Examples

Complete the following and come prepared to publish your Scavenger Hunt on
Day 1.

1. Develop an idea for your Scavenger Hunt.
2. Write a rough draft of 5 or 6 questions.
3. Write down the Web sites you plan to use.
4. Go through the FrontPage Tutorial online!

http://www.actden.com/fp/

Day 2 Prep:  WebQuest

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Web. A well-written Webquest demands that students go beyond fact-finding. It asks them to analyze a variety of resources and use their creativity and critical-thinking skills to derive solutions to a problem. The problem is often “real world”—that is, one that needs a genuine and reasonable solution.

Basic Premise:

• Challenge students with AUTHENTIC tasks

• Provide them with an abundance of RESOURCES

• Support higher level thinking through ACTIVE learning (Verb List)

• Work together COLLABORATIVELY

Short Term WebQuests:

• Instructional goal is knowledge acquisition and integration.

• Learner will grapple with a significant amount of new information and make sense of it.

• Completed in one to three class periods.

Long Term WebQuests:

• Instructional goal is to extend and refine knowledge.

• Learner analyzes a body of knowledge deeply, transforms it in some way, and demonstrates an understanding of the material by creating some end product.

• Completed in one week to one month.

Critical Attributes:
There is questionable educational benefit in having learners surf the net without a clear task and most schools ration student connect time severely. To achieve efficiency and clarity of purpose, WebQuests should contain the following parts:

1. An introduction that sets the stage and provides some background information.
2. A task that is doable and interesting.
3. A set of resources needed to complete the task. Many (though not necessarily all) of the resources are embedded in the WebQuest document itself as anchors pointing to information on the World Wide Web.
   Information sources might include:
   • web documents
   • experts available via e-mail or realtime conferencing
   • searchable databases on the net
   • books and other documents physically available in the learner's setting

   Because pointers to resources are included, the learner is not left to wander through webspace completely adrift.
    

4. A description of the process the learners should go through in accomplishing the task. The teacher suggests steps that the learner should go through in completing the task. It may include:
   • strategies for dividing the task into subtasks
   • descriptions of roles to be played or perpectives to be taken by each learner
   • how to conduct a brainstorming session.
   • how to organize the information acquired. This can take the form of guiding questions, or directions to complete organizational frameworks such as timelines, concept maps, or cause-and-effect diagrams as described by Marzano (1988, 1992) and Clarke (1990).
      
5. To justify the expense of using the web for learning, we need to include an evaluation component in order to measure results. Since the learning we're looking for is at the loftier reaches of Bloom's Taxonomy, we can't gauge it with (readily) a multiple-choice test. An evaluation rubric is in order!!!
    
6. A conclusion that brings closure to the quest, reminds the learners about what they've learned, and perhaps encourages them to extend the experience into other domains.

Discuss the Taskonomy of Tasks
 

Discuss Scaffolding:

• Scaffold - temporary structure used to help learners act more skilled than they really are (Dodge, 2001).
  • Reception Scaffolds
  • Transformation Scaffolds
  • Production Scaffolds

To prepare for the WebQuest you will be publishing on Day 2, click on the following links to learn more about WebQuests and to see examples created by other teachers!

WebQuest Information
Sample WebQuests
WebQuest Matrix
WebQuest Taskonomy - In Pictures!

Complete the following and come prepared to publish your WebQuest on Day 2.

1. Develop an idea for your WebQuest.
2. Write a rough draft of all 6 components.
3. Write down the Web sites you plan to use.

Day 3 Prep:  Class Home Page

To prepare for the Class Home Page you will be developing, click on the following links to see what other teachers have done:

Mr. Green's Home Page
High School WebTech - Pilot Group
Side Bar Format - School Mascot Theme
Image Map Format - Curriculum Theme (Language Arts)
Table Format - Curriculum Theme (Math)
Side Bar & Image Map - Mr. Counter's Class Home Page
Table Format - Mrs. Tate's 6th Grade Class Page
Side Bar - Creating Worlds - Mr. Rosetti's 8th Grade L. A. Class
Table Format - Home Page of Mr. McAllister
Table Format - Mrs. DeCosa's English Home Page
Mr. Kinder's Class Home Page

After exploring the links above, complete the following:

1. Storyboard a rough layout for your Class Web site. You must have a link for each of the following items: 

Syllabus
Course Calendar
PowerPoint Slideshow(s)
Handouts/Worksheets
Assignments
Homework
Online Quizzes
Internet Links
Scavenger Hunt
WebQuest
Internet Project
Online Activities
Student Publishing
Newsgroup
E-mail link
Newsgroup
Counter
Credits
Page Updated
Disclaimer
Navigational System

If you have time to locate some graphics for use on your Web site, try the following link:

Graphics/Clipart

2. Decide on backgrounds for your Web site. Use the link below:

Backgrounds for Web Site

3. Decide which class you will develop for WebTech. Gather paper/electronic copies of the syllabus, assignments, worksheets, PowerPoint presentations, etc...

4. Install the sidebar template.

FrontPage:

FrontPage can be purchased from Pete Turner, CDW for ~$76 (includes shipping).

Pete Turner
Government / Education Account Manager
CDW*G, Inc Computing solutions built for Government & Education 
Direct Phone: 877-500-3405
Direct Fax: 847-968-1777
Email: petetur@cdwg.com
Web Address: http://www.cdwg.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC=290484