Research and Wikis in the Classroom

This week was spent on coming up with ideas for a wiki page which the students could create using research they conducted from online and the textbooks.  My idea consisted of using both a 5th grade art textbook's pages on elements of art and an interactive website for understanding elements of art to create a wiki that tested students' understanding of the subject. I placed an image of a famous work of art (Edvard Munch's The Scream) and asked questions based on that work of art. 

I believe activities like this one, of having the students create wikis with their own control or some control, could be beneficial and motivating for students.  Wikis could be used for introductions to another activity or lesson because children know that they already have this background knowledge to apply and give them confidence.  In the art classroom, the wikis can be used utilized toward applying art history or art terminology to an art project following.  I approve of the idea of allowing students to collaborate for online research assignments because of their different backgrounds with technology. All in all, technology can either motivate or disappoint the class depending on the assigned activities or websites for research, so it is important for the teacher to evaluate the websites beforehand.

Evaluating Webquests and Inquiry-based Lessons

Before this class, I had never seen or heard of Webquests or inquiry-based lesson plans online.  I had guessed that educators posted lesson plans online, but Webquests contain more organized formats for the audience to follow.  Now that I have seen several Webquests from the evaluations we completed in class, I believe I can detect a efficient and useful Webquest pertaining to the art classroom.  They are a great resource for integrating technology into the art classroom as well, since technology is a booming industry and pretty much inevitable in modern education.  The only thing I disliked about the Web tool is some Webquests seem doubtful.  In addition, it can be a motivation strategy for the students after a while to try something different in terms of learning tools.

In specifically the Webquests search engine, various art lessons don't seem to exist outside of widely known artists such as Picasso and Kadinsky.  I think a great Webquest would include the perfect balance between introducing historical art works and generating a creative outlet for students to create a project with open-ended instruction.  These inquiry-based lessons can be a useful tool to introduce historical artworks or artists and lead students into unit plans and allow the integration of technology to flow more.

One last thing, the Webquests are tools which can benefit the Deaf community greatly.  Deaf people, teachers, family or students, are extremely visual people.  Children in my Deaf classroom can work some motivation towards any lessons that require visuals.  Parents can also keep up with what their children are doing in the classroom from home when they can access the Webquests from my Website!

Websites for Classroom Use

This week, evaluating websites became the focal point of lesson activities.  As I worked on my evaluation with my chosen website of National Geographic's Photography page, I aimed to comprehend what deemed a website worthy of classroom utility or not.  In the end, I believe I was capable of determining if the website was dependable and beneficial for my classroom. This ability is utterly essential in the outcome of the lesson activity for my students because the reliability of the website can certainly affect how my students will perceive technology usage in the future.  Sometimes, a puzzling experience with a website can prevent a student from visiting it again, even if it is a beneficial website for the his or her learning.  In addition to providing advantageous or meaningful learning experiences for the students, it is also important to evaluate websites for appropriateness within the grade level as well as to make sure there is nothing inappropriate for a student to view on the website.  Doing this will allow any teacher in the classroom to avoid conflict with parents or administration, which can be unpleasant if not taken seriously.

My Expectations for TPTE 486

Here is the start of my new and first blog for TPTE 486! I am not a really technology-savvy person, but hopefully this blog and my website could change that this semester! That is the first thing I want to expect from this course. Other than that, I expect to learn how to put a website together in which kids in my future class could interact with, as well as parents. It is a way of asynchronous communication that encourages a community to keep in touch with current events and news! Hopefully, I will be able to get into the habit of posting regularly in time for my first class!  In addition, I am eager to familiarize myself with all the gadgets and learning tools that I can possibly include in my website as well as my blog for the enrichment of my students' learning experiences.  Here is to learning the basics of technology in the classroom!