Web-Based Resources
Search Engine
The Google Search Engine provides features that include not only searching for subjects or key words, but also 'Knowledge Graphs' and Voice Search. Google has expanded beyond search strategies to include blogs, cloud storage, and email. Subject index searches are helpful in the classroom in terms of providing lists related to that subject (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p. 219). If I assigned a project on any significant historical subject in the 19th century, the students could narrow down their subject choice by Googling 19th century art/history/science accomplishments or events.
Keyword searches target URLs directly (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p. 219). If I google 'history,' history.com shows up as the first result on the 'hits' (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p. 219). Using Advanced Search to narrow down the search to the topic about which you want to know is a helpful trick listed in the textbook as well (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p. 219). This could aid students in weeding out information not pertinent to their search.
Web Site Evaluation Video
Graphics aside, the following video makes valid points on how to evaluate Internet information as described in the textbook (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p. 254-255), with an acronym I believe most high schoolers would remember.
And even though this video looks like it was created by Seth MacFarlane, it also gives specific pointers on citing reliable sources from the Internet. Also, it amuses me and has another acronym for students.
Favorite Website #1
My favorite website for educational and organizational use is WorkFlowy. Voted one of the "Best Websites for Teaching and Learning" for 2013, WorkFlowy combines organization and technology to allow teachers and students to keep up with goals and assignments (American Library Association, 2013). The website is incredible in that it opens with an interactive How-To tutorial that allows the user to become familiar with how the technology works. Then, once the user signs up with email (the service is free), a help video opens with multiple topics ranging from Collaboration, Note-Taking, and Printing the to-do list. I personally use EverNote for note-taking, and I highly recommend it.
The Collaboration feature could be particularly helpful with group projects in assigning parts to different people. WorkFlowy is incredibly easy to navigate and the structure and organization is perfect for an outline app--it even has a built-in search engine for your document in order to find work easily (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p. 255).
Favorite Wiki Website (#2)
After much searching, I found an awesome Wiki for AP US History! WikiNotes covers three subjects: American History, European History, and Psychology. I was surprised to find that the notes corresponded with my APUSH textbook in high school, so that was a blast from the past. I even emailed it to my old APUSH teacher for him to pass on to his students (Shoutout to Lord Baker).
Basically, this wiki corresponds with the main text used by APUSH teachers (American Pageant). I chose the 13th edition because I am familiar with it, but it has resources for editions 11-15. And it also provides an AP Test Score Calculator! As you can probably tell, I am very excited about this find. I can honestly say I intend to use this for my classroom for this subject (I wish I had it when I was a student). I would love to create a wiki that allows students to put up their own notes or personal study guides to share with the class--as a student, I often make study guides to share with my peers and a wiki would make sharing much easier. The organization of this wiki is easy to navigate and straight-forward (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p. 255). I am not a fan of the ads, but that is a minor complaint in comparison to the resources the site provides.
References
American Library Association. (2013). Best websites for teaching and learning. American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org
Roblyer, M.D. & Doering, A.H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall
Roblyer, M.D. & Doering, A.H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall
I liked the website for WorkFlowy. That seemed to make note taking so simple and organized. It is not only resourceful, but it is also easy to navigate through. It had directions to just begin the set up of the page. Roblyer and Doering (2012) stated, “Pages are designed for good readability and aesthetics” (p.255). This web page’s design was very easy to read and understand. Do you know of any other sites that use note taking like this? Are they as easy to navigate?
ReplyDeleteI agree, WorkFlowy is simple and easy to navigate--no flashy add ons or advertisements. For note-taking, I highly recommend EverNote. The notes auto-sync to the Internet so you can access them on the original device or on the Internet through your online account. So even if my computer dies, all my notes live on. As a DSS note-taker for UM, this was critical. It also has formatting, which was ideal. It has a free version that works great, and a Premium version for some more frills. Go ahead and download it! :)
DeleteSo which site would you recommend to your students to use for sharing their notes and study guides, Evernote or Wiki? Roeblyer & Doering stated (2013) mentioned a cited source stating, "wikis can be used to document research projects...provide a reflective tool for teachers and students in any learning experience" (p.225). Do you think that Wiki would be easier to use for collaborative projects such as sharing notes than using Evernote (creating a notes document in Evernote then sharing the same document in Wiki?
ReplyDeleteEverNote is actually excellent for collaboration--you can create a folder and then invite people to view and edit by sharing it to their email. Honestly, I have more experience with EN so I am going to have to default to it in answering your question. WF is a new find for me, but I see a lot of potential. However, EN can be accessed without the Internet if you already have the app on your device, so that gives it a leg-up in my book.
DeleteJackie, you definitely made an interesting find. It would have been appreciated by my peers and myself to have such a useful resource in our APUSH class, as well. Roblyer & Doering (2012) stated that teachers can, "develop wikis to communicate their own content" (p. 224). How would you communicate key concepts using a wiki similar to the one highlighted above?
ReplyDeleteGo ahead and add it to your portfolio! I added your wiki to mine so I can have it as a reference in case I want to make a flipped classroom. To answer your question, ideally I would tailor the wiki to each class--make a new one each year, with a full-version for those studying ahead for the AP test. Obviously I cannot cover all of the material, but some students are studying for the class tests and others go on to study for the AP test. So I would need to take that into account when making the class wiki.
DeleteMy go-to plan would involve categorizing by units--for instance, in our recent ZoHo project I did one powerpoint for a unit (units typically take one to two weeks). So that is not a 1-class presentation to do in 50 minutes. There is simply too much to cover in the Jefferson-Jackson unit. So, with that being Unit 4 in my syllabus, I suppose I would have different tabs for different units in order to keep things organized.
Y'all do great questions, thank you!
ReplyDelete