Apply and Discover 10.1

Hi everyone-
  I watched the presentations for Jennifer Richard, Jenn Freeda, and Jason.
Jennifer Richard first.  She created a webquest for highschool students that had them create a powerpoint about themselves.  All of the required pages were available and she describe each well.  In her task page she had some very good accommodations for students.  I also think that the links directed toward teachers  on the teachers page would be a great resource while teaching students to use powerpoint.  I really like her idae of having students create these pages so that other in class and the teacher can learn about each other.  I bet some very interesting facts come out in those!  I did notice that there were not a lot of links inside of the webquest for students to use.  It left me wondering if the students had enough resources to complete the webquest independently if they got stuck with how to use the program or how to make something work in it.  Overall, a great idea.

The second webquest was by Jenn Freeda.  She created a webquest for kindergarten students on states of matter.  There were great pictures in this webquest and she put some thought into how kindergarten students would get the tasks done.  She chose to use parent volenteers to help with reading and facilitate the actual activities.  Her activites were hands on and will be very engaging for young students.  I believe even older students would have enjoyed this webquest.  Her use of Brainpop Jr was great and I learned about some resources that I was unaware of in that program.  Her video of ice turning to gas was great too!  This webquest had all required pages, and her explanation of each was well done.  The only thing that I wondered about for this webquest was if parent volenteers would influence the students while helping them, and not let them explore enough.  I suppose it depends on the volenteer.  Great job Jenn!

The last webquest that I will comment on was Jason's.  He developed a webquest for highschool students that had them develop a landscape using geometry.  His webquest had all required pages and he explained what his students were to do during the webquest (not that I understood all the geometry stuff!)  Jason's inclusion of many programs was great.  These students will get to really use technology in this lesson.  There didn't seem to be  many links to outside resources for students throughout the webquest.  I again, wondered if students had enough at their disposal to complete the webquest without a teacher.  How were students finding prices and such?  Overall, another great idea and use of technology for self led learning. I couldn't do it, so kudos to Jason and his students.

Karena