The 5Ws of Website Evaluation

Assignment 720 - Discussion Director Response/Classroom Integration

E-Journal - Week on November 18, 2013

Evaluating the Accuracy of Materials - Evaluating websites.

Today’s lesson focussed on evaluating websites for credibility and accuracy.  Not everything we read is the truth, especially when we are reading online.  

Objective

The objective is to make students aware of the need to look at online information critically, and to have them apply a set of guidelines to determine the usability and credibility of a website.

The method for website evaluation my students will use is the 5Ws (Who, What, When, Where, and Why).

Classroom discussion and student participation is encouraged to make the evaluation of websites meaningful and relevant for the students.  After introducing the lesson, I prompted students to share experiences of situations in which they found online information to be questionable.   The responses I received pointed sharply at their frustration in finding information they could use.  Most students never considered that websites could be wrong and misleading.   Many relied on websites their teachers had given them for information.

Materials

In the classroom, a poster of the 5Ws of Website Evaluation is prominently displayed. I began by sharing a video, and The 5Ws of Website Evaluation checklist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFEwwG7rq0E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2DIIBzrqkA

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s2M-QRaQAD5Ycku5Vc7psyMehb4mXPBQmfWqHUlhzHY/edit?usp=sharing

Procedure

After the video, we began to review each step of the 5Ws.  During the “What step”, the concept of bias surfaced.  Students were unsure of what bias meant. Bias is an important concept for students to grasp as they venture through various online sources, especially when determining the credibility and usefulness of websites produced by organizations.  As a class, we looked at nayre.org. This organization promotes year round schooling. Students were drawn and interested in learning about what educators and parents have to say about going to school year round. We looked for information on the website that showed why year round school may not be good.  We concluded that the website only presented information that supported year round schooling.  The website was a good way of showing how “.org” websites may only present information that supports their organization’s views, and therefore may be considered biased. I plan to revisit the topic of “bias” with my students. It is an important concept for students to understand and is valuable in helping them become discerning users of online information.

We proceeded to review the 5Ws of Website Evaluation checklist.  Students were asked to use the checklist in their evaluation of three websites:

The Tree octopus  

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

The Edge of Extinction  http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/species_info.php?id=547

Google Search Technology

http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html

During this activity, it was interesting to see students comb through the websites and apply the 5 Ws. Students discussed the ability of octopi to live in trees and the speed of which Google's trained pigeons returned search results.  

As part of their larger learning unit, students will be asked to apply the skills they’ve learned in this lesson to their online research task.

In Colin Harrison’s, Thirteen Ways at looking at a Blackboard Chapter 38a of the New Literacies Handbook, Harrison analyzes a study conducted by Rachel A. Karchmer, The Journey Ahead, Chapter 38 of New Literacies Handbook (page 1241). Harrison reflects on how technology has changed literacy and teaching practices.  Harrison notes  that today’s Internet availability, and the ease of connecting to the Internet for both students and teachers creates an increasing need to confirm and check the information we find on the Internet. I agree with Harrison. Evaluating the veracity of websites is an essential New Literacy skill that are students need to practice in order for them to become Internet literate.

Reflection of Critical Friends Review of Instructional Unit

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to enhance my Geography unit and incorporate some of the methods and strategies that I have been learning about in my Instructional Technology & Digital Media Literacy classes.

In particular, the opportunity to provide students the choice of how they want to present their research, and adding the iEarn collaboration piece. Providing students with the choice of how they want to present their research will be a motivator for students.  They will be able to use online tools and incorporate multimedia formats.  I think this will improve their product.

Additionally, by expanding the project to include the iEarn collaboration, I feel my students will want to research their countries and learn as much about them in preparation for their collaboration with peers from the countries they are researching. iEarn will be very engaging for them.

My Critical Friends were very supportive of the unit, especially the iEarn component.  I feel this is a very powerful and engaging enhancement to the unit. It is also the component I have the most concern with.   In order for students to successfully collaborate with their peers from other countries, there has to be timely  communication. Monitoring communication between students and specifying guidelines for communications is a must. My Critical Friends suggested a B-Plan as an alternative in the event the collaboration with the iEarn Project - A Day in the Life doesn’t work out. I think this is a good idea.  I will evaluate and consider alternative sites to use with my students. I am currently exploring Students of the World. There are pen pal opportunities for Argentina, Morocco, Yemen, and Thailand. It’s always a good idea to have a B-Plan!

Presenting my unit of student to my Critical Friends was a great way to gain feedback.

Using Google Sites to Build my Website

Using Google Sites I started building my website to share information and resources with my students and staff. After reviewing the various themes and templates, I decided to experiment building my website using a Google Site template. https://sites.google.com/site/classtemplate_en/ Building a website using a template was a learning experience.  At first I struggled with understanding the template and the relationship between the predefined pages.   Once I began playing and experimenting, I began to understand how the template was organizing pages and the process of creating and modifying pages became easier.

In case you're thinking of using a Google Site template, I used the Classroom template. Using this template, I used the "More" button at the top of main home page a lot. The more button offers a drop down  menu with the options "Edit Site Layout" and "Manage Site". Edit Site Layout was important in modifying the side navigation panel.

One particular area I found troublesome was removing the "template text" within template pages. There is instructional text provided by Google within template pages that must be deleted prior to publishing.  Once I realized that the "template text" had to be removed in template pages, I began to remove it as I modified and added text to a page.

Creating new pages was easy. These are blanks pages that you position within the organization of the template. Once I understood the organization of the template, building new page and placing them where I wanted was not difficult.

My website needs pictures! I will add pictures as I continue to refine it. It wasn't difficult to include the one picture I have.  I don't expect adding pictures to be a problem.   I've started building and including tutorials that I've created.  I plan to add more tutorials and more website resources.

My website is only available with this link.  It's a work in progress!  Take a look and let me know what you think.

https://sites.google.com/site/wmslibrarymedia/

Discussion Director

How I used Google Hangouts on Air

This week I had the opportunity to be the Discussion Director for my ED 720 Central Issues and Research in New Literacies class. The required reading for the week was, The Handbook on New Literacies Chapters 9 and 10. In this reading, our class took a close look at the implications of using the Web in the classroom and how students navigate through the Web. As discussion director, I developed 2 prompts for my classmates to discuss. My focus was to learn how others are using the Web and what challenges/workarounds they’re finding.  I also wanted to gain insight in what they see their students doing when they search the web.  My prompts:

Prompt #1

The Web is increasingly being used as text for the classroom. What challenges exist when using the Web in the classroom? What practices can you use to overcome these challenges?

Prompt #2

A student’s Web navigation ability has an impact on learning from the Web. How do your students navigate the Web? What characteristics are you observing? How can you help students navigate the Web to gain knowledge?

As Discussion Director, I gave a choice on how they could respond to the prompts. They could write their response and post it within  Google Groups or they could participate in a video chat using Google Hangouts.  I was excited about using Google Hangouts for discussion as it would offer those in attendance a chance for real time discussion. I was hoping for an active discussion.  My challenge was how to record the hangout. I turned  to Google to research recording hangouts. I found several options and chose to use Screencast-O-Matic, free screen recording software.   The result was poor audio and the upload to Youtube was extremely slow. Here is the of the hangout recording using Screencast-O-Matic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRGupEiaba0

The video was good the audio was not good. I was disappointed after listening because we had a good discussion.

My instructor, Ian O’Byrne suggested I try Hangout on Air and change the privacy rights on the recording. The following day I used Hangout on Air and it resulted in recording a great discussion.  The audio was perfect. The recording went straight to Youtube, no need to upload. There is no time limit. It was very easy to use. Click on the link to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X11Wyu9S6U

Being Discussion Director was a very good experience. I thought the discussions went well.  Everyone showed knowledge of the topic. It was evident they did their reading and made reference to the reading. My classmates seemed ready and eager to discuss.  

I’ve received good feedback on using the hangouts on air as the means for discussion. Things I might have changed include specifically asking hangout participants to write a comment on the discussion. I would have also have been more specific about the assignment. There was some confusion over which prompts to respond to and where to post responses.

Thank you for the opportunity.

My Learning Hub

In an effort to help my students easily locate information resources, I will develop a digital learning hub.  In this space I hope to provide them with information about working online, links to online resources, and a place to showcase their work. I plan to use Google sites to create my learning hub. I have been using other Google applications (docs, forms, and presenter) and hope that by staying within the Google umbrella an opportunity to easily integrate these other Google applications exist.

My learning hub will include:

• Information and reminders about being good online citizens. Policies on Bring Your Own Device. I plan to use text, pictures, and videos.

• Links to reference sites such as atlases, encyclopedias, almanacs, dictionaries and thesauruses, and Khan Academy.

• Video tutorials on how to perform research tasks such as using Google image search and other power searching options of Google.  Other tutorials on new technologies such as Google docs. My school is beginning to use Google docs.

• Promote reading - Creating  1) “Wildcat Reads”, a student generated list of must reads. 2) links to sites that contain free digital reading resources.  3) Incorporating a space for students to leave recommendations on books that should be purchased for the school library 4) Video of student book talks.

• Showcase student work - video book talks, and student generated Public Service Announcements such as BYOD and Positive Behavior Support

This is my initial plan. I expect adjustments will be needed as I develop and implement my learning hub. I am excited about the opportunity. I feel it will be a source of information for my students and also a way to showcase their work and ideas. I will be sharing my progress with you.

Print to Pixel Unconference

Print to Pixel

Click on link for resources

Search Your Way to Success

Reflection of Personal Learning Environments

Review a plan to Create and Curate your Digital Identity from one of your peers in this class. What did you learn about yourself when looking at your PLE? How does your PLE compare to other peers in class? Compare the similarities and differences between yours and your classmate’s diagrams and plans.

As I read and compared my plan to create and curate my digital identity with that of my colleagues’, I noticed that based on our professional needs, we’ve curated and selected what we wanted to include in our learning environments. Our learning environments  centered on our individual learning needs and interests. There are similarities in the tools and practices related to our professional development.  I also see a difference in the scope of the plans and in the way they were organized. We have created our networks of learning and even though they differ they meet our needs.

One common node in all of the plans I reviewed is our participation in the IT&DML program.  Our IT&DML program is presently the most significant source of our professional development.  Through it, we are gaining the knowledge and skills we need to teach digital literacy.   We are:

• learning about theories, models, and dispositions about online reading, writing, and  learning
• exploring and experimenting with tools we hope to use with our students
• collaborating and discussing how to effectively teach students using online tools
• building professional development relationships that will keep us up to date on best practices to use technology with our students   

The second similarity between our posts is the inclusion of blogs.    Digital media literacies are new literacies brought about by the Internet. The practices and tools we use to help our students develop digital literacy skills are new.  Our blogs serve as journals in which we document and reflect on our practices and experiences related to teaching digital literacy.  By reading and commenting on each other’s blogs, we are learning. The inclusion of maintaining a blog as a professional development tool is a practice that will help us to improve our teaching.

One difference in my plan from the others that I viewed is in scope.  I included my digital learning hub as part of my plan.  This is where I will place my collection of tools and resources that I will offer my students and patrons.  My digital learning hub will host what I produce as a result of my personal learning and is a part of my online identity.

Another difference, is in the way the plans were organized.  One approach I believe will be very helpful is how Joan Robinson organized her plan. Her main nodes reflect her personal learning needs and she identifies the resources that can help meet those needs. I thought this approach to be reflective and representative of student centered connective learning.

I enjoyed looking at and reviewing the blogs.  It was a good learning activity.