Rubric for Grading of Melanie Springers WebQuest

Criteria	Accomplished (3)	Developing (2)	Beginning (1)	Score & Comments
Introduction	Engagingly describes a compelling question or problem.	A question or problem is described.	The purpose of the WebQuest is unclear.	2 – question is implied, but no direct address of the question
Task	Task is doable and engaging, and is connected to learning in the real world. It elicits thinking that goes beyond rote comprehension.	The task is doable and elicits higher order thinking but is not relevant to students lives.	Task requires simply comprehending or retelling of information found on web pages and answering factual questions.	3 – very well laid out, the thinking involved in writing will get students ready for other courses with different writing styles
Process Checklist	Every step is clearly stated. Most students would know exactly where they are at each step of the process and know what to do next.	Some directions are given, but there is missing information. Students might be confused.	Every step is clearly stated. Most students would know exactly where they are at each step of the process and know what to do next.	3 – very well done, each step is explicit and organized
Resources	There is a clear and meaningful connection between all the resources and the information needed for students to accomplish the task.	There is some connection between the resources and the information needed for students to accomplish the task. Some resources don't add anything new.	Resources provided are not sufficient for students to accomplish the task.	3 – resources are all available, with only the FOOD link being broken
Formative Assessment	Webquest begins with a formative assessment that assess student understanding of content outlined in CSO.	Formative assessment comes close in assessing student understanding of content outlined in CSO.	Formative assessment does not directly assess student understanding of content outlined in CSO.	3 – Students know exactly what they will be doing with the CSO’s outlined.  The WebQuest follows the CSO very well.
Evaluation	Criteria for success are clearly stated in the form of a rubric. Criteria include qualitative as well as quantitative descriptors.	Criteria for success are clearly stated in the form of a rubric. Criteria include qualitative as well as quantitative descriptors.	Criteria for success are not described.	3 – Students know exactly how they will be graded on the project.
Visual Appeal	Appropriate and thematic graphic elements are used to make visual connections that contribute to the understanding of concepts, ideas and relationships.	Graphic elements sometimes, but not always, contribute to the understanding of concepts, ideas and relationships.	Color is garish and/or typographic variations are overused and legibility suffers. Background interferes with the readability.	3 – the images selected contribute greatly to the content of the WebQuest
Navigation	Navigation is seamless. It is always clear to the learner what all the pieces are and how to get to them.	There are a few places where the learner can get lost and not know where to go next.	There are more than 5 broken links, misplaced or missing images, badly sized tables, misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	2 – One of the links are broken, the FOOD link is broken

Classroom Methods

This activity differs greatly in means than anything I did before high school.  We had no practicle internet usage until I was in high school.  We never did the ranking, a class project we had in middle school was to research animals, but that was as far as it went.  Yes, my learning style is addressed in the project because I have multimodal, and it deals with kinesthetic, visual, and auditory.  The class debates deal with the auditory, the presentations deal with visual, and the practical use of the knowledge deals with kinesthetic.  I am not surprised that the project was done without textbooks, textbooks give only one side of the bias.  The internet has many more points of view than one textbook does.  I would like to teach in a similar style, but the biggest obstacle would be the technology, not everyone has the technology to pursue this kind of project.

Best and Worst

The two best WebQuests in my opinion are Waves and Sound and Earthquakes.  They both provide a great in depth study of the topics.  The Waves and Sound project is very lengthy, but a great deal is learned.  Earthquakes has many different aspects including research and study, and then application of what was learned.
The worst was the Gorillas.  There was not much substance to the topic, just research and talk about your research.
The more that the students learn dictates which projects are the best.  Also, how much time is spent.  Waves and sound is a very lengthy project, but a great deal is taught.

WebQuest Analyzation

Efficiency Expert

Your Impressions

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Gorillas	Broad topic range.  Multiple skills taught.	Takes too long.  Too much time to cover thoroughly.
Shakespeare	Short sturdy intro into a study of Shakespeare.  Good if all students do thorough research.	Students will only learn as far as their research takes them.  If they are disinterested they will do only enough to get by.
Earthquake	Thorough lesson beginning with the research and students have the added incentive of bragging rights through competition.	Can be compressed into less class periods by letting research be done on student’s own time.
Foreign Country	Good concise lesson covers not only the computer aspect, but also cultural aspects.  Incentive is provided to do well.	Students’ participation will vary, some students will give it everything they can, and some will only do enough to get by.
Waves & Sound	Very in-depth lesson teaching many different concepts of waves.	Extremely long lesson.  Given time for students to understand and grasp all the concepts.

Blogging

I like the concept of blogging because it is an easy and convienient way of sharing our thoughts and opinions.  Keeping a blog can make you a more successful teacher in that you can share what has and hasn't worked for you in the classroom.  After this class I am unsure whether or not I'll continue my blog.  With my current work load, the blogging could end up becoming more of a nucience than anything.  Keeping this blog has helped my with my appropriation.  The remixing with the voki and other projects has helped me understand this concept better than I did.

Wikipedia: Friend or Foe?

The in class activity affected my belief in wikipedia.  I use the site a great deal as a place to get basic information.  It can be used as an educational tool, but it's value as a cited source is not that good.  For my future students, I would instruct them that they can use wikipedia, but not to cite it in their papers.  Use it as a starting point or a stepping stone to find valuable sources.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia published in many different languages.  A source that anyone can edit can be a decent sourse because of the many people watching each article, someone with some expertise on the topic should have some input.  Wikipedia uses the collective knowledge of the public to weed out bad information.  Larry Sanger left wikipedia because he thought it should give more of the authority to experts rather than just anyone.  Abuse of a wikipedia page would show up as misleading or wrong information.  The statistic on the number of languages and pages show how widely used the site is.  Wikipedia is so successful because it has a broad knowledge base and is easy to navigate.  Wikipedia does not accept advertising because, in my opinion, the advertising would try to control what the site says.  Wikiscanner help ensure reliability because it shows who posted what in an article.