Originally developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995, a WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. Teachers pre-select online resources for students to use during the inquiry process, and students are assigned particular roles to support student collaboration. Student typcially use both online and print resoruces to accomplish the tasks associated with the project.

(student faces are blurred for privacy reasons)

Project Purpose: to create a “sense of place” about a country in North Africa or Southwest Asia. See her project handout for details about student expectations. This project was part of a larger unit that included a UNESCO essay designed to use a research gathering tool which prompted students to gather background information about an assigned country (essay handout).

Key Resources: UNESCO website, eLibrary (great resources for pictures & maps), Photostory3 handout (QRD)

Timeline:

• Day 1: Project overiew and discussion about UNESCO (1 period = 50 min)
• Day 2: UNESCO fact collection/research in library & homework (1 period)
• Days 3: Demo examples, including inspirational video about Matt Dancing around the world (click on Matt’s Place)
• Days 4 & 5: Student work days (4 periods in library – block schedule)
  ** There was no formal instruction about Photostory3, the demo and QRD (Quick Reference Document) was sufficient to support student use.
• Day 6 & 7: Student presentations

Step 1: Teacher, librarian and IT specialist met to explore Photostory3. Mrs. Beers used the QRD to guide her development of 2 model projects, 1 modeling what not to do, and another providing a positive exmple.

Step 2: Mrs. Beers create 2 demos at home, showing both a strong and weak example of a multimedia project. She focused on limiting text and photo selection. Creating a project gave her a better understanding of how student might use the tool.

Step 3: Class project days

Step 4: Student presentations – samples Omar| Jordan

Important Technical Issues:

1. Save both the Phtostory project files (.wp3) and the final rendered videos (.wmv) in either student folders on the server or in a virtual teacher drop-box
2. If projects will be available on the web, be sure to discuss copyright issues associated with using music from a file or CD. The customized music option in Photostory makes copyright compliance much easier to manage.

Lori Leberer, art and multimedia teacher, and Chuck Meding, technology teacher, have involved SBOC students in the Adobe Youth Voices program for the last two years. This program works with schools worldwide using the Adobe Premier products to achieve Adobe’s goal to help students create with purpose. The theme for SBOC student projects is, “I Am From…” Chuck Meding says, “Our goal is to demystify the power of the computer and to help our students communicate their stories to others. Digital story telling is powerful when simply done with pictures and student voices. Lots of our students are scared and lost when they come here, and getting their feelings out in video helps them tell all of us their story without worrying about language. It empowers them.”  You can see that in the three student videos featured here.

Students stay with the SBOC from one to four semesters transitioning through three literacy levels and five math levels. Their greatest impediment is communicating in English. Telling their stories helps them grow in English communication skills as they work with teachers, volunteers and other students to get their stories to publication.

The Adobe Youth Voices program is designed to be finished in an academic year, but at the SBOC the projects must be finished in a semester (20 weeks), because the students who qualify to work with the Youth Voices program are the ones who will be transitioning out to other schools at semester breaks. This is a steep learning curve for students as they strive to tell their stories through pictures, sound and narration.

Here are three of their stories.
Rolando:

Claudia:

Jeong:

Also, the Instructional Technology group is asking for your comments about other possible resources and or questions related to digital images to help us enhance the resource information in this blog post.

All of the links listed can be found at the Instructional Technology Delicious Site

Agenda

1. General overview of digital media resources
2. Time to explore digital media resource post
3. ET Input: Entering Questions and Comments in the IT Blog
   

Digital Picture Resources (Possibilities)

Internet (Copyright Free Resources)

• IT Delicious – Online Image Resources (Check out Larry Ferlazzo’s link to free online resources.)

Digital Cameras

• Transfer directly from camera: To download the specific camera drivers on your Teacher Work Station (CWS) you will need the help of someone with a #pound account or a Network Analyst (requested through techline – 252-0333).

• External USB Card Reader: These all-in-one readers allow you to download images directly to a computer and do not require software drivers installation.

• Home Computers: Use a pen drive to copy and transfer images from a home computer.

• See How Do I Pick a Digital Camera on the IT Blog
  

Document Camera:

1. Capture an image using only a document camera:
   1. Press the capture button on the document camera panel.
   2. Press the playback button to view these images
   3. Download Images from a computer:
      • Downloading Images from the Document Camera to a PC
      • Downloading Images from the Document Camera to an iMac/eMac
2. Capture an image using Aversion Software and the document camera
   • Using the AVerVision software on a PC or Mac

Scanner: These devices are fading but they can be valuable as a means for making student drawings into digital pictures. Scanners can capture images at the highest quality.

Cell Phones: Cellular camera technology is a popular tool used by students and adults for capturing images. The easiest solution for collecting these images is to download them on a home computer and transport them with a pen drive.

Computers: The most recent models of Apple iMacs and Macbooks have built-in cameras for capturing digital images.

Digital Picture Management (Organization and Editing):

• Teacher Work Stations (CWS) and Student Computers (including Presentation Station Computers):
  • Organization: Create and name folders within the folder, “My Pictures.” At this time there is not an approved software solution for organizing photos on these computers.
  • Basic Editing:
    • Paint: The Paint program comes on all Windows computers and includes some simple editing features like cropping, resizing, and re-formatting.
    • Paint.net: This is a free download for PCs with photo editing features. Paint.net To download this software on your Teacher Work Station (CWS) you will need the help of someone with a #pound account or a Network Analyst (requested through techline).
• Macs: iPhoto is a Mac only digital picture management tool that includes simple photo editing features. It is loaded on all SPS Macs.

Instructional Uses of Digital Images:

Samples and Resources:

• Belarus to America
  
• Water Cycle: An elementary class uses Photostory to share their writing and artwork.
• NUA Slideshow
• Poster Project Idea

Preparation Resources:

• Storyboarding Software: Free tool download from Atomic Learning, Mac and PC.
• Graphic Organizers
• Research Tool: Easy Bib
• Social Bookmarking: Delicious: Easy way to share internet link to digital image resources for teachers and students. The read-only site is not blocked by BESS.

Digital Story Telling – Resource List

See Digital Story Telling on the IT Blog

Applications:

• Photostory 3 (IT Blog – Photostory 2 Resource)
• Powerpoint (IT Blog – PowerPoint Resources)
• MovieMaker (IT Blog – Movie Maker 2 and Teach the Teacher – MovieMaker 2 Resources)
• iPhoto (Apple iLife Tutorials – iPhoto) Create slideshow from digital images that can be exported and shared.
• iMovie (Apple iLife Tutorials – iMovie)
• Voicethread

GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design): Promotes instructional strategies that use visuals (digital and analog) to enhance student learning.

• Issaquah School District http://www.projectglad.com/glad.html

StoryCorps provides an equipment guide for selecting the necessary tools to create a recording, but Seattle Public Schools teachers creating stories in the classroom can use a standard input mic and a podcast program like Audacity (PC) or Garageband (Mac) to record stories on a classroom computer.

Learn more about StoryCorps and hear how powerful and poignant stories can be:

Access to Video

Schools must comply with federal CIPA rules in order to keep students safe and get network infrastructure funding. For almost all school districts this has meant Internet filters. As video content has exploded on the Internet so have the restrictions for student access which often means that student access to video sharing sites like YouTube are blocked. You have two options to solve this problem.

1. Use sites that are not blocked like TeacherTube.
2. Transfer YouTube or other video from computers that have access to the site, teacher workstations for example, onto presentation stations so they can be shared with students. (full directions here)

Bandwidth Issues

The District’s access to the Internet is limited by the amount of service we buy from the Washington State k-20 Network. Schools are further limited by the network infrastructure that connects them to the network operations center at the JSCEE. Schools connected by fiber have better bandwidth than schools that are not. Within the next 3 years we should have almost all school sites connected by fiber, but until then many elementary sites that are not connected will have less access. Keeping all this in mind, it is important to treat Internet access as a scarce resource. Your options:

1. Download video in off peak usage times and then show during class. A great way to do this is to use video podcasts. see Podcasts for the Classroom
2. Use streaming video if you have a fiber connection, but be aware of possible network slowdowns if several classrooms are using Internet intensive applications at the same time. (You may also want to check with your librarian to make sure that their book checkout times are not severely effected). Links to great video sites for education.

Del.icio.us

More information about Social Bookmarking on the IT Blog

Delicious Classroom Example

Note: Teachers can create a Delicious account, install the Delicious buttons, and make changes using a teacher login. Student logins can view a Delicious site but not make changes.

To Create a Delicious account

1. Go to Del.icio.us or delicious.com
2. Click on the Register button.
3. Complete the registration form.
4. When the account registration is completed a new window will appear. In this window, click the Install Button Now link. This program will install the buttons that make using your Delicious account easy.

Reflecting on your professional development experience is vital because it helps transfer new skills and knowledge into practice. It also reinforces your learning. It’s my belief there is an equally essential need for students to be more involved in reflecting on their own learning.

To focus on this belief, I have put together this training module to simulate an experience where teachers create an eScrapbook using their own learnings as content. I have been told by Teacher participants that this simulation can be easily adapted for students in the classroom. The idea is to help students synthesize and analyze in a technology rich learning environment.

Resources are listed below. I would love to hear how you have expanded on this idea and how you have adapted these templates to make them better.
Storyboard for Scrapbooking
Teacher Example:Targeting Process
Scrapbook of Reflections Handout

To read more information on this topic from author Annette Lamb click on this Link.

Here is a definition of what a WebQuest is from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/:

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are designed to use learners’ time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it, and to support learners’ thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

What a valuable way for students to learn!

Site maintained by a school district that uses WebQuests as part of their technology integration.
http://www.milforded.org/teachers_rooms/wq.asp
From the Milford, Connecticut school district – WebQuests are written by teachers for teachers.