Are you a good blog, or a bad blog? Part 2

The Bad Blog

http://www.ndaviess.k12.in.us/elemshare/Teachers/jweathers/Medieval.htm

                                                                 Usability:

Not all links work. None that I have tested opened in a new page. Which gets very annoying. Some fonts have the "old english" look. Which makes things difficult to read. Ds and Vs look the same, words are difficult to translate. The colors really aren't too bad. Some times the colors would bother the reader. Some of the images were poorly chosen. The best example of this is the Introduction page. Having an actual picture of a Castle just doesn't make sense and can have students confused. The last thing I'd hate to deal with is a student thinking that picture is real...which can happen. The point of the lesson is not blanent. Some of the directions were long winded and confusing. I guarentee students would be turned off by the amount of reading they have to do for the Quest. The Quest requires students to "live life" from multiple levels of Middle Ages hierachy. All of the information is on one webpage. It would have been much smarter to place each role in a seperate webpage. After some hunting, I could find everything I needed to complete the assignment.

   

Mechanics

   While there were not major spelling or grammatical errors, there were some other issues with the mechanics. Some of the links don't work at all. To be fair, the WebQuest was made. The webpages were not really appropriate only because of the different roles (as mentioned previously). The data on the King is the same as the serf. Kind of messed up if you asked me. 

 

 

 

Content

Is the lesson grounded in state and/or national standards?
The lesson was, however, covering the National and State standards. This actually is a common lesson. It's usually done just as a role play activity and not using a WebQuest. The content was age appropriate (6th grade and up). The tasks were not that manageable. Mainly because it requires a lot from the students and I personally doubt they would finish in one day. Maybe not even two. The information presented on the page and the links are accurate, but not very appropriate. What I mean by that is some of the links go to extremely long pages. Does the student have to read everthing? How would the teacher know if everything is being read? I get the feeling the teacher gave some "busy work" in these links. The process would help the students accomplish the task, if they ever finished it. It is a inquiry-based lesson. Finally, I really did like the rubric and thought it was fair and accurate in determining students knowledge after the quest.



In my opinion, this WebQuest does not add to the students overall educational experience, because this Quest would turn the students off from learning so much that the teacher would lose any interest the students had.

Are you a good blog, or a bad blog? Part 1

The Good Blog

This was one of the first blogs I saw when looking for Webquests. I was lucky to land on a winner right from the get-go. Don't get me wrong...it still has it's flaws. Let's go through each criteria a successful Webquest needs and if this one hits it.

Usability:

Out of all the links needed for the Webquest, it seems all but two work. The two are additional resources that the students don't need. They are just for self exploration of a topic. My issue with the links is the vast majority of them did not open into a new page. While it was easy to navigate for me, its likely it won't be for a student.

My biggest issue is in the text of the anticipatory page and the assignment page. The font size is fine, as the font colors too. However, the background color is a rough neon-like yellow that hurts to read. The reason for the yellow is to make the pages look like written stationary.

The point of the lesson was mentioned in the begining. The creater decided to write it as a politican writing to a soldier, so it may be hard to see at first. After reading it the second time, the reason was clear. The directions were also quite straight forward. The author used that character-writing, but I predict a student would find that more fun/funny that confusing.

Besides the font colors and background colors, the materials are easy to read.The questor can find everything they need right on the WebQuest sight.

Mechanics:

There are no major spelling erroes, and the pages contain now grammatical errors. As mentioned above, almost all links work properly. Finally...each webpage works well with the time period it is trying to represent.

Content:

Is the lesson grounded in state and/or national standards?

This lesson blends well with the state standards for New York. For both middle and high school standards, a understanding of aspects of the American Revoluion is mandatory. These can also be applied to the NCSS themes.

This WebQuest could easily be used for either High School or Middle School social studies classes.

Time management is one area that I feel might be a flaw in the WebQuest. The quest involves students investigating multiple aspects of the war. I personally don't think this would work in a regular 42 minute class period. A block schedule would work perfectly.

 The websites used provide students with accurate and appropriate information, for the Websites that work of course.

The process helps the students complete the tasks assigned in the quest.

This is definitely a inquiry-based lesson as it involes a students to investigate and discover on their own.

Does the WQ add to the student’s overall educational experience?

 the rubric clearly and objectively assess learning goals and objectives. The rubric is really one of the best things in this WebQuest. I love how detailed it is. It is close to impossible for a student to not know how they got the grade they got.