Thoughtful WebQuest Evaluation

Thoughtful WebQuest Evaluation

I found this WebQuest appealing because of its depth of knowledge. This was  interesting for me and drew me to its content. The intended audience for this WebQuest are students from grades 6-8  and 9-12 in English/Language Arts. I believe that the learners of this WebQuest could be extended to 5th grade students and adult learners.

The educational goal of this WebQuest is for students to go through the process of learning about multiple intelligences and learning styles, and figure out how it relates to them and their peers. The curriculum standards it addresses are the following. NL-Eng. K-12.1 Reading for Perspective. NL-Eng.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills. NL-Eng.K-12.7 Evaluating Data

This WebQuest asks students to investigate and self-guide themselves to understand  the multiple of learning styles. It allows students to work individually or collaborative to answer the questions of the task, which has detail steps for accomplishing. There is no use of metaphor and there is use of deductive strategy as she allows students to see the relationship between the learning styles and them. Although, depending on the age and maturity of the learner inductive strategies could be used.

This web quest is allowing the user to use the versatility of the web, if necessary, in order to complete there assignment. It provides images from multiple sources and links to multiple sources. That said, I believe that because of the additional resources as links available, this WebQuest could not be just photocopied and distributed to students.

This WebQuest works quite well, even though there is one picture that does not load and the links to some pictures are a dead end. This material is not out of date and it contains current information. Also, this WebQuest does a good job of crediting it sources. In order to improve this WebQuest I would include videos or interviews with teachers, students, school members regarding their experiences with Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles.

Here is a link to the Webquest I created, I hope you enjoy it. Collaboration Webquest

Evaluating Learning Materials

Hello everyone,

For class I have chosen "Adult Learners in Higher Education" from Penn State University to evaluate. I found this article through MERLOT.org. Here is a link MERLOT where I found the article. 
Performing the evaluation for this article was very beneficial for me, it allowed me to compare some of my ideas and beliefs on adult education to what others had done and discovered. 

Evaluating Learning Materials

Quality of Content

I believe the introduction of “Adult Learners in Higher Education” was accurate, it mentioned the factors that affect adult learners ability to be educated in the right order of importance. The question regarding the characteristics of adult leaners, brings up interesting assumptions. I was not quite clear if the “Primary Assumptions” was going to be proven to be true or debunked. If the information is true, I agree with the statements for the most part. There are always some individuals as outliers. If the information is to be proven false, I disagree with it and would like to see more details that proves what was said. Regarding the statement of “Adults as Learners”, I do not agree with a few of her findings. I find that adult learners are more independent that dependent because they are working with either a self improvement emphasis or to show others what they can do. For the remainder of the document, I agreed with the ideas of adults in the classroom the benefits, teaching methods tailored to adults, best faculty practices for serving adult learners in higher education, emerging trends, and the details supporting them. Over all, I believe that this document presents valid concepts. 

I do believe this document presents educationally significant concepts. The sections of “Best Faculty Practices for Serving Adult Learners in Higher Education” mentioned significant points that can truly make a difference in the classroom, like reconsidering assumptions about semester-bound, campus-based lecture-driven education when assessing curriculum/course design and delivery. It is important to remember that adult learners have sometimes more flexibility for school work, but at the same time the priorities in their life have sometimes equal or higher stature than education.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool

This material could be used throughout the academic engagement of the adult learner. Obviously this resource would be best put to use at the beginning of the academic year and then once or twice later in the year.  This topic addresses higher education instruction for adults and identifies what are the important aspects that have more effect in the academic development of adult learners. This resource does dive into the exploration of the problem, it provide insight into the main ideas and multiple points presented, and how they would be relevant in the classroom. The “Adult Learners in Higher Education” resource did not provide an example of an application or practice, it simply stated common and non common attributes of adult learners, their relationship to the classroom and teaching methods, and factors to which faculty must be aware of when dealing with adult learners. The information in this resource can be used over and over with the same adult learning group. Aspects of the “Adult Learners in Higher Education” resource will have a single impact when introduced to the classroom. Other parts of this information, when repeated, allows for a better understanding of the learner. Repeated use of this resource, and constant awareness of the learners growth will provide a more effective academic experience.  The learning objective for the students of this resource is to identify the attributes of an adult learner and provide an environment where they can be successful. Students should understand the benefits and modifications that need to be made for adult learners inside and out of the classroom.  The target learner could have part-time attendance or full-time work while enrolled, financial independence and or trouble, be a single parenthood, served in the military service, and lacks of a standard high school diploma. Also, they could be of diverse cultures, personality, political beliefs, and ethnicity. All of these factors designates target adult learners.  This resource does not have an interactive media-rich component. I do believe that an interactive technological component would prove to be beneficial if implemented in the classroom, with individual learning methods, and distant learning. This resource would be easy to integrate into any current curriculum and pedagogy, it could also be introduced at any point of the academic year. The utility of this resource is not formatted for a single type of approach in the classroom. There are no preventing requirements that would keep it form being used in a variety of ways to achieve teaching and learning goals. The teaching and learning goals are easy to identify because this resource has done a great job at identifying the points that are important with adult learners, and the specific aspects that need to be addressed.  I do believe that a good learning assignment can be derived from the “Adult Learners in Higher Education” resource. Some research will need to be done to round any assignment that uses this resource, since the information contained in this resource is specific.

Ease of Use:

This resource provides a guideline of items to keep in mind when engaging adult learners. The student reviewing this resources will have the flexibility to change and modify it as needed and will easily know how to navigate it. It is very user friendly and does require some documentation. Most of the documentation will be conducted during the initial assessment of the learner, and while developing a the proper teaching which is tailored to specific adults, it does not provide any kind of feedback to asses how it performs. On the other hand it is a flexible resource that allows for addition and customizations. 

Here is a Goal-directed Instructional Design Plan

Intro To My Blog

Intro To My Blog

The A.I. stands for Artificium Infinitus, which means Technology Infinite in Latin. I believe that technology will have an infinite effect in education, in addition it represents my hope for future technological innovation in education.