Choose one question. Responses due by Oct 6 at 12 noon.
Question 1. In this article, Butcher and Bethard identify twelve dimensions of educational quality that teachers use to evaluate digital resources. Which two dimensions of educational quality do you think are most useful, and which two do you think are least useful? Why?
Question 2. Do you think that using the predictive indicators from Table 3 to rate websites would give useful information to teachers? That is, would information on these predictive indicators help you, as a teacher, decide whether or not to use an online resource? Why or why not?
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Question 2:
I am not fully convinced that the seven indicators would be of great use. First of all, how would i know if a publisher or sponsor is prestigous. People who create sites are very good at making it sound as if they are prestigous, and as if they have put a lot of research in it. Secondly, just because it gives instructions, indentifies learning goals, and the reasearch is organized, does not mean it is an acceptible site. Again, people are very good at manipulating people and their projects. As teachers, we are not really taught about good and bad info. We might take a class or two about how to recognize acceptable sites, but most of our classes are geared toward quality teaching techniques. So, as an average person, i do not feel that the seven indicators will really help me as a teacher. They may be of some assistance, but they wont really help me dicifer which site is truly the better choice.
Question 2:
I think that some of these indicators will be very useful, but others would not. I think that if a site of publication is not necessarily recognized as "prestigious," that doesn't matter. I think that if the site has instructions, identifies learning objective, and indicates target age and age appropriateness then that is what would help me, as a teacher, when choosing the site.
Some websites might be simply for reading and processing information, and as a teacher those sites might have valuable information. That site could be beneficial to me previous to preparing a lesson, but would not necessarily be the most useful site for my students. If the site has quality content, which was not mentioned on the table, that is the most important thing, but I suppose that is a difficult thing to assess.
Question 2:
I think that the some of the predictors could be useful for teachers, but not necessarily all of them. Having instructions, identified learning goals, being arranged appropriately for those goals, identified age range, and appropriate content for that age range would be useful. These would make it fairly easy for the teacher to look through the site, use what they want to or need to, but not have to spend hours at a time finding resources to use. The two predictors that I am not so sure about are the one about having a publisher or sponsor and having a prestigious publisher or sponsor. It is definitely important that teachers find reputable sources for their information, but it is not always obvious who the publisher/sponsor is, and teachers may not always know who is prestigious or not. For example, a website might provide excellent information about an illness or disorder, but it happens to be sponsored by a drug company. The drug company might be considered prestigious, but the information could also be skewed in order to influence the readers to use that company's medication. Overall, I think that the seven predictors are a good tool for teachers to use, but teachers will still have to evaluate beyond the predictors.
Question 2: These criterion for assessing the appropriateness of technological resource should not be used as set regulations, but rather guidelines. Their usefulness depends on the developmental group, the lesson objectives and the type of website and reasons for it's use. It is important for websites, which are to be used for educational purposes, to be organized in such a way that is appropriate for the developmental level of the children. They must be able to travel through the site for the necessary project purposes and be able to easily travel through the site. Inclusion of visual imagery is important, however should not be held under the strictest of criteria because it is not always necessary. Visual imagery can however be helpful, such as tables and other graphics. Pictures can also be a supplement to learning and memory for those learners. Interactive activities can be fun, but again, they may not always be necessary or developmentally appropriate. An interactive game or activity is not always useful for certain learning objectives. This should be considered. However, this should be addressed when assessing the appropriateness of the activities, which is another listed criterion. Sources of credibility can be useful and show the credibility of the provided information. But, depending on what use the technology is being applied for; this may not hold so much importance. The technology should focus on the key, learning-objective information and support deeper learning.
Question 1
Out of the twelve dimensions I think the two most important are first connections to real world applications/problem solving, and good general set up. If I cannot understand where to go or what to do then I cannot use it as a teaching aid for my students. In addition there are countless resources on the internet therefore I think being picky about which setup works for my style is very important and probable. Also computers have been placed into schools so that children can learn real life experiences. Computers are used in our society daily therefore students need to be proficient in computer use. The two I think are the least important, however I would still look at, would be one provides access to relevant data because if the website meets the rest of the requirements added data is not needed. Second would be reflects source authority because I think that is the last thing I look at and generally if I find it through a good search then it is usually a reliable source.
Question 1:
The two dimensions of educational quality that I think are the most useful would be #5 Inclusion of interactive/hands-on activities: Resource offers useful, interactive activities for students. And #11 Focuses on key content: Resource focuses content on critical information relevant to the educational goals of the resource.When I was looking up information for a lesson, these two areas are what I focused on the most. The two that are the least useful, but still are very useful are: #2Appropriate pedagogical guidance: Resource guides the user in pedagogically-meaningful ways; activities and processes are intuitive and clear for user;and #12 Provides access to relevant data: Within the resource, relevant scientific data and supplementary information are either included or accounted for via links. I think that if you know what you are doing or know the subject that you are trying to get ideas about, you would know what area needed to be covered first, and you should automatically have relevant data, and the links are a great help. I used links from the lesson plans that were offered by the state links, but did not follow there exact guidlines.
Question 1
The two dimensions that I think are most useful are appropriateness of activities because if it can't appropriately teach the concepts that it is intended then it is of no use at all. The second is a good general set-up because it must be usable. We cannot assume that students already have a general knowledge of computers and web navigation, not all students actually have this knowledge and assuming that they do would be an injustice to them. If you can't use the site then you have no chance of learning from it.
The two least useful dimensions were more difficult to select because I believe that they are all important though if I had to select some the first would be appropriate inclusion of graphics/images because even though graphics make it a little easier to under stand some information there are many topics where it does little for increasing comprehension. The second would be reflects source authority because this does make it easier to know that the information can be trusted if you go through it analyzing what it says you can usually figure out whether or not it is accurate.
As I read this article I thought that all of the dimensions of educational quality in assessing digital resources were very important to make sure you have a good web site. The ones that would be most valuable would be the inclusion of interactive/hands-on activities. I think that if a web site has a fun way to get the students involved, and puts learning in a new and exciting way they will be more likely to want to participate. If they find learning fun it will promote them to look forward to learning more in the future as well. I think that as long as the interaction is positive, and truly teaches them something it is critical to help children learn. I also think the idea about reflecting source authority is very important. As a teacher before we even look at anything else we should make sure what we are allowing our kids to explore presents correct,accurate, and current information. If we just send them anywhere before we make sure it is reliable they may learn false information. The least important ideas I think are first, the appropriate inclusion of graphics/images. Although having pictures to illustrate something being taught is important I think that pictures could also be added just to make the website more appealing. By making the web site more appealing children are more likely to want to go there and explore. Although the idea of focusing on key content is important because if the site does not focus on what it said it would, it can be very misleading for teachers, I think that teachers should always double check sites. As a teacher we should have already explored the web site to make sure it actually is teaching what we want it to be teaching. As a teacher we should make sure that the web site is what we want and not rely on what the web site says or someones opinion because everyone's perspectives are different.
I think that some of the seven indicators would be of some use, but as a whole I don't think they would be of great use. I don't think that a site has to be prestigious for it to necessarily be a good site and a useful tool for teachers. I'm a little confused on what would make a site 'prestigious' any how. I've seen multiple cases where I'm getting information from a reputable source and then when reading the information from another reputable source, the information is slightly skewed to portray the information in a way that would best work for what that site is trying to promote. So even though I think that the seven indicators can be somewhat useful, I don't think they're of great use.
Question 1:
The first one that would be the most useful would be Appropriate Pedegogical Guidance, especially as a beginning teacher. I don't have a lot of the resources and experience, so those types of things are absolutley what I'll need as a beginning teacher. The one I think is the second most useful is Readability of text. If you don't understand something it's so much harder to complete, so you need something that will actually make sense, and not so difficult it would be of no use to you.
One I think is the least useful is Appropriate inclusion of graphics/images, not because it would never be useful, just that there are others that are more important. The second least useful one I chose is, Well Designed/robust instructor support. I think that this one is of lesser importance, becuase if the activity is good, and the students understand and enjoy it, then the teacher doesn't necessarily have to be "robust." It would definitely be helpful, but overall not the most important.
Question #1:
Of the twelve criteria teachers use to evaluate the educational quality of digital resources, I think that number one and number five. I think a good general setup is most useful. It needs to allow the user to engage with it with minimal effort and without previous knowledge of how web resources work. If the user can't figure out how to even get started, how can the user learn anything from the activity? I think the inclusion of interactive/hands on activities is also more useful than the rest of the dimensions of educational quality because this is where real learning takes place. Interaction promotes deep learning in a user. The user will remember better what he/she learns from the digital resource if they have to put some sort of effort into it.
The least useful of these dimensions I think are number ten and number six. Number ten is not essential, for learning to take place in the user. If something is blatantly untrue that your activity is trying to teach to the user, the teacher will hopefully know and correct. The user probably will not look up the references as part of the learning activity. Number six I also chose as the least useful because having support for instructor's facilitation of activities seems less useful than being able to actually read the text or use the resource effectively. If the resource has a good general set-up support for the instructors facilitation of activities becomes even less useful.
Question 1:
I think the two elements that are going to be most useful to me as a teacher are: Age Appropriateness and General good set up. I chose these two dimensions because I think that if a teacher is going to have a class full of students and she is allowing all the students to go the internet the sites where she sends them to navigate on their own need to be age-appropriate and also user friendly so the students can explore and investigate without teacher assistance. This way the teacher will be using less time helping students get to the assignment and more time helping them with the content of the assignment.
The two dimensions that I thought to be the least useful are: Appropriate Inclusion of Graphics and Provides Access to Reliable Links. I think these two dimensions are very important, but when I am a teacher and with the age of children I will be teaching and their level of skill I think these two dimensions would be least important to me. I can see other teachers who are teaching other age ranges or different content that these two dimensions might be the most important.
Question 2:
I think that I would find websites with useful information using these predictive indicators. When you are looking at a website you want one that is going to relate to your topic while offering good reliable sources. If you follow these predictive indicators when looking at a website you will find a great website that the students will be able to learn from and have fun while doing it. I always find that the quicker I can find things out the better. Because if its to hard I won't stay there I will go to another website to find the answer. And I am sure so will some of my students. So by following these perdictive indicators I will be able to find a good reliable website that is fast and one that the students can find the answer to the questions posed without to much trouble.
Question 1:
After reading over the twelve dimensions of educational quality that teachers use to evaluate digital resources, I found that all of them are equally important to consider. However, two of the most useful qualities, in my opinion would have to be, include having a digital recourse that draws connections to real world applications/problem solving, and a user friendly set up, or good general set up. Real world applications are important because it allows students to understand why the information is important and how they can use it again in the future; being able to draw a connection from relevant information to a students “real world” also allows for deep learning. Having a good general set up is very important because it allows for more effective learning to take place. When students struggle with the actual use of technology it becomes a huge distraction and sometimes even a barrier for learning.
While all the dimensions are beneficial, having a digital resource that reflects source authority and includes graphics or images seem to be the least useful for the evaluation process. Graphics are great and can even support more interactive learning, but they are not necessary for learning retaining the actual content.
I think having the indicators is good to use at first to establish what it is you're looking for in a website. After a while, though, I think I should pretty much know what I'm looking for without having to resort to a written grading chart. Whether I want to use a website in a lesson would require me to thoroughly investigate the potential candidates. First, the websites would be "screened" so as to rule out the ones that definitely don't meet the criteria that can be reflected in the indicators, but after I narrow it down, I'd really want to check out each website head to toe to see if I should actually use it in the classroom.
Question #2
Yes, using the predictive indicators from Table 3 to rate websites would give useful information to teachers. Yes, information on these predictive indicators would help me, as a teacher. Yes, I would use and online resource because it is usualy some of the most up to date information, it is easy to access, and also it is easy to incorperate in what you are indevering to do.
Sarah Bedard
Question 2
I do think the indicators in Table 3 to rate websites are useful to teachers. These are all good indicators of a good and useful website. If I were to use it I would have to rate the indicators with what I thought were in important. For example if the website I was looking at had all the indicators except for the 2 publisher indicators I would still use the website. But overall I think those would be thing people would look for in a website naturally when looking for something educational to use, so I do believe the indicators are useful.
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