WebQuest and its learning points
Alright, after 5 days of craziness, the Coastal Management WebQuest is finally up and running.
I can finally take a deep breath and take a short break before I run off to settle the up and coming GESL Camp with the Deyi students.
This WebQuest was actually conceptualised way before the deadline. Yingqian and me had a rough idea of what we wanted to do- focusing on Coastal Management strategies and their effectiveness. We foolishly thought that WebQuest will be far more simple than the last ICT package that we had to do. But no... when we started proper, we realised that it was really plenty of hard work in searching for suitable websites and thinking of challenging scenarios for students to play around with. We wanted to create a scenario which may be relevant to the students' daily lives; which was why we thought of getting them to imagine themselves to be in the role of residents living near a coastal area. Better than getting them to be government officials, environmentalists etc. I think these roles are being over-used to the point that it scream boring to students.
Another reason why we focused on this topic was also because we wanted students to realise that coastal management is extremely important to Singapore. This may not be impact upon their lives directly, but we wanted to drive home the point that coastal management structures are here in Singapore and they play an important role in protecting our beaches like East Coast Park etc. I think this is really essential and necessary so that students will realise that this is relevant to their lives, and with their grasp of such geographical knowledge, they would be able to do something about it in the near future by creating awareness their friends and family members. If not, at the very least they are able to take something concrete back home. Hopefully with this WebQuest, students will see Geography in a different light and accord it with as much respect as they give to other more 'pragmatic' subjects like the Sciences.
The purpose of this WebQuest also serves to stretch the students' thinking skills and creativity. They will be asked to evaluate the effectiveness of coastal protection measures. Thereafter, they are to design a pamphlet or website to convince other residents of their solutions. In a way, the WebQuest activity has plenty of 'teachable' moments. By getting students to vote for the best solutions, they would have subconsciously picked up the ideals and importance of having public participation in policy-making as well as the importance of having fair and democratic decision-making processes. Politics with a small 'p', not with a capital 'P'. I know this is somehow idealistic of me to think that it may be possible for them to pick up or at least have some basic understanding of the importance of such ideals in the running of a society. But, one must have hope right? In a way, this is NE, in a very subtle way. Then again, there is the constraint of them having such ideals in schools but rapidly realising that such ideals are almost impossible in reality leading to the rapid descend towards apathy. But if we do not take the risk, we will never move forward, right?
Another one of my life'sphilosophy. Heh.
Let's talk about the technical stuff now. Making a website may seem deceptively simple. Usually I will tend to think, 'Oh, just make lor'. But after this experience (and a very good learning experience too), I realised that making a website can be very tedious. Geocities is simple to use. But I realised that Dreamweaver is definitely the most user-friendly programme to use. Alas, time was not on our side, or I would confidently suggest using the latter. Firstly, it was tedious when Geocities do not have grids, which means that the task of aligning bullet points and links was an extremely difficult one for me. Secondly, the Yahoo server can be quite cranky at times. I gave up making the site on FireFox after a few first tries. IE was much better. But, there were trouble saving the work at times, which wasted us quite a bit of time transferring our stuff from Word to Geocities and vice versa. Well, in terms of functions and features, Dreamweaver definitely had more and much advanced ones. Flash anyone?? It would also be much easier to do everything offline and then transferring the file to a server. I was put off by the jargon in Dreamweaver. What's the difference between 'html' and 'xhtml'? It was the fear of technology and the frightening thought of losing my work if I saved the file under the wrong code that made me and Yingqian chose Geocities.
I did not have the confidence to do it on Dreamweaver. I did not have the confidence to tell her that I will be able to do it with the mentioned software. There were many learning points during this steep learning journey. 1) I finally understood the fears that many of the older generation griped about with new technology. 2) I realised that in my course of teaching, I need to be very aware and confident of what I am going to impart to my students. If I do not appear to be confident to them, how are they going to buy in my ideas? Being a teacher is just like a salesman job, except that we sell ideas and not merchandise. 3) Building up of resources and thinking of captivating activities for students to do is no easy task. The younger generation are always more dynamic and more technology in-sync than a majority of us. (I feel so old now) It really requires a lot of effort from the teachers to stay at the same pace as them, if not stay a step ahead of them. The classroom environment is everchanging. Humans are everchanging. But humans also have a tendency to remain in their comfortable niches.
As the saying goes, 'If Mohammad doesn't go to the mountain, the mountain will come to Mohammad.' If students do not respond to our teaching techniques, then we must respond and change to capture their heart and soul. Sounds easy, but as illustrated in this WebQuest journey, this is not easy. It would seem unfair that teachers have to do the bulk of the adaption to students' needs. Why not students? Do we really need to treat them as our clients and potential customers in order to do our jobs? I will be highly disturbed the majority has this perception. Majority i.e. the official view. Are we to molly coddle our students and to serve them like kings and queens in school when in reality, the world does not care a hoot about them at all? However, from a macro point of view, the world is everchanging too. Technology is always advancing and the young are sold by such new ways of doing things. So does that mean that students are always right and teachers should always adapt to their cultures and habits in order to reach out and teach them?
Take for example, the use of powerpoint. Students are increasingly visual and virtual learners because of advances in technology. (Hell, I have just started to learn how to use an iPod nanno, which I am sure many teenagers are totally adept in using it) I am rapidly realising that the powerpoint could be (or already is) the upgraded blackboard/whiteboard where we just teach from there. Can the web be one day be the virtual blackboard? It would seem so, judging on how reliant and desperate we are in terms of having to do assignments in NIE that are ICT-related. Yes, the web and technology can be used to create a student-centred learning environment. But I fear the day when we go to school pondering, 'What's next after the Web?' for students to really 'enjoy' their learning. Telecommunications? Teaching through MSN? Webcast? Podcast?
Good luck to us all in our teaching careers.
I can finally take a deep breath and take a short break before I run off to settle the up and coming GESL Camp with the Deyi students.
This WebQuest was actually conceptualised way before the deadline. Yingqian and me had a rough idea of what we wanted to do- focusing on Coastal Management strategies and their effectiveness. We foolishly thought that WebQuest will be far more simple than the last ICT package that we had to do. But no... when we started proper, we realised that it was really plenty of hard work in searching for suitable websites and thinking of challenging scenarios for students to play around with. We wanted to create a scenario which may be relevant to the students' daily lives; which was why we thought of getting them to imagine themselves to be in the role of residents living near a coastal area. Better than getting them to be government officials, environmentalists etc. I think these roles are being over-used to the point that it scream boring to students.
Another reason why we focused on this topic was also because we wanted students to realise that coastal management is extremely important to Singapore. This may not be impact upon their lives directly, but we wanted to drive home the point that coastal management structures are here in Singapore and they play an important role in protecting our beaches like East Coast Park etc. I think this is really essential and necessary so that students will realise that this is relevant to their lives, and with their grasp of such geographical knowledge, they would be able to do something about it in the near future by creating awareness their friends and family members. If not, at the very least they are able to take something concrete back home. Hopefully with this WebQuest, students will see Geography in a different light and accord it with as much respect as they give to other more 'pragmatic' subjects like the Sciences.
The purpose of this WebQuest also serves to stretch the students' thinking skills and creativity. They will be asked to evaluate the effectiveness of coastal protection measures. Thereafter, they are to design a pamphlet or website to convince other residents of their solutions. In a way, the WebQuest activity has plenty of 'teachable' moments. By getting students to vote for the best solutions, they would have subconsciously picked up the ideals and importance of having public participation in policy-making as well as the importance of having fair and democratic decision-making processes. Politics with a small 'p', not with a capital 'P'. I know this is somehow idealistic of me to think that it may be possible for them to pick up or at least have some basic understanding of the importance of such ideals in the running of a society. But, one must have hope right? In a way, this is NE, in a very subtle way. Then again, there is the constraint of them having such ideals in schools but rapidly realising that such ideals are almost impossible in reality leading to the rapid descend towards apathy. But if we do not take the risk, we will never move forward, right?
Another one of my life'sphilosophy. Heh.
Let's talk about the technical stuff now. Making a website may seem deceptively simple. Usually I will tend to think, 'Oh, just make lor'. But after this experience (and a very good learning experience too), I realised that making a website can be very tedious. Geocities is simple to use. But I realised that Dreamweaver is definitely the most user-friendly programme to use. Alas, time was not on our side, or I would confidently suggest using the latter. Firstly, it was tedious when Geocities do not have grids, which means that the task of aligning bullet points and links was an extremely difficult one for me. Secondly, the Yahoo server can be quite cranky at times. I gave up making the site on FireFox after a few first tries. IE was much better. But, there were trouble saving the work at times, which wasted us quite a bit of time transferring our stuff from Word to Geocities and vice versa. Well, in terms of functions and features, Dreamweaver definitely had more and much advanced ones. Flash anyone?? It would also be much easier to do everything offline and then transferring the file to a server. I was put off by the jargon in Dreamweaver. What's the difference between 'html' and 'xhtml'? It was the fear of technology and the frightening thought of losing my work if I saved the file under the wrong code that made me and Yingqian chose Geocities.
I did not have the confidence to do it on Dreamweaver. I did not have the confidence to tell her that I will be able to do it with the mentioned software. There were many learning points during this steep learning journey. 1) I finally understood the fears that many of the older generation griped about with new technology. 2) I realised that in my course of teaching, I need to be very aware and confident of what I am going to impart to my students. If I do not appear to be confident to them, how are they going to buy in my ideas? Being a teacher is just like a salesman job, except that we sell ideas and not merchandise. 3) Building up of resources and thinking of captivating activities for students to do is no easy task. The younger generation are always more dynamic and more technology in-sync than a majority of us. (I feel so old now) It really requires a lot of effort from the teachers to stay at the same pace as them, if not stay a step ahead of them. The classroom environment is everchanging. Humans are everchanging. But humans also have a tendency to remain in their comfortable niches.
As the saying goes, 'If Mohammad doesn't go to the mountain, the mountain will come to Mohammad.' If students do not respond to our teaching techniques, then we must respond and change to capture their heart and soul. Sounds easy, but as illustrated in this WebQuest journey, this is not easy. It would seem unfair that teachers have to do the bulk of the adaption to students' needs. Why not students? Do we really need to treat them as our clients and potential customers in order to do our jobs? I will be highly disturbed the majority has this perception. Majority i.e. the official view. Are we to molly coddle our students and to serve them like kings and queens in school when in reality, the world does not care a hoot about them at all? However, from a macro point of view, the world is everchanging too. Technology is always advancing and the young are sold by such new ways of doing things. So does that mean that students are always right and teachers should always adapt to their cultures and habits in order to reach out and teach them?
Take for example, the use of powerpoint. Students are increasingly visual and virtual learners because of advances in technology. (Hell, I have just started to learn how to use an iPod nanno, which I am sure many teenagers are totally adept in using it) I am rapidly realising that the powerpoint could be (or already is) the upgraded blackboard/whiteboard where we just teach from there. Can the web be one day be the virtual blackboard? It would seem so, judging on how reliant and desperate we are in terms of having to do assignments in NIE that are ICT-related. Yes, the web and technology can be used to create a student-centred learning environment. But I fear the day when we go to school pondering, 'What's next after the Web?' for students to really 'enjoy' their learning. Telecommunications? Teaching through MSN? Webcast? Podcast?
Good luck to us all in our teaching careers.
posted by The neo-Geographer at Friday, November 24, 2006
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