A WebQuest Designed by Dr. Theresa
STEP ONE: Learn about the learning styles.
A. There are many different theories on learning styles. Memletics.com is a company that provides workshops on learning styles and sells the Memletics Accelerated Learning System. Asking you to review their materials is not an endorsement of their products, but they have well-researched information about learning styles that they have made available for free on the Web. There are many theories/ categories/ approaches about learning styles. You will find conflicting and differing information but that doesn't mean that one is right and one is wrong. The information presented by Memletics appears to be accurate and it is definitely easy to read, accessible and fun. Read their overview of learning styles. How much of their information seems plausible to you?
Take the learning styles inventory. It can be taken online or using Excel. There are 70 questions, but they're easy to answer.
ONLINE
EXCEL
B. Neil Fleming's group has a slightly different approach to learning styles. They only have four: visual, auditory, read/write, kinesthetic (VARK), and multimodal. Look through their help sheets on the various modalities. Notice how the helpsheets actually use the techniques for that modality to explain the modality. You will have to explain MEL in a way that is beneficial to a specific learning style. Get hints and ideas from this site. (Note: there is not a blog entry that goes with the VARK step of this WebQuest, but looking through the help sheets will help you with your final project later.)
Now that you are familiar with different theories of learning styles as well as different learning styles, determine which learning style you want to target: aural (auditory), physical (kinesthetic), or visual. Even though there are additional learning styles, Dr. Muir's RFP is only addressing these three.
STEP TWO: Learn a little about the three software products that you will choose from to create your digital presentation.
A. Look at the information pages on the three software products that you will be using at some point in this semester. Look at the samples of how they can be used in the classroom and look at the tutorial resources to determine which one you think you will enjoy learning and using for this project.
Decide which one-way digital presence type will best appeal to the learning style you have chosen and what tool you would like to use to create it from the choices listed above. You will use your new knowledge for Step 3.
STEP THREE: Submit your choices.
A. On the "contest entry form," (in the attachments section below) circle your first three combination choices. Each choice should be a combination of one learning style and one digital presence. For example: Visual and iMovie; or Physical and Comic Life. It's okay to have the same learning style but different digital tools in each of your choices, or to have a different learning style for each choice, but the same digital tool for each one. Submit your completed entry form before the application deadline.
B. Based on your choices on the contest entry form, you have been paired with a partner(s) with similar interests. Do the team building activity which includes deciding on a name for your Web 2.0 design company and creating a team contract. Report your findings to the procurement officer.
C. Brainstorm a list of characteristics of people with your targeted learning style and approaches that might make your product more appealing/interesting/successful for them. Then make a list of ways you could address that learning style with your final product. Submit this list to the procurement officer. [Note: you do not have to use all the ideas you brainstormed in your final product, this is just a way to show the procurement officer that you are a viable contender for the job.]
STEP FOUR: Learn about the Meaningful Engaged Learning Model
A. Based on your entry form information, you have been assigned to a Web 2.0 design team. You and your partner must acquaint yourself with the Meaningful Engaged Learning Model by reading the article** and studying the diagram. Some additional information from Dr. Mike Muir is available on his wiki page about Resources and Workshops related to Motivating Underachieving Students andMeaningful Engaged Learning. **NOTE: If this link isn't working, the procurement officer will make the article available to you via paper, email, Blackboard or some other means.
B. You will each reflect individually on the model. What learning experiences have you had that were good examples or non-examples of the components of the model? Make a blog entry titled "My MEL experiences." Give it labels of "MEL" and "CM". [In the labels area of your blog post, write the two labels and separate them with a comma. Don't put any quotation marks.] Share an example or non-example from your own experience as a learner for at least 5 of the 9 components. Make a bulleted list. In bold, state the component. After that tell your story. Here's a sample blog entry so you can see the formatting (it's not a complete example of the text, just the formatting).
STEP FIVE: Learn about Type I and Type II technologies in education and about the SAMR model.
A. Read the handout that you received about Type I and Type II technologies. Be prepared to discuss it with your colleagues.
B. Watch and listen to the presentation on the SAMR model and TPACK. Create a blog entry in which you
STEP SIX: Work with your partner(s) to create a digital presentation of the MEL model that addresses a specific learning style.
A. With your partner(s), create a digital presentation that will explain the Meaningful Engaged Learning model in a way that will appeal to a teacher who has your chosen modality. You can target teaching the model to someone who learns in that modality or focus on how the model applies to that learning style or both. Remember that your audience is a teacher who has never heard of Meaningful Engaged Learning. AND remember that you will not get a chance to say anything to the judges. They will view your product and it must speak for itself.
B. Be sure to respect intellectual property and use non-copyrighted media or get permission for the copyrighted media that you use. Also, be sure to give full credit on any media you do use: name of copyright owner, source (URL where you got it or other source), and copyright status ("All rights reserved. Used with permission.," "In the public domain," a Creative Commons license that allows sharing or remixing, "Permission pending," etc.). If you take your own photos or make your own music or film your own video, give yourself credit and state the copyright status for viewers who may want to use your media (do you want to reserve all rights? use a Creative Commons license? put it in the public domain?).
C. Submit your digital creation online to the contest entry page (artifact page on the class wiki) by the deadline stated in the RFP (see class agenda page). You may upload your product file to another site and post a link on the contest entry page. Your personal names should not appear on the presentation, only your company name (you don't want to sway the judges with personal bias). However, if your names need to appear in the credits of your production, please do so. Remember that your audience can be anyone in the world with an Internet connection. Consider making a self-explanatory Web presence that will give your viewers a context for your digital creation.
STEP SEVEN: You be the judge.
A. You have finished your role as a creator! Congratulations! Celebrate your accomplishment.
B. Now, take on a new role. On the day of the presentations, you will be one of the of leading Web 2.0-using educators invited to help Dr. Muir judge the entries. You could be Kelly Tenkely, Dan Meyer (focus on math, but fascinating for everyone), Vicki Davis, Wes Fryer, Lisa Nielsen, or Richard Byrne (from Maine!). Or you could be one of the winners of the Edublog Awards. You are someone who is knowledgeable about using technology to help learners learn in the ways of a digital native. Pick a Web 2.0-using educator (use one of the ones suggested or find your own...you could even find one in your concentration area). To learn more about this person and his/her thoughts on technology in education, read or listen to at least eight of that person's blog postings or other writings/creations. This is a stab in the dark. You may end up finding someone whose blog postings you didn't like or relate to. Feel free to find a new person, but it is not required that you take on the role of a Web 2.0-using educator that you admire, just a Web 2.0-using educator.
C. Write your own blog entry describing whose blog you picked, what seems to be his/her specialty, and what you think of his/her thoughts on technology and education. Use examples from the blog postings that you read to back up your opinions of the educational blogger that you selected. Include a link to the blog in your entry. Title the blog entry "Web 2.0 Educator" and label it "MEL" and "TI". [In the labels area of your blog post, write the two labels and separate them with a comma. Don't put any quotation marks.]
D. Dr. Muir invited you and many other Web 2.0 educators to be judges but everyone will do their judging on their own. But don't start until the appointed hour! Dr. Muir wants everyone to judge them in the same time frame and will give you instructions at that time. Since the entries are targeting an audience who is trying to learn about the Meaningful Engaged Learning model on the Web, the entries will not be presented, you will just click and read (or click and watch, or click and listen). You will be assigned a judge's number. You will be provided with judge's rating sheet (in the attachments section below) to rate each of the digital presentations.