Indicator 4.a Collaborate with educators to develop authentic, active learning experiences that foster student agency, deepen content mastery and allow students to demonstrate their competency.
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WebQuest: Digital Learning
What I Did ✅:
For this artifact, I chose a WebQuest that was designed to be an authentic and interactive digital learning experience. The science topic was a big concept Is It Alive? and the task was to create and collaborate with a teaching team to provide an interactive and digital learning model which also offered a step-by-step individualized process that then leads to a final working project and presentation. Using the web tool Weebly, I was able to create a project with outlined tasks for learning, defined the standards with which it connected, had components of deepening mastery and included a final animal poster project presentation which also demonstrated the mastery of their chosen topic. It covered a variety of cross-curricular needs including ELA and allowed for artistic, creative and hands-on applications.
What I Learned 🧠:
This activity is the perfect way to collaborate with a specific team of teachers using a platform like Weebly to create a structured learning task that can be scaffolded to meet the needs of the learners at a variety of levels. In today's world where learning happens virtually, in-person, and also needs to utilize hands-on applications this seemed like the perfect option. It is easily sharable and adaptable and covers cross-curricular standards for more bang for your buck. It can be challenging to develop activities that challenge the deepening mastery portion of learning so it is important to build a process that can be self-directed over time with specific tasks. Here is where I learned the importance of scaffolding and that it can be broken down in this manner with a digital format. I learned how valuable this can be during virtual learning in which the parent is also a partner in learning. By using a WebQuest, the essential question can help support student motivation in a fun and motivating way through self-guided, real-life resources. It is challenging enough yet inquiry-oriented to encourage higher-ordered thinking.
How I Will Grow 🌱:
I would like to explore other areas to use a WebQuest beyond a Science topic. I would like to incorporate more topics of interest with social studies and language arts, perhaps using book studies. Using the simple template and design that I created, I am able to work with my colleagues in the future to create projects that can incorporate more topics and the "at home" piece with families support. I would like to explore more ways that an activity like this can expand beyond digital learning after the computer is shut down and be incorporated into the REAL world in an interactive and cooperative learning model. The end goal for me to continue to reflect on is less screen time and more hands-on time.
"Research has shown that highest motivation and learning occurs when the teacher sets goals but the student have latitude in deciding how they will reach the goals" (Vasquez, Sneider, and Comer, 2013).
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