WebQuests, and some confusion about the advantages of different platforms

Webquest assignments, as a concept, were nothing new to me coming into class today, although I had never heard that term before.  The idea of giving students a task, and then providing them with a list of tools and resources with which to pursue a solution is definitely in line with the philosophy of my school, and with the way I try to present my class.  I like the idea of presenting that as an entirely web-based assignment, and I look forward to exploring how I can integrate the idea into my class.

The question that remains in my head, after class this afternoon, is about platforms*.   Dr. Merchant stressed that a website was preferable to something like a Google Doc, but I'm still unsure of her specific reasons.  She listed several capabilities associated with websites, but I didn't hear any that aren't possible in Google Docs as well.  She initially mentioned an advantage in being able to have things on separate pages, but then said best practice was to have the task and resources on the same page.  I'm sure there are some real advantages to a website format over a Google Doc for webquest assignments, but so far, I'm not sure what they are.





*I know Dr. Merchant argued early in the semester that the term platform should be reserved for the hardware being used (PC v. Mac, etc.), but I think on this front she's wrong.  That may have been true at one point, but popular usage now refers to Blogger, Wordpress, Google Docs, etc. as web-platforms, and so I don't see a problem in referring to them as such.

Frustrated

A whole lesson on Microsoft Word?  This hardly seems worth graduate school tuition....

Weeks 1-3

I'm anxious to get into the meat of the course.  While I can appreciate the need for a pedagogical framework, I always tend to enjoy the specifics of my courses more than the broad theories, and I expect this course to be no different.  I enrolled in this course (and, in fact, in this program) to gain specific insights into integrating different technologies into my classroom, and that's what I'm hoping to get to soon.

Thus far, we seem to have focused on the philosophical concept of students as researchers in a technological classroom.  This connected well with me, as this type of approach matches well with the general approach of my workplace:  give the students the tools they will need, teach them how to use them, guide them to asking the right questions, and then allow them to pursue the answers they seek.  I look forward to gaining more insight on how to effectively give my students the tools they need to be researchers in my classroom.

Blog It!

Collected on this blog will be my thoughts, reflections, and reactions from the ITEC 815 course.