Katie T_Inquiry Project 1

8/14/2019 Katie T_Inquiry Project 1

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Inquiry Project:A Look at Student Internet Use

Katie Todd

CEP 806

Fall 2008


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Ideas for Inquiry

What is the best way for mystudents to use the internetas a resource tool?

How effectively do studentsuse the internet to findinformation on a giventopic?

Do students know how toevaluate a web site as

useful or not? Do students understand how

large the web is? As B.C.Bruce mentions in Twenty-First Century Literacy, theweb is a gigantic book the

docuverse or the universeof knowledge.


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Predictions on Student Internet Use

In past experiences, I have

observed students use the

internet as a quick way tofind information.

Students tended to find all

their information from the

first site that came up on a

search. Students did notvisit multiple sites.

Students do not evaluate if a

site is a good resource or

not.


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Explanations for my Predictions

Students want to finish their work quickly and

may not complete tasks in an efficientmanner.

Students may not be aware of the way

search results appear on a search engine.

Students may believe everything on the

internet is a good resource to them.


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How is this Inquiry Significant to my

Teaching?

The internet can be a valuable tool to the many tasksstudents do in Spanish class as well as other subject

areas. I want my students to be effective internet users and

searchers. As B.C. Bruce mentions in the Credibility of the Web,

there are many online resources, real-time video,radio stations, reference tools, encyclopedias,dictionaries, thesauri, quotes, poetry, short stories,images, music, current evens, data, interactivesoftware. Students should be aware of how to utilize

these resources.


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Class Background Information

I teach elementary Spanish to grades 1-5.

I meet with each class for 25 minuteseveryday.

I do not directly teach science, however we

cover some science related topics.

My inquiry project will be conducted with my

4th grade students.


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Inquiry Plan Description

4th grade Spanish students complete a unit on SouthAmerica. We will be discussing the Amazon

Rainforest and the many animals that live there. Students will be given a sheet of questions to answer

about animals in the rainforest. Students are given 4 websites to visit and evaluate if

they will be helpful to find the required information.

Each website will be slightly different in content,amount of text and pictures. Students will record their answers and which site

they used.


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Example Questions for Students

1. What mammals are found in the AmazonRainforest?

2. What reptiles live in the Amazon Rainforest?

3. What kind of animal is a capybara?

4. What birds live in the Amazon Rainforest?

5. Which website did you feel was most helpful to find

information? Why?6. Which website did you feel was not very helpful to

find information? Why?


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Inquiry Plan Description

I will be observing students in the computer lab,listening to what they say about each site and notice

which site they spend the most time at. On the following day, we will revisit the sites as a

class. We will discuss which websites were helpfuland which ones were not. Students will also expresswhich sites they liked the best. We will discuss whatto look for when evaluation a website with ideas fromhttp://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Inter
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.htmlhttp://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html


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Predictions and Explanations

Students will most likely spend a lot of time

looking at the captivating pictures of therainforest animals. Many of the students are

visual learners.

Students will stay away from the site with all

text. It is too difficult for them to skim throughthe page and find the answers to the

questions.


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Data Patterns

The sites that were least helpful to studentswere:http://www.kidskonnect.com/content/view/96/and http://www2.lhric.org/kat/3rain.htm .Students explained that they could not findanything on the sites. These sites contained

a long list of topics with no pictures. Many ofthe links on the second site were notworking.

Students realized that all web sites were not

good sites.
http://www.kidskonnect.com/content/view/96/27/http://www2.lhric.org/kat/3rain.htmhttp://www2.lhric.org/kat/3rain.htmhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/content/view/96/27/


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Data Patterns - Surprises

I was surprised that many students did not spend a

lot of time at http://kids.mongabay.com/ . I felt this

site had a lot of pictures and an easy to view layoutthat would attract the students. Only 3 students out

of 28, used this site to answer one question.

Of the 4 questions that students had to research, 25

out of 28 papers recorded the same website for allquestions answered.
http://kids.mongabay.com/http://kids.mongabay.com/


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Data Patterns - Surprises

One student did her own search of sites, other than

the ones I had given. She typed in capybara on

Google and found many sites. However on herpaper she did not even write the answer.

In the class discussion, students agreed that it was

important to be able to learn to use the internet.

Many students were only comfortable with using onewebsite or source of information.


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Inquiry Plan Reflection

My prediction was true in regards to students beingattracted to the website with colorful pictures.

However, I did not see too many students off taskand spending too much time looking at unnecessarypictures.

Having questions to answer helped keep thestudents focused on their assignment. If they werejust given one animal to research without a list ofquestions to think about, students may havestruggled more.


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I was surprised that most students only usedone site to answer all the questions. Ithought that with the 4 different sites,students would want to see what was oneach one.

It would be interesting to see how studentwould do without the given websites. Wouldstudents still find their information as easily?Would students still stay on one site?


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From this inquiry plan, it is evident that students atthe 4th grade level still need some instruction of how

to search online, how to evaluate websites and touse multiple sources of information. There is still a lot that I as a teacher need to learn

about the internet and technology to better preparemy students for the future. As Michael P. Freedmanmentions in A Tale of Plagiarism and A NewParadigm, It is time to create a new paradigm, onethat is in concert with the technologies and theteachers, students, and classrooms of today.

Documents

Katie T_Inquiry Project 1