I started off this week in high spirits. I had ordered a computer room for my students and was all set to let them try out the webquest I had created for this course. My webquest is on the origin of the expression "Before you can say Jack Robinson" and I was really excited about having them go through it.
The result, however, was quite disappointing. First of all, I had not taken into account that for them too, this was their first webquest and they had no idea how to navigate the site. As Simon and Garfinkel sang "Slow down, you move too fast". Thankfully, I understood this right away and concentrated their attention to the board on which I projected the site and gave initial explanations, something I should have done from the start.
The next hurdle was a broken link in the quest which I had to fix on the spot. This took me longer than expected with students sitting and waiting for me. Bad, very bad.
But the biggest problem was that the quest turned out to be badly constructed, confusing and with an abundance of hyperlinks that only steered the students in the wrong way. In short; a total disaster. Students didn't understand what they were expected to do and even worse – lost total interest in the whole idea.
The word "disappointed" comes from "dis" and "appoint" originally meaning "to undo an appointment or to remove someone from an appointed position" – this obviously is a rather "disappointing" experience. To "appoint" comes from the Old French "a" (=to) "point". The ground sense here is "to come to the point" hence to agree on something, to settle something.
Taking this knowledge into consideration I understood that my Webquest must be clearer and more "to the point". I have therefore edited it and changed it considerably to guide students more and hopefully get them to where I want. This will in its turn, I pray, lead also to more student satisfaction. The revamped webquest can be found here. I will try it out with another group of students and keep you posted.
Hi Avraham,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear that you had so many problems. You don't have to get disappointed. Whatever happens try to find something positive there.
When you found that your WebQuest didn't respond the way you had planned you made it "clearer and more to the point". You brought the change and made the quest easier to use. So, this is the positive side.
I am sure the other group of students will be able to do all the tasks and enjoy all the activities.
Keep up the good work!
Best wishes,
Elmira.
Hi Avraham,
ReplyDeleteI also had one thing from my project that made feel kind of dissapointed with myself. In my case I had planned this week to use the blog I have for my 4th grade,but...not all the kids were able to create their blog. When I said that a blog was going to be one of my tools to implement in my classes I did not take into account that blogger.com requires users to be older than 18. so, tomorrow I'm planning to solve this issue.
I'm sure you'll succeed this week
regards,
Yariela
I think it was the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright who said "We Do Not Learn So Much By Our Successes As We Learn By Failures--Our Own and Others'."
ReplyDeleteBy sharing your disappointment hopefully we can all learn.
Robert