Response to Ch. 2

2. - The “Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus” website does not seem like a reliable website. My reasons for saying this are:
o I cannot find any information on who made this website except that: “This site is not associated with any school or educational organization, other than the Kelvinic University branch of the Wild Haggis Conservation Society.” → the sight is not published by an organization that I recognize.
o When I was trying to check the source, the site it is connected with is Zapato Productions Intradimensional, and it says “Your source for conspiracies and other diversions.” → So does that mean that the Pacific Northwest tree octopus is a conspiracy?
o I didn’t find any bibliography.
- The “Martin Luther King Jr. - A True Historical Examination” website also does not seem to be a reliable website:
o The website seems to have a strong bias against MLK (and black people in general) – it is hosted by “Stormfront” – whose logo is “White Pride World Wide”.
o There is no bibliography, and there seems to be no date of when it was updated/created.
- “Dog Island Free Forever” – this website seems ridiculous.
o Xiao Min is the “founder/president” of this dog island. He seems to just want your dog.
o One reason I wouldn’t trust this site is because the only contact information there is e-mail – no phone number or address. There is no company name or information or affiliation.
- “All about explorers” – this seems like a reliable source to me because there is a page that tells about the authors of the website, there is a date when it was last updated (May ‘07), there is a page telling about the site, it has been featured in several different resources.
- History of Robots in the Victorian Era” – from what I can tell, this website doesn’t seem to be very reliable. It seems like the authors of the webpage are artists and writers, and they don’t seem to be experts on robots. They aren’t affiliated with an organization that I could find.
- Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division – this seems to be a credible enough resource. It is linked to the United States Environmental Association Center. They are doing research on DHMO.
- “The First Human Male Pregnancy” – This seems to be a legitimate website, a part of RYT Hospital, Dwayne Medical Center. You can read all about them and it seems to be a sophisticated webpage.
- I think that www.wto.org is the legitmate World Trade organization website because it is set up better, it has an actual address (in Switzerland) of how to contact them, resources, and it just seems legitimate!
3. I only found 4 or 5 scavenger hunts for 3rd grade science. None of them really promoted meaningful learning – they just were basically go to this website and look for the answer and fill in the blank.
4. http://questgarden.com/46/59/1/070212084545/process.htm This webquest seems to be very good. It does have some guidelines, but students have the opportunity to do what they want within those guidelines. I would say this one can be student-directed. It incorporates cooperative learning – with another student, and also with the internet and other resources. Another important key is that they are creating, analyzing, and synthesizing information.
5. Barron Elementary School is using handhelds in their classrooms to expose all children (from all backgrounds) to this type of technology. It allows students to incorporate music and art into their subjects, and do many different tasks.