Chapter 2 Response

1.Google reader was the avenue I used to create my RSS feed. The video made it very simple to do and I never realized how may websites I am able to get a continuous feed from. I feel like I am becoming more and more technology savvy. Like the video tells, it really does save so much time to have all of the news from my favorite blogs and sites streaming into one place. I plan to utilize the reader on a daily basis starting now.

2.Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus- This website, although creative is not a legitimate site and does not contain accurate or true content. In evaluating the website, I noticed that much of the content was written with a sarcastic or joking tone. For example, asking to make donations to the fund says to stand in a forest and wait until you the see the alleged tree octopus and hand them a one dollar bill. Although this is very creative and entertaining, it is not true and should not be believed. Upon initially entering the site, the visual appearance of the site seemed legitimate but the exaggerated language led me to believe otherwise. Also, the information is not backed by any college, university, or organization; it is simply set up by Lyle Zapato. In fact when I googled the organization that it is allegedly affiliated with, many websites that are dedicated to the deletion of fake websites came up. All of these factors led me to believe that this site was neither legitimate nor credible.

Martin Luther King Jr.- A True Historical Examination- Along with the first website, this site is not legitimate or credible. The information is provided by Stormfront.org which is a World Wide White Pride organization, which obviously has no authority in the field of civil rights or Black history. The website has an extremely political, bias, and racist agenda. The subject matter is completely opinion and it has no resource list or bibliography. The intention of the website is clear: to create even more hatred in a world that is working against that. This website is not only illegitimate but offensive.


Dog Island Free Forever- This site is also not credible. At first glance, this site appears to be real due to its set-up and support from google. However, after reading some of the content, it is clear that the website is a joke. When evaluating the organization that backed the website, I saw that it had a disclaimer which stated that the website was created in jest. Also, the site was created in 2003 and does not seem to be updated except for the “weather” since then. All of these points led to the conclusion that this website is full of false information.

All About Explorers- This website seemed the most legitimate out of all of the other sites so far. The graphics were good and the content followed the logic that it said it would. The authors even seemed to have the authority to write the content, although it was a group of teachers instead of a university or organization, I initially thought this was enough of a viable source. When exploring the website further and looking at the different explorer pages, just from my own repertoire of knowledge I quickly realized that none of the information provided on each of the explorers were true. In fact the information was absolutely ridiculous. When I went on to the page entitled “About the Site” I discovered that the site was created like this purposefully to help students identify faulty and unhelpful sites. The group of teachers who created this site intended it to be faulty to help teach students how to identify fake sites that seem real, similar to this one. Although the site had false content, its intentions were good.

History of Robots in the Victorian Era- This website was a great deal more challenging for me to identify as legitimate or not. Upon evaluation, I noticed that the site was not backed by a university or organization, rather by a man named Paul Guinan whose email was provided to answer any questions. Also, although some of the dates and facts appeared to be correct according to my prior knowledge, there were no listed resources or bibliography. The websites visual content and construction appeared to be well and professionally done but the content was less appealing. Also, the web address was silly, “bigredhair,” and also a .com site which means anyone can create it. Although this website took more time, I concluded it as false.

Di Hydrogen Monoxide Research Division- The websites seem to become increasingly harder to tell. This website is also false. When evaluating whether or not the website was backed by an organization or university, I was thrown off by the fact that it has a United States Environmental Assessment Center icon. I had never heard of this before, but assumed it was a true organization. Also, the website had an .org address, which usually tend to be more reliable websites. What led me to believe that the website was false however was the fact that it was trying to sell certain things such as t-shirts and books. Also, the author of the website is also the author of a chapter in a “South Park” book which leads me to believe that he does not have the authority to be writing about Di Hydrogen Monoxide. Finally, there is a note at the bottom of the page that states that content veracity is not implied, meaning that the information provided is not necessarily true.

The First Human Male Pregnancy- When evaluating this website, I saw that it is backed by the RYT Hospital and Dwayne Medical Center. However, in all of its research there is no list of resources or a bibliography. Although the content seems to make a good deal of sense and flow well with the visuals and graphics, there is nothing substantial to back up the content. It also seems as though the hospital may have vested interest or a bias due to the fact that they are the origin of discovery. Of course they are going to want to make this look as viable as possible to credit their name. However, due to the lack if evidence and the gaps in logic this website is also full of content that is not reliable.

The wto.org is the correct World Trade Organization website. Several things led me to this conclusion. First, it had the more “normal” web address. For an organization as big as The World Trade Organization, I would imagine that it would have the option of having its initials for its site address. Secondly, it had a great deal of resources available to help navigate around and within the site as well as backing much of its information. The site also follows a logical presentation and sequence. The contact information for the site was actually through the World Trade Organization and had no third party resource. Although the other site looked very similar to the real one, its links directed me all over the place proving that the second site was the true one.

3.Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level: 3rd
I had a very challenging time finding many web based scavenger hunts that were relative to my grade and content area. I found about 15 through the Scholastic website. However, of the 15 I found none of them seemed to promote much meaningful learning. For example, the ones I chose to try all posed a question and then gave a link of exactly where that specific answer could be found. There was really no hunt because the hunt was already done. How can meaningful learning be expected when the students do not really have to interact with or evaluate the information on their own. The website with the answer is given to them and no student is going to search somewhere else when they already have the answer provided. Also, these also seemed to reinforce the idea of “learning from technology” rather than “learning with technology” perpetuating the idea that we as educators need to overcome.

4.I chose to do a webquest on Women in America. This webquest required students to get in groups of 4 and each student in the group would do research and a presentation on one of 4 famous women in history. Then they will present to their group and as a group will choose one woman who they will propose to put on a stamp. When looking at Johanssen’s criteria for a well designed webquest, it met several of them. It does incorporate cooperative learning considering that the students will be working both individually and in a group. It also incorporates multiple learning perspectives. The students will each have to do their own research and come up with conclusions individually, but then collectively, incorporating multiple perspectives, pick a woman who deserves to be on the stamp based on the qualities researched. Also, it incorporates the analysis and synthesis of information. Students will have to synthesize what they collect individually as a collective whole to analyze what female deserves the honor. It requires the creation of original products to a certain extent. Although students have to create their own proposal on their specific female, it would be very easy to just regurgitate the information they find, taking away from the creativity and originality of the product. Also, although it is student-directed due to the decision-making power, it is not very open-ended. Students have a pretty limited selection of females and have a specific set of ideas that are implied to be abided by. Overall, the webquest is pretty good but could use improvement in some of the most important areas.

5.This particular teacher used a handheld when conducting DIBELS testing. She did not have enough handhelds for the entire class so if they were used in class they were used in partners, which she stated was not ideal. They were used for things such as virtual flashcards, looking up words in the dictionary, and watching short films or videos relating to specific content. When evaluating the use of the handheld for the DIBELS testing, it did not allow her to do something new, rather it allowed her to do something she could do before better. It made DIBELS testing more accurate, easier to track, easier to record, and seemingly less stressful for the students. When it came to using the handhelds with students, the teacher believed that it just made already available resources more accessible. When she used them in the classroom, she was using them more as a means to learn from technology rather than learn with.

6. The Zoomerang survey program used seemed very similar to the survey monkey program I have become familiar with in the past.