Preparing Students for their Futures: The Value of Webquests in the Classroom

As you can see from the posts on this blog (and also in the name), technology will be the most prominent part of education in the future.  This can be anything from quicker access of information, to the way in which ideas are communicated to others.  The most important thing that a teacher needs to do to help prepare students for the future is to give them the skills to sift through a literal infinite database of information, while also showing them different options for conveying the significance and relevance of their findings.  Along with these technological skills, teachers need to instill a sense of social responsibility and “global community” within their students.  The webquest, “Why Good People do Bad Things,” accomplishes all of the above.  (This webquest can be found at gaperaser.wikispaces.com)

From a skills standpoint, the fundamental goals of this webquest are as follows:

1)   To familiarize students with a wide range of information sources

2)   To teach students to sift through large amounts of information for relative material

3)   To give students multiple ideas of how to communicate ideas and findings to other groups of people in a technological age

4)   Allow students to analyze the consequences of change in technology (i.e. the loss of privacy, but also the increased access to anonymous help outlets)

Students are given ample freedom and opportunity to accomplish all four of these goals within the webquest.  So let’s break the assignment down into parts, and take a look at how each goal is accomplished.  To start with, students are directed to a minimum of three websites in search of information.  At least one of these is a video pertaining to their psychological theory, while at least one other is the actual experiment report from the landmark study being used to describe a certain theory.  The other websites are anything from third party commentary to alternate interpretations of the theory.  Students are asked to sift through all of this information, analyze it, and decide both what is relevant and what is reliable.  Filling out a guided template of each individual theory helps students along.  This teaches the students how to assess a wide range of information for both validity and pertinence.

Another part of this webquest is to design a presentation geared towards a specific group of people: middle school students.  Psychology students are to create a presentation that informs middle school aged teens about each psychological theory, and how to discourage the negative outcomes that can be associated with each.  Students are first required to come with ideas about how to create situations and examples that are relatable to their audience.  Here they learn to adapt the way they convey their findings, in order to make it accessible to a specific group.  Students are also shown how to use a program called Glogster, which is an interactive online poster.  By using this new technology, students are compiling a group of skills that can be used in future presentations both in school and the workplace.  By learning how to imbed videos or link images to websites or other glogs, students are discovering new ways to communicate ideas.  While glogster might be specific to this presentation, the concepts behind it can be carried on through the future.

Lastly for the skills portion, students will analyze the consequences of advanced technology and figure out how to use it to their advantage.  The issues that will be specifically looked at are privacy and the role of anonymity in the Internet.  Students will be asked to create a forum for helping out middle school students, while addressing the pros and cons of increased technology to create these forums.  Students will be asked to address the decrease in anonymity amongst peers on the internet, while also taking a look at how this might benefit or negatively impact the lives of individuals.  By creating a wikispace as an anonymous help site, students will have realized that there are certain safeguards that must be placed on technological advances in order for them to improve the quality of life.

Socially, the goals of the webquest is as follows:

1)    Address the impact of new technologies on the quality of life

2)    Develop skills that address and evaluate critical issues

The former has been previously discussed when talking about the wiki online help space; the latter is what we will focus on now.  At its core, the goal of this webquest is to analyze three theories that explain why generally good people might act in a negative way, depending on their circumstance.  The three issues /theories that are to be discussed by the student are Obedience Theory, Bystander Effect, and Conformity.  Each of these three theories addresses actions that are encountered on a daily basis, which might be able to get altered.  These issues cross socio-economic and cultural lines, and can be seen virtually everywhere in the world.  These global actions can be detrimental to large groups of people (i.e. Conformity and Obedience in the Second World War, bystander apathy as can be seen in global or national events, etc).  Addressing these issues and how to deal with them is seen in the Glogster presentation, as well as the “take away” handout that each group is creating.  Included in both is the explanation of each theory and how it explains behavior, as well as suggestions for overcoming the pitfalls that succumbing to these theories might present.  Students will analyze the problems that are brought up and suggest alternative actions that can be taken to prevent such negative social behavior. 

In all, this webquest aims for, and I believe accomplishes, many important goals that translate to the future.  By combining both skills and social responsibility goals, the webquest provides students the opportunity to test the futuristic water of technologically, while at the same time allowing far analytical thinking.   

Changing School's Reality

If there were ever an institution that needed to “reconceptualize,” and there are many, it would be the Public School System (PSS).  It is rare to find a more archaic system serving such a rapidly evolving community.  Don’t believe me?  Let’s look at some of the most basic practices and beliefs in the PSS and break down their viability for students of the future. 

Technology

In an age of e-mail, social networking, and text alerts, the majority of students still receive their report cards on a piece of paper with number codes representing phrases like: “Works well with others” or “Needs to stay on task.”   AND THIS IS THE MOST BASIC ASPECT THAT NEEDS REVAMPING!   Staying in line with parent communication, many school systems only notify parents via phone call or letter about a student’s progress.  Why not allow parents to access online gradebooks for their child?  What is wrong with requiring teachers to use sites like edmodo, where parents AND students can track their grades and assignments?  These are just some basic problems that technology can solve.  Another is the access to information.  Information is moving at a speed virtually impossible to keep up with.  Yet teachers are still standing at the front of the room, dictating information to students!  In an age of computers that use blogs, twitter, search engines, etc., many students are still getting their school information from books and overheads.  Essentially, students are engaging in learning that does not mirror the real world. 

Therefore, technology needs to be more adequately used in the classroom.  An interactive setup is the most desirable: a setup in which each student or pair of students has access to the internet in some capacity during class while also connecting to a class “network” that can be accessed by all class members.  Collaboration via the internet will no longer be a commodity in 2025; it will be a necessity.  Working together in online forums and being able to navigate efficiently through a sea of information should be the goal of any future classroom.  A teacher should be able to roam around the room, using a tablet or laptop, without having the constraints of needing to face the front of the room.  Technology should be used to pull teachers away from the board and towards the students.

Cross-Curricular Lessons              

The classic questions posed to teachers from students are similar to the following: “Why do I need to know this?” or, “Why is this important?”  While teachers get frustrated this question and students are labeled trouble-makers, it is a valid question.  In an ever progressing society, this question will be even more important, and at the same time more difficult to answer.  In an effort to make learning more relevant, I suggest using cross-curricular planning to engage the students in multiple areas.  By connecting information to different content, it gives students an experiential feel that they have been lacking in the classroom for a while.  This will be even more important in the future where the ability to make connections across domains and groups will be at its highest.  Applying concepts across different areas and making them relevant to various groups is necessary because communication is so fast.  Staying relevant will be the only way to gain recognition in a future society where the speed of information is increasing and attention spans are decreasing.  The best way to do this is creating online discussions, blogs, or forums that can bring multiple areas of study together.

Project-Based Learning

The last area that can be used to make great strides in the future classroom is project-based learning.  As we have discussed, information is easily accessible and fast moving, both of which tend to lessen the traditional role of the teacher in the classroom.  Therefore, the role of the teacher should evolve.  By assigning projects to assist with learning, teachers can transition from an information giver to a guide along the path of enlightenment.  Projects, if assigned with the right set of parameters and expressed goals, can teach students how to think in both logical and abstract ways.  Students in the future will need these skills to stand out from their peers.  When information is readily accessible, interpretation and application of that information is what is key.  Project-based learning provides the medium to help these kids develop these skills.  Also, this style of learning allows the teacher to be more hands on and responsive to different learning styles and individuals.  Project-based learning allows for flexibility where students can not only self-pace, but create work in a style they are comfortable with.  Therefore, project-based learning fills a need area that will surely arise in the future.       

Education in the future will be a completely different beast, mostly because of the rapid increase in the availability of information.  By using technology, cross-curricular planning, and project based learning, students will be able to adapt to a new environment and prepare themselves for the skills they need in the future. 

Schooling in 2025...Teaching Tech to the Future?

We know that very few things move faster than the speed of technology.  Tools and technologies that were state of the art 25 years ago are ancient now; such will be the case with today’s technologies in the next 15 years.  As educators, it is important to analyze the impact this changing landscape has on the role of schooling.  The fundamental role of schools is (should be) to prepare students for their world.  Schools and teachers are to provide students with the knowledge and skill sets that not only help students survive in the “real world” landscape, but to excel and lead a new generation. 

So what does this mean?  We acknowledge that students live in a technological age where using card catalogs and slide rules is laughable.  While these are exaggerated examples of an earlier time period in school, it is easy to look around the classroom you or your kids are in and find resources that are just as obscure to students. Let’s take a look at some:

Physical Textbooks:  Let’s face it; the day of students carrying 5 textbooks home to read has passed.  Students get all of their information from Smart Phones, Twitter, Social Networking, television, blogs, etc.  And that’s not to say they don’t read articles and texts.  Plenty of students read books, but they do it off of kindles and IPads. 

Chalk/Dry Erase Boards: At least in Loudoun County, you cannot walk into a classroom without bumping into an interactive board.  Be it a Promethean Board or Interactive White Board, technology has overridden traditional chalk and erase boards.  The applications for interactive software are inclusive and endless; they involve entire classes with instruction and activities in a way that also draws their interest.

Rows of Desks:  You’ve seen (or experienced) school house scenes where everybody is in distinct rows with textbooks open to page 103 in the Arithmetic book, heads down and diligently working.  Not anymore.  Classrooms are now arranged in groups/clusters, and in some cases, just have tables.  The trend is away from individual mastery and towards collaborative discovery.  Is this the right path?  Who knows?  But we will take a look at how it might help. 

Lecture & Note-taking:  Although still common in college settings, the lecture is silently being ushered out of the high schools.  Teachers don’t stand at the front of the room and speak on the causes of World War II while students furiously scribble Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s name and ancestry.  Instead, students are given a WebQuest and asked to create presentation outlining the events leading up to WWII.  Why?  Because by the time the teacher has explained who Franz Ferdinand is and why he was important, a student on a computer has already finished creating a Glogster about WWI in its entirety. 

In realizing that the landscape of education is changing, the role of education itself must follow.  Information is being accessed in a plethora of ways, the least of which being taking notes from a PowerPoint.  Students today can information by one touch on a Smartphone or two clicks of a mouse.  Schools will no longer be charged with giving students the knowledge in the future.  Instead, schools will teach students how to filter and sort information.  Instead of giving students the facts for an event, teachers will be showing students where credible places to find this information online.  Schools will provide portals for students to access and display information technologically, instead of making students stare at overheads and take down notes.  Schools will be arena where students can connect to the world instead of just their class or community.  In the simplest terms, the role of schools will change from a local involvement to global community, and from the source of information to the gatekeeper showing students the way to gain access.

In addition, schools will be relied upon to teach students how to collaborate with others and work with information.  In an age where interaction happens at the speed of technology, collaboration is becoming (has become?) the most sought after skill in the job community.  The old adage “two heads are better than one” is certainly true, and in the future will be easier than ever before.  Schools will need to teach students not only how to work well in groups (i.e. how to assign roles, divide tasks, bring together all parts of a project, etc.), but also how to display information across various technological portals.  Students will be better served with knowing how to work in various technologies than in simply accumulating knowledge of facts, events, and processes.    

With all this being said, what types of rigorous and authentic learning experiences can teachers employ to engage all students in learning?  Combined with a heightened understanding of collaborative work and the use of vast expanses of technology, schools will need to encourage higher level thinking and problem solving skills.  This is where rigor will come in.  Schools will need to create assignments where students not only display an understanding of how to use technology to acquire and display knowledge, but do it in such a way that it can be deemed unique and fresh.  By the year 2025, students should never be asked to regurgitate facts as a measure of knowledge.  Instead assignments will need to ask the “why” or “what if” questions.  An example of this would be an assignment such as a WebQuest where a student acquires the information to create a Voice Thread analyzing the impact of the information they just learned (www.voicethread.com). The voice thread would be used as a forum to analyze arguments and use an array of technological portals to produce counter opinions or evaluations.  This type of activity would incorporate the integration of technology to display understanding of a topic, while also providing the rigor of coming up with alternative responses and displaying them in unique ways. 

Technology is changing the scope and spectrum of education.  The roles of schools is not to buck this trend or attempt to change the tide, but to welcome and embrace this change as an opportunity to create a more well rounded student who can interact in a changing world.  If the role of schools does not keep pace with the changing landscape of society, a disservice is provided of students that will never be overcome.    

The Changing Landscape of Content Knowledge

The role of content knowledge for my history and social studies classes will be vastly different in 2025, than it currently is in my classroom.  Currently, content knowledge is a practice in memorization in an attempt to pass a standardized test.  In education, it seems that there is a mounting pressure to evaluate teachers and students based on the performance on standardized tests.  However, within the next 15 years, I am hoping for a shift away from this trend.  The world as it is progressing now, gives individuals quick access to any and all information they could possibly desire.  Students are two “clicks” away from the dates of World War II, one more away from the leader of Germany during that time.  They should no longer be memorizing this information, but how to acquire, interpret, and display this knowledge.  Content knowledge should not be the goal; the real aim should be using that knowledge to display critical thinking and innovative approaches.

The real shift in education by the year 2025, hopefully, is away from content and towards specific skills.  These skills will be centered on technology and critical thinking.  The transaction of information is rapidly moving away from the pen and paper and towards electronic portals such as computers, IPods, and tablets.  To exist in this new world, students must know how to navigate within it.  Knowing how to use search engines appropriately, distinguishing between credible sources, and understanding information displayed in a variety of ways are all vital skills necessary in 2025.  And this is not just putting together a PowerPoint presentation.  Students will be able to create their own blogs and wikis, as well as innovate and create new techniques for sharing information and ideas in a technological age.

However, acquiring and displaying this knowledge in a new, technological way is not enough.  By 2025, getting information will be measured in fractions of seconds.  Therefore, critical thinking and analysis will be a coveted skill set.  When anybody can obtain facts, using those facts in an effective manner becomes the desirable quality.  Intelligence is measured in a number of ways, one of which being a vast knowledge or “expertise” in certain areas.  With the accessibility of information in this modern technological era, the knowledge will no longer be a marketable skill, but the way in which that knowledge is analyzed and applied will be.