Its been a big learning curve for me so far. I use computer based instruction now, but they are nothing I created. They are ones that I pay for or get free through an association. They work great. They also have teams of people to create, maintain and upgrade them. With my team of me, I can see where while I would like to have stand alone instruction for a lot of my areas, I'm not sure how fast of a process that would be. I could dedicate all of my spare time to creating project, but we where that would go. I think their use should be used where they will have the greatest impact. Pick and chose.
The WebQuests I have seen that relate to what I do seem pretty weak. Still as a format to focus students I the direction they need to go, I think they can be a valuable tool. Personally I think my limit would to use them on days I am not in the classroom (absent). I don't want students in the shop for liability reasons, but a WebQuest to give a better direction to a given assignment.
I like the StAIRs concept. All troubleshooting and diagnosing of problems on a vehicle follow a flow chart and basically this is what StAIRs is. A student flows through the program learning and making decisions which lead to the next step or it may route them to a different flow.
Creating computer based Instruction Objects are very time consuming, but if I work off a common template, I could use that template to create several objects. Again pick and chose for the biggest impact.
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I understand what you mean when you say "The WebQuests I have seen that relate to what I do seem pretty weak." In the past, I have been scheduled to teach some classes that are electives rather than requirements. Those classes seem to have much less available and quality resources out there. Good luck on finding better ones. I know that creating your own can be very time consuming.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I hope to have time this summer to create some instructional aids of my own. During the school year there are not enough hours in the day.
ReplyDeleteMost of the webquests I have looked at have not been very good.
I am still having trouble with this group blogging. I am not sure that I am following the directions correctly.
Hey Bammer! Great comments. I think you and Katy are experiencing what I see, that it takes an incredible amount of time to find a good webquest. Compare that to the time it takes to develop a specific object for your own class! It is a good thing we all have so much spare time to devote to these endeavors. One of my most overused expressions is, I'll have time to do that this summer- right after I finish the Honey-dew list.
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