This American Life - Episode #449: Middle School

 I just finished listening to an episode of This American Life from NPR on the topic of "Middle School." The topic was requested by who else, a middle school student who listens to the podcast. The entire podcast is available online as well as the individual segments. I just thought it was interesting to here from actual middle school students about what they thought of middle school. It made me wonder what our students would say if they had been interviewed, and that we are not alone in the triumphs and challenges that we face everyday.

ECOMP 5004: Website Evaluation

The Awesome Highlighter

Facebook

Twitter

Site Description: 

The Awesome Highlighter, referred to sometimes as AH, was started by three guys from Florida. According to their Facebook page, the company was founded in February on 2008. There are no names provided for the founders or who maintains the site, only an online form to request support.

Classroom Use:

This web tool gives students the ability to use a digital highlighter on any webpage of the Internet. Students can highlight text as well as pictures. AH provides a toolbar at the top of the page for students to add a virtual sticky note to the page, access their “Help” menu, and best of all: change their highlight color. 

Once a webpage has been highlighted, students then click the “Done” button on the toolbar. They are taken back to AH and are shown an overview of the information they have highlighted. Students may then choose to email the notes, copy them to the clipboard, or share their notes via variety of social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook. Students may also copy the unique URL provided at the top of the page for later access. There is also an option beneath the summary for the student to return to the page to add additional notes and/or edit the notes they have already highlighted.

AH can also be used by teachers who would like to point students to important and/or specific information on a webpage. Teachers could use the sticky notes tool to instruct students on what they need to do with the information on the webpage. Here is an example of AH in action: http://awurl.com/3zTmJLYRh

State Standards Connections:

Maine Leaning Results (MLR)

English Language Arts

A. PROCESS OF READING
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8

7. Summarize whole texts by selecting and summarizing important and representative passages.

H. RESEARCH-RELATED WRITING AND SPEAKING

MIDDLE GRADES 5-8

7. Use search engines and other Internet resources to collect information for research topics.

Recommendation:

With the presence of technology in schools and the classroom today, using the Internet as a research resource has become a common occurrence. In fact, when given the choice many students will turn to the Internet before accessing more traditional resources. In my school, the current standard operating procedure is for students to print out the Internet resources they find. This translates into a lot of printing and a lot of wasted printing supplies, since webpages often do not print neatly onto an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper. Awesome Highlighter gives students the ability to pick out the important pieces of information on a webpage and refer to those notes for use later when they write their reports. If students are working collaboratively on a research project, AH allows team members to easily share their web notes with one another.

I think this is a great tool for teachers who want to move closer to working completely within the digital environment. Awesome Highlighter makes it easy for both student and teacher to takes notes on webpages and then save those notes for later reference or for sharing with others. The add/edit tool, in tandem with the different highlighter color tool, could also be a vehicle for collaborative activities. While the site does have a login so that you can save your highlights on their system, use of AH is free and does not require registration to use. 

However, as with any web-based tool there are a few glitches in AH that users should be aware of. For example, the “+ add a note” tool often takes several seconds to respond (I was having to wait upward of 5-8 seconds for the note to actually appear). In addition, when using the add/edit tool to return to the webpage your previous highlights are not displayed on the page save only the last item you had highlighted. This could create confusion for students and discourage them from using this service. There is an available AH add-on for the Firefox browser they may improve the performance of this web tool. The service also offers a feedback section to leave comments on their service, so I forwarded this concern to them in the hopes they will make this tool more robust and reliable.

ECOMP 5004: Monster Blog Project

DIRECTIONS:

Imagine that you are a writer of children’s books. You are word-processing a manuscript of a story about a child who overcomes fear of an outrageous monster that has taken up residence in the child's bedroom closet. You have reached the part of the story where the child dares to open the closet door, thus coming face to face with the monster.

1. Describe the monster in words, as seen through the child’s eyes for the first time. 
2. Post the description to your blog and exchange links with your partner.
3. Now, draw your partner's monster based solely on their written description.
4. Publish your illustration to your partner's blog.
5. Now, draw your own monster and publish the illustration to your blog so that you can compare/contrast the two versions.

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My Blog Monster

My partner, Colleen's, Blog Monster

ECOMP 5004: Reflection Using wallwisher

Directions: Use the wallwisher site to state your brief impression of  article, Picture a World Without Pens, Pencils and Paper.
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/ecomp5004Exeter

Article:  Picture a World Without Pens, Pencils and Paper
Bromley, K. (2010). Picture a world without pens, pencils, and paper. Journal of College Reading and Learning, 41.1, 97-108

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ECOMP 5004: Biopoem Project

Assignment #1 - Biopoems in the Classroom


The biopoem project can be used in classes and courses across the curriculum, as we did, as an kind of ice breaker activity where students have the opportunity to learn some basic facts about their peers. For students, this will kick off the making of connections between one another. For the teacher, this will help foster the development of the classroom culture.  Biopoems also provide teachers with the opportunity to integrate a potentially new piece of technology, like Glogster, as a possible choice for students to express their knowledge and understanding. 

Teachers could also use this concept with students so that they will construct another biopoem, but this time the students get to do a little role-playing. In language arts class, for example, students chooses a character from a book they're reading for class. In social studies, students do their writeup on a pharaoh they've been studying from Ancient Egypt. When we get to science, students must create a biopoem based on an element form the Periodic Table. Teachers could also use the biopoem project and turn it into a game of "Guess Who?" where students must use of their detective skills to figure out who the poem is about. The possibilities may be limited only by one's imagination.

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Biopoem.ME

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Biopoem.TEACHER

ECOMP 5007: Final Project #2 - Field Research & Presentation

WriteRoom, Distraction-Free Writing

Overview
In our second final project, I was excited to have the opportunity to work with a staff member who is strong in this area of knowledge to create a meaningful product to share with my fellow teachers. Actually, it was a random comment of mine to our assistive technology specialist about a recent application I had heard about on our MLTI laptops that sparked this great conversation on how WriteRoom could be a great tool for both mainstream and special needs students. I knew for certain we were on the right track when she and I presented our findings to the language arts department and saw the light bulbs come on almost immediately. One teacher made the comment that WriteRoom is, “just cool enough that every student will want to use it, so that special needs students won’t feel singled out or segregated when they need to use it for their classwork.”

• View web presentation below, or click here.

WriteRoom

More PowerPoint presentations from Nick Shuman

ECOMP 5007: Final Project #1 - Resource Brochure

Tonic-Clonic Seizures

a How-To Guide for Teachers

Overview

For our first of two final projects, it was uncanny how the timing of this assignment synced so well with the introduction of a student into my school who suffers from tonic-clonic seizures. It gave me the perfect opportunity to sit down with the school nurse and construct an informational resource for teachers, administrators, and support staff. Where knowledge is power, now we as a staff know what tonic-clonic seizures are and what to do if the student experiences one. In addition, we have learned how to incorporate this disability into our school culture so that the student can have as much of a normal middle school experience as possible while also being ready to give aid when it is needed.

• View brochure online from iWork.com
• Access embedded video "What Would You Do…?" here.

ECOMP 5007: Web Accessibility

In class we had an opportunity to see some of the accessibility features built into the operating systems of today’s computers. We also saw a variety of assistive technology products that allow students with or without disabilities to perform better in the educational setting. All of these things provide accessibility; but what about the World Wide Web? How accessible is it, and what is being done to improve accessibility?

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Web accessibility is a topic that has been around for a while. I remember the topic coming up back in college when I began designing my first website using Netscape Composer. Even then such webpage editors were including prompts and fields to encourage the writer to make their content more accessible, such as alternate text when adding an image. Today, more and more web editors are working to provide accessibility options for web designers; I noticed several extra fields in my Wordpress blog editor just last week. These extra fields were prompting me to include additional information that would help visually impaired users of the Internet to be able to consume the information on my blog easier.

As I watched the two videos from WebAIM I sympathized with the students and recognized their frustration and disappointment in the Internet. I got to thinking about some of the websites that I’ve visited that I found difficult to navigate in and thought, if I am frustrated with this site how would a person with web accessibility issues feel? It seems like, as more and more websites move to flashier pages with animated graphics they are also leaving behind people who could be potential consumers, customers, and/or contributors. What it really comes back to is a very old yet very relevant concept: know your audience. Once you have that nailed down, you can adapt your content or message for maximum coverage and distribution. 

I think many of us take the Internet for granted with respect to how the information found on it is communicated. I was really impressed with what Curtis Radford, who is hearing impaired, said when he described himself in the first WebAIM video. He can think, he can read, he can write, and he doesn’t see himself as having a disability…he just can’t hear. So why shouldn’t he be able to consume and contribute to the wealth of content that the Internet provides?

Recently our IT director re-designed all of our school websites and made them more “interactive” with animated flash graphics, embedded Google calendars, and Twitter feeds. I decided to take a page out of my cohort colleague Chad’s handbook and tried to navigate the middle school homepage without using my mouse. Okay, I have to admit that it took less than a minute to cheat, but I had use my mouse in order to bypass the animated flash graphic at the top of the homepage. After that I tried again and, while I was moderately successful in navigating to where I wanted to go, it sure did take a long time to get there without a mouse. And I remember when computers didn’t come with a mouse and all of your navigation was done by keyboard commands…how times have changed.

ECOMP 5007: ELL

This week's assignment allowed you to take a closer look at our students who do not speak English as their first language.

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1.  What’s available in your state?

Web Resource: National Clearing House for English Language Acquisition (NCELA)

Before going to the website and investigating what programs and services were available to ELL students in the state of Maine I tried to think back and remember where I had previously seen any related documentation…I couldn’t. In my experiences working with the Maine Learning Results, my teaching internship, and my college courses I don’t remember the topic of ELL coming up. In fact, my first experience dealing with ELL was my first job as an Ed. Tech. at Kennebunk High School. Even then, my exposure was limited to the ELL teacher on staff due to some extreme deficiencies in her technology skills. 

In looking through Maine’s Department Of Education website, I was able to pick up pieces here and there that related to my classroom work such as the NECAPS standardized tests that we are preparing to administer next month. I was impressed with the number of webinars I found on a variety of ELL and ESL topics going back as far as 2009. I also went looking to see who were the ELL staff members in my school district because, I’m sorry to say, I didn’t know who they were. I feel like I should be concerned that we have only one person on our ELL staff for our entire K-12 school district.  Then again, I suppose this depends on the number of students who fall into the ELL category. Perhaps other specials who are cross-trained are also providing additional support? In any case, I need to investigate and find out.

2.  A “hot topic” in the world of ELL is the differentiation of students who are true ELL students from students with disabilities who demonstrate language problems, i.e., differentiating language differences and language disorders/disabilities.

Web Resource: LD online.org

One of the main conclusions I drew from this “hot topic” is, in my opinion, and old one. In order for students to be successful learners, whether they are ELL students or students with language problems or mainstream students, all members of a schools’ staff must work and communicate together to create a positive and supportive environment. Support for ELL students should not just come from when a student is pulled from class to work with a specialist. Rather, it should should come from the classroom teacher, the art teacher, the librarian, the principal, and so forth. In my teaching I am already in the position of trying to teach students a different language: the language of computer technology. While this can be a challenge in itself, if I have a student who also has difficulties with English then I need to know and be collaborating with other teachers and specialists to develop skills and strategies to help them be just as successful in my class as the rest of my students.

3. "What Teachers Should Know About Instruction For English Language Learners"
Web Resource: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NREL) - Article

In reading this document and reviewing the 14 principles of interest, a couple of concepts really jumped out at me:

• P2-Conversational vs. Academic language: I had never really given much thought to the language that I use in the classroom as being academic, although it makes perfect sense. I am constantly working to use terms, concepts, and language that will allow students to make connections between their prior knowledge and that of “techno-speak.” Now that I think about it, I wonder if this could be considered an attempt to bridge the gap between these two types of language?

• P4-Background Knowledge: This principle also made a lot of sense to me. With language comes culture and differences in what is considered acceptable behavior, classroom expectations, etc. This concept needs to be considered when interacting with ELL students so that the teacher can help them see the differences but also acknowledge that both have value. I mean, is not one of the reasons we want English students to take foreign language is so that they can appreciate the similarities and differences between cultures?

4. Looking at some specifics…

While at the elementary level YouTube is a resource that is blocked by our district filters, at the middle school our students have been able to show the responsibility and maturity to use this resource (most of the time). Hence, the ManyThings.org website could be a handy tool to have and use. This current generation of students tend gravitate to video resources whenever possible, and as a result YouTube has been a hotbed for teachers to find academic-related material. I can also see this resource integrating nicely with our 7/8 graders and their MLTI laptops. I was also impressed with the site having a section for iOS devices (e.g. iPad, iPod-Touch). These types of devices are entering schools and classrooms at a ever-increasing rate and I was pleased to see a site that is making efforts to find resources that will work with different types of technologies such as these.

ECOMP 5007: UDL

Remember our class discussion on Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? This week your assignment provided you with some more detailed information about UDL and the outcomes it may foster. You dug a lot deeper into this topic, and you looked at some tools that provide UDL foundations.


After reviewing the different resources offered this week about universal design, what is being modeled here? How does design afford higher levels of access and learning? Are there ways for you to bring these kinds of strategies and techniques into your own work with students?

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What is being modeled here is a broader perception of the what, how, and why of learning. It attacks the notion that students are like machines and that an “assembly line” education system will allow all of them to emerge as adults ready to enter the real world. Far from it, we are all unique individuals who learn, comprehend, and express our understanding in unique ways. This concept speaks not just to students identified with special needs but also to students who are considered mainstream.

Design affords higher levels of access and learning by helping teachers to stay focused on the “big picture.” At the same time, teachers need to recognize that each student is unique in their learning styles and abilities to express understanding. I see it as an interesting contradiction: Don’t loose sight of the overall goal of educating all of your students by also being aware of the uniqueness of each and every student in the class. When you see classroom teachers, special education instructors, and support staff working toward this goal of Universal Design of Learning I see yet another example of how teachers need to be “quick on their feet,” ready to change, modify, and reconfigure their mode of teaching at a moments notice as they move from one student to another. This is not an easy skill to acquire, and I give great credit to those teachers who are successful at this each and every day.

During my internship to become an educator I latched on to the concept of designing lessons that would address the three main learning styles: visual, auditory, and tactile learners. Having read the material on UDL I see that, while this concept is a good start there is more to the spectrum than just three learning styles. This is certainly the case when I factor in students entering my classroom in need of accommodations.

Last year was my first time using an audio enhancement tool with two different students who had hear impairments. While I don’t have a problem making my voice loader for everyone to hear, I also tend to move about the classroom as I teach. I realized that this could be problematic for these two students. Wearing the voice enhancement microphone allowed me to continue teaching in this style while also allowing these students to hear my directions clearly.

In looking at some of the tools provided in this weeks assignment, one that I took notice of is the Web Notes tool. I try to post all of my teaching materials online via my website so that students, parents, and teachers can access the content at any time. When combined with Web Notes, students with memory impairments could attach key words and phrases right onto my digital documents and webpages to help them recall the information later. Another tool that could easily integrate into this framework is Natural Reader. Again, since I put all of my materials online in digital format, students with visual impairments or dyslexia could use this tool to have the computer read such things as the directions off of a worksheet or speak aloud the copy of my notes from the previous lesson. Text-to-Speech tools like this give students power and control over their learning so that they can be and feel successful in their journey as a lifelong learner.

ECOMP 5007: Supporting Students with Disabilities

What has been your experience with families of students with disabilities? What kind of support is available to educators and staff to support the IEP recommendations? How are students and families involved in the IEP process or in provision of assistive technology?

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What has been your experience with families of students with disabilities? Much of my experience has been with students and their disabilities. I am rarely invited or brought in to the IEP process. Rather I get the call after an IEP has been established and the assistive technology needs to be setup/installed. In some of the schools I’ve worked in I’ve been fortunate to work with special needs staff who have thought to seek my insight and consult with me prior to an IEP meeting. While I cannot comment on how a piece of assistive technology may or may not aid a student, this has given me the opportunity to provide information on the schools’ ability to implement the technology and provide constant support for its use. I have been teaching a 6th grade computer literacy class for the past three years now, and it has taken that long for the special needs staff to begin seeing the need to include me in IEP meetings that affect 6th grade students. In the meetings that I am now beginning to attend, I have become keenly aware of my inexperience with the IEP process. If I have a strength, it has been in helping other teachers to integrate technology to aid them in collecting assessment data. While my point of view has been toward all students, having read some of the literature for this class I see that this data could also be important to the IEP construction process. What kind of support is available to educators and staff to support the IEP recommendations? Our IT department and staff make every effort to support the recommendations for assistive technology that grow out of an IEP plan. To this end, we constantly advocate to be consulted during the planning process so that we can provide the team with accurate information with respect to our ability to provide the technology, a realistic timeline of when we can implement the technology, and our ability to provide maintenance and upgrade of the hardware/software. Even with our 1-to-1 environment in grades 7 and 8, our ability to respond effectively and timely continues to be a challenge. In these instances, I wonder if our IEP’s need to focus on using “trials” with non-specific technology types/brands as described in the ASNAT document we read. This might give us more flexibility to find the right technology that can be supported by the IT department, integrated into the schools’ technology infrastructure, and serve the needs of the student. How are students and families involved in the IEP process or in provision of assistive technology? From my observations, both students and parents are vital players in the IEP process in my school district. IEP meetings usually do not take place unless at least one parent representative is in attendance. The student may not be present for some meetings due to the nature of the agenda, but I believe student involvement is strongly encouraged during the assessment and evaluation parts of the IEP process. Student input into whether or not the assistive technology is meeting the goals of the IEP plan is just as important as that of the teacher. Since the start of Maine’s 1-to-1 laptop initiative (MLTI) in grades 7 and 8, I think parent involvement has become even more critical in the IEP process. Part of the mandate of the MLTI program is that the student be able to bring his/her laptop home during the school week. As a result, any assistive technology connected to this device is now present both at school and in the home environment. Therefore, parents need to be included in the IEP process so that they can effectively support their child in the use of the assistive technology when they are at home.

ECOMP 5007: Access to Print - eBooks and eText

If we look at the tools and resources that support accessibility, what are some of the strategies that are going to make these kinds of accommodations for students a viable reality? How much do educators need to know? Can students migrate to digital content without their teachers making any changes in their instructional practices?

Take some time to offer your reflections on this challenging issue in the discussion forum. Please post your thoughts by Friday at 9pm and respond to two of your peers by Sunday evening at 9pm. As you think about your response and those of your peers, offer information that will help extend your (and their!) thinking, and perhaps move the conversation to the next level.

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The realm of assistive technology has come a long way since the last time I took a class on the topic. In fact, when I was going for my teacher certification there was no “class” on technology, assistive or otherwise. At the time, my certification program saw technology as just something cool that we might or might not want to bring into our classrooms. Now, we not only have computers in labs and classrooms, but we have students entering 1-to-1 laptop environments (Maine’s MLTI program) and even the introduction of portable devices such as the iPad and iPod Touch as vehicles through which assistive technology tools are being delivered.

In order to make assistive technology tools a viable reality, all of the players need to have a stake in its application in order to ensure their proper and consistent use. It’s not enough to just buy and install the equipment; a plan needs to be developed and ready to implement that will show both student and teacher how the assistive technology should be used and why. I think the why is also important to the student “buy in,” because if the student doesn’t see why they should use it then they may resist using it. When I was an Ed. Tech. at the elementary level, I had a student who was very, very small for her age. Her fingers were so small that using a standard keyboard was difficult for her and she did not look forward to computer class. Then the occupational therapist and I got together to purchase a “little fingers” keyboard for her. Each class I would have to disconnect a computer in order to setup the special keyboard, but when the student saw how she could be just as productive as her peers with this keyboard her attitude did a complete 180°. 

When it comes to assistive technology educators need to know just as much, if not more, than the student when it comes to the how and why. Now matter how precise a tool is as a match for the student, they still need to be taught when and how to use it. Educators also need to be aware of how the content they are teaching may change when it is filtered through a piece of assistive technology. For example, if a teacher assigns a piece of text to read that a students’ Text-to-Speech program is unable to analyze properly, this could be a problem. Hence, teachers need to be ready to make changes in their instructional practices regardless of how good the digital content is or how efficient the assistive technology may be. The more that the content is in digital form the easier it is for educators to modify that content into a format that will sync with a students special needs. A common thread found in the articles we had to read strongly reinforce the message that digital content, such as ebooks, can be modified faster and easier than more traditional books that are paper form for students with special needs.

In the end, we have to remember to see students as individuals, each with his and hers own unique way of learning, comprehending, and applying knowledge and skills. Technology, whether it be for general education or special needs use, cannot be seen as a stand-in or babysitter for a teacher will the ability to assess a students’ progress and make adjusts accordingly. It is only when all the players work together: student, teacher, special needs advisor, and assistive technology that we can help each student become successful in their educational career.

ECOMP 6102: Reasoning Paper - Final

Access product via Google Docs: click here

ECOMP 6102: Final Design: a Performance Assessment Task

Part 1 - Performance Task Description
Part 2 - Description of Assessment Design
Part 3 - Create and Evaluate a Rubric
Part 4 - Self Assessment


Access product via Google Docs: click here

ECOMP 6102: Design a Performance Assessment Task

Part One - Performance Task Description:
1. Identify the grade level and subject area for which you will be creating an assessment.

Grade level: 6
Subject Area: Technology

2. Write out the Learning Targets (Standard, objective, goal) that will be assessed.

A. ISTE NETS (http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-for-students-2007-profiles.aspx#6-8):
3. Gather data, examine patterns, and apply information for decision making using digital tools and resources. (1,4)

B. District Technology Skills Set
Collect information and display the data in graphical form.

3. Identify the type of performance you will be expecting of your students as the final Performance Assessment for these standards.

a. What performances or products are you expecting from students? 

Students will create a graph/chart based on data collected from the experiments they conducted previously as part of their science fair project. They will use the computer and the application Pages to construct the graph/chart. The final product will include:

• A title that states the dependent and independent variables.
• A legend/key that will tell the audience what the colored parts of your graph represent.
• A label for both your x-axis and your y-axis.
• The unit of measurement used to measure the data results.
• The final product must fit on a single page with decisions about font, color, and type of graph that will make the product easy to read and understand by the audience.

b. Consider the knowledge students will have to have to do this performance. List the elements of knowledge this performance task will require.

Students will need to know the following:

• Graph/chart terminology
• A basic understanding of how to use and navigate the application software
• How to enter data into the Chart Data Editor
• How to use the Chart Inspector to apply enhancements such as axis labels, number of measurement steps, and a legend.

c. Provide some information about how will you teach the skills students need to do this performance task.

Prior to the start of this assignment, students will engage in a series of practice exercises where they will practice creating and modifying graphs in order to become familiar with the application tools, comfortable with the vocabulary, and an understanding of what finished product should look like. Students will first create a graph from scratch, using data provided by the teacher, to practice entering data into the Chart Data Editor and then how to apply the list of required components to the graph. Second, students will be given an incomplete graph that has experiment data but is missing key components and must fill in the missing pieces to complete the graph. The experiment data for these exercises will be taken from actual experiments conducted by students from previous science fair projects.

d. Are there conditions that students need to adhere to?

Students may work individually or with a partner on the practice exercises. Students are encouraged to “peer edit” each other’s work to check for understanding and comprehension of how the data is displayed in their graphs.


Part 2 - Description of Assessment Design
1. Describe the assessment procedures you will use:

a. How will you help students understand what it means to create a "good" product or performance?

At the beginning of the lesson the teacher will review with students the checklist of components that need to be present on any graph/chart they construct. For the graph “built from scratch” activity, the checklist will be used to evaluate the quality of the product using several student volunteers. For the “incomplete graph” activity, students will use the checklist to identify the missing components via class discussion. At the end, several student volunteers will submit their chart for evaluation by the class using the checklist.

b. How will you monitor students as they work on this performance assessment to be sure that the work they are doing is turning out "good"? 

The chart/graph checklist will be displayed on the screen at the front of the class for students to refer to throughout the period. Students will also be required to download a copy of the checklist to be saved to their folder or portable device for reference later in other classes or other projects.

c. What kind of a scoring document will you use to determine students' final grades on this task?

The chart/graph component checklist will be used and referred to throughout the activity as the criteria for determining the students’ progress. A rubric based on the checklist will be used to evaluate students for their final grade.

ECOMP 6102: Writing Essay Questions

1. Use your Test Blueprint to write three (3) Essay Questions that engage students in reasoning.

2. Identify the type(s) of reasoning your students will be required to use to answer each of these questions. Identify all the different types of reasoning students will have to use to answer each of the questions you wrote.

3. Place your Essay Questions in the word document.

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Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-14)
5. Evaluate digital resources to determine the credibility of the author and publisher and the timeliness and accuracy of the content. (3)

Content	Knowledge & Understanding	Deductive Reasoning	Evaluative Reasoning	Total
Credibility	10	15	15	40
Timeliness	10	20	20	50
Accuracy	15	20	20	55
Total	35	55	55	145_

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Essay Question #1 (classification, deductive reasoning):
In class we talked about what a domain is and what it can tell you about whether a website, and the information it contains, can be trusted. Using the set of domain names provided, organize them into a list from least to most trustworthy. Explain your rationale for the ordering of your list.

Essay Question #2: (analysis, evaluation)
During the course of this activity, we looked at four websites and tried to determine if the information they provided could be trusted. Evaluate the content of the Tree Octopus website and determine if you would recommend this website be added to the school library as a resource for students. In your argument, think about our discussions about timeliness of information and if the content provided appears realistic.

Essay Question #3: (evaluation, knowledge & understanding)
After describing your latest school assignment to your family, your older sibling comes to you and with a sneaky sort of smile, recommends this website that will answer any questions that your teacher may ask of you. Before you base your entire project on this website, describe what you would look for to determine if the website is trustworthy or not. Discuss what items would make you more likely to trust the website and what items would make you begin to doubt its credibility.

 

ECOMP 6102: Create Selected Response Questions

Please write ONE test item for each cell in your Table of Specifications (9 q's total) and Identify the learning Target for each question.

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Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-14)
5. Evaluate digital resources to determine the credibility of the author and publisher and the timeliness and accuracy of the content. (3)

Content	Knowledge & Understanding	Deductive Reasoning	Evaluative Reasoning	Total
Credibility	10	15	15	40
Timeliness	10	20	20	50
Accuracy	15	20	20	55
Total	35	55	55	145_

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1. Does the author provide his/her name and email address? (LT: identify the source of the information for citation purposes)

Yes

No

2. Does the website show the date when it was last updated? (LT: determine if information is being checked and modified on a regular basis)

Yes

No

3. Do the links going to other sites lead you to where they said they would? (LT: determine if information is being supported by other sources)

Yes

No

4. A website ending in the domain .net is always credible. (LT: know the difference between different types of website domains)

True

False

5. Are you more likely to think that a website is credible if it is updated every: (LT: websites that are updated on a regular basis are more likely to have relevant information)

A. year

B. month
C. week

6. Websites that contain several “dead links” should be considered questionable. (LT: the persistence of dead links point to a site that is not being updated regularly)

True

False

7. Which site could you trust to give you credible resources for researching project topics? (LT: verify the credibility of a site by checking its claims against another source you know to be trustworthy)

A. Follet Destiny

B. Google

C. Wikipedia 

8. A website is more credible if the date it was last updated is changes between pages. (LT: sites that time stamp when each “page” was updated give us a better idea of what content is being updated)

True

False

9. If a photo looks like it might have been changed you should: (LT: images and pictures that have been modified or “photoshop’d” should be considered suspicious)

A. trust the photo

B. ignore the photo
C. check some of the other photos