Final Web Page

During this final regular week of class, I revised and posted my final web page. I made final changes to my website project and got it all finished up for our final web presentation this week. Overall I actually enjoyed the web page project. At first I was reluctant and thought that it was not going to be something that I would enjoy. Now that I look back on the whole thing I kind of enjoyed making my own web page.

Webpage Subtopics

This week was designed to build more onto our webpages that we had created. We were instructed to create subtopics for our webpage. I chose to divide my areas up very similar to the way I had done it in Google Bookmarks. All my websites were already found and a small summary was made on each one so I divided them up according to their subtopic as it dealt with obesity. I feel as though I have become very good at navigating through Google Sites and Google Bookmarks that I will be able to use them both in the future. I hope that my website will become useful to anyone who stumbles across it.

WebQuest

This week in class we had to create a WebQuest Activity for our webpage. I found this to be pretty fun because I learned about a lot of activities to test knowledge in my undergrad program. I was able to devise an activity that involved everyone in the class and allowed them to gain an insight on a specific area of obesity. Once everyone in the class became an "expert" in their area, they shared their knowledge with the rest of the class. The WebQuest activity was very helpful for me.

Fair Use

This week we had to determine whether or not the use of certain information was fair use or not. We were given a detailed checklist to go by that was very interesting to me. We looked at different scenarios and then had to determine whether or not the information was being used fairly by someone. It was also useful to see what some of our classmates had written about the scenarios because many times we had differences of opinion. The checklist was very useful and I will probably hang on to it and use it down the road.

We also had to create four scenarios of our own that were either fair use or were in violation of it. This was also a great experience because it allowed me to determine just where the line is drawn for fair use.

Big6

The Big6 was something new and suprisingly interesting to me. I learned a new technique for teaching. The first lesson I chose to critique was one on how to help students determine what shoes to wear to school. The process that went into it was pretty neat to see. Everyone remembers high school and how a big part of it was fitting in and being cool. Well a lesson on shoes and attire would be pretty beneficial to a lot of students. Since I couldn't find a Big6 activity on obesity I chose to do one on victimization. I read an interesting article that went along with the lesson that told a story of a woman who was a victim of a violent crime and her story. I thought this lesson was interesting and crucial to high school students because high school is a "hotzone" for bullying and violence. The Big6 lesson was very informational and I plan on using it again in the future.

Web Site Homepage

Last week in class we created our web site homepages. This was a new experience for me because I have never created a web site or web page before. I created a homepage that introduced what the web site is going to be about - obesity. I also made a link to a page that introduces me and talks a little about me. Creating this page was a good experience because it really helped me learn the ropes of creating a web page. I'm anxious to get into the latter stages of web site creating to see what all there is to it!

Evaluating Web Pages

This week in class I learned about web page evaluating. This process was pretty interesting because I didn't really know what all went into evaluating a web page. The types of things that are included in evaluating a web page are: its domain, credentials, author, is it linked, it is rated? A lot goes in to evaluating a web page and this week I learned about that. I was able to evaluate some of the web pages I am using for my web site project. I found out whether or not the websites I am using have credentials and if they are linked from other websites. After I looked at a lot of my websites I discovered that they have credentials and are very well documented. This website evaluating assignment turned out to be very useful for my project.

Live Online Classroom

The live online classroom was quite the experience. After all the stress about whether or not I was going to be able to get connected properly and had all the right software/hardware, it turned out to be a really great experience. The online classroom was something I had never done before. I didn't even know that such a thing existed. I was able to present my web link resource page with no probelms. The presentation that stuck out the most to me was a classmate named John Lesaine who did his presentation on the basketball 2-3 zone defense. I found his particularly intersting because I was a basketball player in college and my plans are to coach at the college level some day. His website will definitely come in handy because it allows you to learn about the 2-3 zone from some of the best programs in the country. All in all I really enjoyed this lesson because I was able to learn from other classmate's topics and see just how an online classroom works.

Hyperlinked Resource Web Page

This week I put together a hyperlinked resource web page about obesity in America. I thought this was a really good assignment because it allowed me to do something that I had never done before. I think that putting together this type of web page really isn't that difficult and it is a good way to get information out there for people to see. I utilized search engines across the web to gather links and information about overweight and obesity. I really enjoyed this assignment because I believe it is a good way to gather and store information on a specific topic.

GEM and GALILEO

This week in class I used Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) and GALILEO to search the topic of global warming. I found the two seperate way very useful and knowledgable. I had never used the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) search before but I found it to be quite useful. Within that type of search I was able to find a lot of information on global warming. GALILEO turned out to be a very good way of searching for information and finding articles on the topic at hand. I am glad that I learned how to use these two types of search because I know that it will come in use down the road when I research future topics.

WWW Database

This week in class I learned how to perform different types of searches on the Internet. I learned about subject directories, the invisible web and using the ERIC database. I was already familiar with the ERIC database but not with the other two methods. I also used Ask.com for the first time when searching for research. I am glad that I learned about the invisible web because I believe that it will come in handy down the road when searching for topics or publications on a topic. What I really liked about the ERIC database was the types of information that was found, i.e. articles, journals, etc. I also found useful the subject directories and being able to narrow your search that way.

Google Bookmarks

This week in class I learned how to use Google Bookmarks. This is an application on the Internet involving Google that allows you to bookmark websites and access them from other computers. I'm extremely happy that I have learned how to use this application because I know it will be very helpful when researching different topics. In fact, I wish this application was taught to me sooner because I know it would have come in handy. I'm looking forward to accessing and using this application for my research topic.