assignments

Week 1 Assignments (4):

1. Please introduce yourself. Share some of your personal, professional, and technological background. Why are you in this class? What are your aspirations? What do you want from us? Have you any Internet-in-the-classroom stories or successes to share?

2. What you feel to be the three most pivotal milestones or discoveries in the evolution of the Internet and how they have an impact on the classroom. Share one hope for the future

3. Visit all the Webquest and Filamentality Web links listed above. Learn how both techniques work. Share with the group you opinions on these Internet features. Share anything interesting you discovered

Note: Actually, creating a Webquest and/or Filamentality site is optional. However, if you do build one, it can be used for credit in Week 6: Projects for Points. Also, a Webquest or Filamentality project could become a critical element in your final Curriculum Development Project

4. (OPTIONAL) Tell us what technology at your school has replaced the following classroom tools from the 1950s

pencil & paper	dictionary	encyclopedia
atlas	record player	library card catalog
movie projector	slide projector	blackboard & chalk

	Week 3 Assignments (6):	top
	Regardless of the search engine one uses, most of them are good enough to return hundreds to millions of replies to your query. Advanced searching allows one to narrow the field. Harnessing the Internet for the classroom means learning and teaching methods for distilling only the best information.
	1. Results may vary: Search at least Google, Alta Vista, Teoma, MSN, Hotbot and Yahoo! for the same word. Use any word you like that generates at least a million hits at one or more sites. Record the total number of hits you get at each site. Share your results. Which site has the most hits? Which site has the least? Could you gauge a qualitative difference? Remark on the experience and bring up any questions you may have. Why you think there is such a disparity of total pages between leading search engines?
	2. Add additional words to your search to narrow results:
	In this exercise, you will trim a search from 48 million down to less than 1,000. Go to Google Search for the word children Notice the total number of hits. It should be around 50 million. One at a time add additional words from the list below. Hit the Search button after each new word is added. Example: Start with children. Then search for children school. Then search for children school rural. And so on. Watch the number of results shrink.
	A challenge! Try and get your hit count below 200 by continuing to add words. Chose from the following or add your own. Post your results. school rural reading testing poverty boys diet exercise
	3. Use plus and minus symbols + - (known as Boolean logic) to include and exclude categories in a list of words.
	For Example, if you were looking for California hiking trails that are not in Yosemite, you could use this search: +California +trails -Yosemite The minus symbol (-) would remove Yosemite from the search. Go to Alta Vista and try some of the options below or create your own. Notice the changes in the type and number of replies
	+Shakespeare +sonnets -plays +crime +poverty -drugs +panthers +sports -animals +panthers -sports +animals +volcanoes +active +volcanoes -active
	4. Use quotation marks to find exact phrases. Go to Mamma, parallel search engine, and type in the phrases below. Try one of your own.
	"President Bush on global warming" "Car games to keep children occupied"
	5. Devise a one-class-period lesson plan idea that would teach advanced search techniques to students in your classroom. Share briefly what that lesson might look like. What would students search, and how would you structure the event?
	6. (OPTIONAL) Try the advanced search pages at the following search engines. Notice you can filter timeframe, file format, and various other attributes. Experiment. Share any interesting discoveries or observations.
	Google Advanced Alta Vista Advanced Hotbot Advanced Yahoo Advanced

	Week 4 Assignments (4):	top
	1. Personal Inquiry project must be shared in a format others can view. Upload options: Make a Web page at www.geocities.com a division of Yahoo. If you are already a Yahoo member (email, Messenger, Briefcase) simply log in. Otherwise, create a quick, free account. Type up or paste your Personal Inquiry text into this Web page and post the URL in the Discussion Forum. Here is your instructor's Geocities page: Steve Here are some Personal Inquiry examples created by previous participants in this class: Bonnie \| Nancy \| Tamara For written documents uploaded to WebCT's Discussion Forum, save using Rich Text Format (.RTF), which is PC/Mac compatible. It is available as a save option on most word processors. PowerPoint files are OK, but watch the size. The graphic below shows the .RTF save option in Word.

	2. Read at least two other participants' Personal Inquiry attachments and give feedback. Remark on what you like best. Offer suggestions and additional resources.
	3. By Friday, post a brief summary that discusses your Primary Unit Plan and Curriculum Comparison/Contrast Study.

	Week 5 Assignments (4):	top
	1. Spend the week visiting the sites listed above and others located on the Master Teacher Resource Portal. Bookmark the ones useful to you. Give a summary of your top five favorites. What is the content? Why do you like them? How will you use them in your classroom? Will you use them in your Curriculum Project? Did you download any files -- images, sounds, movies? Did you join any sites? Did you upload anything? Pictures, text? Join a Web host? Find a dead link?
	2. Evaluate these sites using the eight criteria above. Share your results with the class. www.martinlutherking.org www.barnesreview.org
	3. (OPTIONAL) Do you have any new sites to share? You can type them into the WebCT post and add them to the BraveNet link below.
	4. (OPTIONAL) Click here: Learn to make your own portal. Learn how to FTP (upload) your portal to the Internet. The assignment is to learn how only. It is not required that you actually make a portal. However, is is strongly suggested that try one. Remember, you can copy and paste the Master Teacher Resource Portal to your computer and modify it for personal use. Respond with your efforts, discoveries, and questions regarding the making and posting of Portals.

	Week 6 Assignments (Choose from options 1-16)	top
	Project Option 1 Join TeacherWeb and create a teacher's classroom home page. Add a short biography and put a minimum of TEN LINKS in the Web Links section. Post a link to your site. See an example from Nancy. See an example from Steve (30 points)
	Project 2: Download Yahoo! Messenger and install it. Locate your instructor's Yahoo ID and add it to your friends' list. Send your instructor an Instant Message. (30 points)	top
	Project 3: Use Yahoo! Messenger and locate at least two other people in this class by using their Yahoo ID. If you are doing this project, POST your Yahoo ID name in the Discussion Forum for Week 6. Notice at least three people will need to do this assignment for it to work. Check Discussion Forum for Yahoo IDs. (20 points)
	Project 4: Create your own Webquest or Filamentality Web project. This gives one more structure than Project 1. However, if it is a Webquest, it will still need to be uploaded (FTP) to a Website. Provide us a link(s) in your posting (30 points)
	Project 5: Open a Yahoo! Briefcase account and upload several files to your private folder. Briefcase lets people keep important files on the Internet for quick access from any computer. It's a great way to move files between home and school Create a public folder and copy some files to it. Post your URL for your Briefcase for classmates to visit. (25 points) (Note to all: Others cannot see the contents of your Briefcase. However, we can navigate to it to see that it exists. You must pay the Premium Service Fee to share files. However, you can freely share photos at http://photos.yahoo.com . 5b. Post Photos at http://photos.yahoo.com (15 points) For working examples, visit http://briefcase.yahoo.com/sgibbz http://photos.yahoo.com/sgibbz
	Project 6: Go to LearnTheNet and spend 20 minutes there. Even if you've been there before, find something new to read. Share what you learned. (10 points)	top
	Project 7: Create a public BLOG at www.blogger.com Write some commentary on a topic that interests you. Post the URL to your BLOG (20 points)
	Project 8: Make a survey at Opinion Power. When you are finished, OpinionPower will give you two or three URLs. One will go to the Survey. One will go to the Graphed Results. One will go to the Text Results. Post these links so your classmates can take your survey and read the results. (10 points)
	Project 9: Join Fun Brain and make a quiz. Try out some of the other Fun Brain features. Describe your experiences. (5 points)
	Project 10: Go to Puzzlemaker and make a few puzzles you can use with your students during your Internet unit. Notice that you can save them digitally at the Puzzlemaker site or you may print them. You cannot save them on your computer digitally unless you take a screen shot. Upload a screen shot, or simply tell us what you created. (5 points)
	Project 11: Access Usenet. Learn how to access the 50,000-plus discussion groups on Usenet by activating Outlook Express's News Reader feature. When connected to Usenet, join at least one K12 group and post a message which contributes to the current topics being addressed. Post to our class a summary of the experience. What problems did you have, if any? What group did you join? What does your message say? (50 points)
	Project 12: Explore Web Rings for at least 15 minutes. Explain what they are to the class. Did you find any useful rings? Share good URLs (10 points)	top
	Project 13: Go to Babblefish and write the class a message that you convert into another language. Paste the translation into the discussion board (5 points)

	Week 8 Assignments (5):	top
	1. Explain how you will share copyright laws, fair use guidelines, and plagiarism definitions with your students. How will you follow up to ensure these policies are being followed?
	2. (Optional) Share a plagiarism story if you have one
	3. Finish and Post your Curriculum Comparison/Contrast Study as an .RTF file It should be 200-400 words. 4. Fill out the .RTF Project Template for your Curriculum Unit Project and upload it as an attachment by Wednesday of Week 8.
	5. Read and provide feedback on at least two other pupils' Curriculum Unit Project.
	Sonoma State's APA Guidelines Citation Machine (auto-arrange into APA)

	Week 2 Assignments (3):	top
	Create for this class a Favorites or Bookmark Folder now using your browser's Organize feature. (If unsure how, finish the tutorial below first) This activity is for your own convenience for collecting useful links discovered in this course. You will not turn in your Favorites or Bookmarks.
	Post to the Discussion Forum your experiences at creating this folder and organizing your favorite Web addresses.
	2. Create a Prototype Works Cited document to use with your classes. Collect at least five links that can be useful with your Curriculum Project. Attach the Works Cited document to a class post. Use .RTF format