As an extension to my School of Ed
While reading up on WebQuests, one of the important aspects that stuck with me was the fact that this is an ‘inquiry-oriented activity,’ in which the students are constructing their knowledge, not just mindlessly accepting information given to them by their instructors. An idea that is intriguing to me is to use online collaboration as a way to combine brainpower in order to solve a problem. This way the students are coming up with their own ideas and solutions based off of their own research and inquiries; not just being fed information! The problem should be relevant to the students- and this is where the faculty collaboration comes in! My idea is that the teacher/ school librarian works alongside the students in order to problem-solve for another member of the staff. For example; one problem could be that only unhealthy meals are being selected in the cafeteria. The students can work with the Health teacher or the school nurse to promote healthy eating. Or there is the problem that too much littering is occurring on the school grounds. Students can work with the maintenance workers to come up with a solution. Putting many heads together that are continuously feeding off each other’s ideas will open a whole new world of potential solutions. In addition, this gives students an opportunity to collaborate with members of the staff they may not have otherwise had reason to interact with.
One way to do this is to use ‘Google Docs,’ where individuals can constantly be contributing useful links, excerpts from articles, their own ideas, etc. The students would be required to complete research on their problem, brainstorm solutions, develop and implement a plan. All of this can be done right within Google Docs, and all the involved staff can be a part of the document, contributing ideas and feedback all along the way! I like the idea of using an assignment and technology to create something applicable and useful, such as solving a problem for another staff member!
I like the idea of having the stakeholders (e.g., the health teacher, the maintenance worker, etc) brought together to brainstorm solutions to a problem. This way the solution is more likely to stick because they take ownership in generating the solution.
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