Evaluación del Currículo Enseñado : Prácticas de aula

Webquest Evaluating online materials
for your class

Introduction

 Designing materials for your English
learners is part of most teachers’ responsibilities. Today, you have many
resources to help you with this activity:

o     
Internet

o     
software

o     
on-line
materials

o     
teachers
and learner websites

 However, not everything you find in
these resources is appropriate for your learners. To be able to decide what is
best for your learners you will need to consider some asessment criteria. In
this Webquest, you will familiarize with different online materials as well as
with criteria to evaluate them and decide which the best options for your
learners are.

The task

You will visit some websites related
to criteria people should consider when evaluating online materials for their
learners.

 

With your partners, you will
construct a checklist that you could use when assessing online materials for your
learners

Using agreed criteria you will visit
some online websites resources and assess the value of the resource for your
own learners

Finally, you will report to your
peers the results of your search. In small groups you will summarize your
results in a format that helps other teachers in your institution decide if a
given online resource is appropriate for their learners.

The process

For this activity, you
will be working in pairs. Read the articles on criteria to evaluate online
materials and make a flow chart to summarize the
most important information.

There will be 2 groups.
Each group will read the links assigned. When the time is up, you will have the
opportunity to share with another group to complement your own information.

Group 1

	Group 2
http://www.libraryinstruction.com/evaluating.html	http://www2.hawaii.edu/~nguyen/web/
http://epress.lib.uh.edu/pr/v8/n3/smit8n3.html	http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/

 After sharing with another group, go
back to your initial pair and design a simple and useful checklist that English
Teachers at your institutions may use to assess online resources.

 For an example click here:

Once you had designed your checklist
you need to test it for validity and reliability purposes.

In the same pair, go the websites
assigned to you and using your checklist decide if the suggested pages are
appropriate for a chosen group of learners.

Group 1	Group 2
http://www.readingonline.org/	http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/writing/menu.html
http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm	http://www.ohiou.edu/esl/teacher/writing.html

 Now,
answer the following questions based on your visit:

What do the pages have
in common?

1. What makes them
   different?
2. Which did you like
   better? Which features in this web did you find particularly helpful? Why?
3. Do you think you can
   use these with your students to help them develop their reading/writing
   competences? How?

 

Once you have finished the review,
prepare a 2 slide PowerPoint presentation recommending or discouraging your
fellow teachers to use these pages. Refer back to the checklist you designed
previously.

 

Evaluation

To evaluate your work, the following
criteria will be used

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4	Score
Flow chart Criteria to evaluate  online materials	Incomplete representation with little relevant detail	A suitable representation of each article with relevant detail. Shows understanding of different elements but doesn't cross analyze among the four articles	A clear and detailed representation of the articles which shows a sound understanding of the crucial elements of evaluating online resources. Finds interesting points of comparison among the four	A clear and detailed analysis which shows unusual insight into the criteria for assessing online materials Makes clear any relevant points of comparison among the articles
Checklist criteria to evaluate online materials	Incomplete with little relevant information	A suitable list of criteria with relevant details	A clear and detailed list of criteria	A clear and detailed  criteria showing awareness of audience
Powerpoint: Evaluation of Website	Superficial with no relevant information	Suitable  with relevant information and visuals	Clear and explicit.	Clear and visually explicit. Shows great awareness of audience

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have completed
this Webquest on evaluating
online materials for your class. I hope you have accomplished the following:

1. A
   clearer idea of the criteria that we as teachers need to use in order to
   select online materials for our EFL students.
   

2. Motivation
   to explore online resources as an option to provide materials for your
   learners
   

3. Interest
   to explore Webquest as an option to design learners centered tasks for
   your classes.