Web-Based Learning Design Project

A web-based learning project that I would use with students would be about finding ways to exploring and communicate with others.

Information Collection and Analysis

Goals and Objectives:
English, Language Arts, Social Studies, especially Geography, Map Skills:
· To provide students with a fun, authentic learning situation that will allow them to use thinking skills and problem solving to organize information and form and confirm hypotheses on geographical locations.
· To practice mapping skills.
· To encourage students to work together co-operatively.
URL - http://www.learnquebec.ca/en/content/pedagogy/cil/telecollab/structur2.html
Overall Place in the Lesson:
As a class, students will write a series of clues leading to the discovery of the location of their school. These clues, exchanged via e-mail, will become the questions for a massive virtual treasure hunt they will take part in as well. This lesson will also have students work on reading atlas maps and understanding different geographic locations around the world.
Authentic Problem:
Students will use an atlas to try and discover the location of each participating school, taking on the challenge of who can guess the locations of 5 schools using clues from different students around the world. They will then identify these locations on a map posted in the classroom. They will also make charts to organize thinking. Participating schools are encouraged to do the same and a copy of the sets of clues (without the answers) will be made available upon request. The names and locations of all participating schools (the answers) will be posted at the close of the hunt. E-mail addresses will be included; this will support communication between the schools taking part in the hunt.
Process:
Students, working in small groups, will create a series of clues about where their school community is located, using a set of suggestions to guide them. Students will submit their clues to an online website. Groups of students from other locales will “solve” the geographic location; additionally, they will review solutions from other schools attempting to locate their school. The groups will then challenge one another to see which can locate the 5 schools first and then compare information strategies and methods used to locate these schools.

A rubric will be used to assess student performance and each step of the activity.