Week 4 Reading Response

1. What is the right balance between giving students freedom to explore the Web for research and providing them with structure and guidance?

There is always a balance in giving students freedom to explore the Web and providing them with structure and guidance. Giving students more freedom gives them greater autonomy and they may be more invested in their work. On the other hand, if they are not able to critically evaluate sites, they may be confused or misled by biased or just plain false information. Giving them more guidance ensures that they use valuable websites, but it prevents them from working out how to find resources or evaluate websites. This is why it is important to do an Internet Workshop before an Internet Inquiry or Internet Project.
Having said that, November (2001) gives some excellent advice about finding this balance. For example, he recommends using NARA (the National Archives and Records Administration) as a basis to provide students with a legitimate, safe website to deepen their exploration (p. 58). The website has a useful E-Venture school archive. They also provide ARC, a searchable database. Students can be shown how to use this database as a model for future, more independent research. NARA is also helpful in providing worksheets for critically evaluating primary sources. There is simply so much information available out on the web that, just as in libraries, we need organization to find pertinent information. NARA and other sites (I have a starting list here for social studies) can help.

2. What is the role of the teacher in helping students to make meaning of primary source material?

Students can’t just be thrown into these primary source databases without any background or scaffolding to help them understand them. Some primary sources use archaic language, others mention terms or other people that the student may not be familiar with, and still others have bias that the student may not be fully aware of. If possible, teachers should also give students a chance to read (or, in some cases, decipher) original documents. These provide another layer of archival skill, and a skill that needs to be taught (for example, lots of eighteenth-century handwriting is messy!) For example, if students do not know that the letter “s” (the long s) used to sometimes look like an “f,” they may not understand what they are reading. Even when they are reading modernized, printed sources, it is essential that teachers play an active role in helping the students evaluate the source’s authorship, context, bias, and purpose in writing. November (2001) also notes how students can be overwhelmed in trying to connect the source to the class material and larger historical context (p. 64). This is another reason why teachers should clearly explain why looking at primary sources is important, and specifically why certain sources are important. Or, as he puts it, “The role of the teacher is to provide structure and direction to a student’s ability to make meaning” (November, 2001, p. 64). This could include supplementing the primary source documents with video, audio, interviews with people in the local community, and meaningful dialogue with experts in the field.

3. How can teachers use Podcasting and/or multimedia tools to promote collaborative learning?

Podcasting is a great audio resource to promote collaborative learning. This can be done in a couple of ways. First, students can use podcasting to talk about their academics—as Richardson (2006) terms it, “edu-radio” (p. 117). Teachers could also have their own personal podcasts to give out further lecture information or so that students can listen and relate to the teacher on a more personal level. A great idea is to have students make a group podcast, such as an audio drama, interview with panelists, or song. By doing this, their work can be posted for a larger audience than just the teacher—it is available to their classmates as well as the community (Richardson, 2006, p. 116). Students can also collaborate with the community in using podcasts—for instance, they could interview a veteran or recent immigrant to America to give them insights on these topics. Also in social studies, podcasts could be used to showcase music from different periods in US history, or to give students examples of presidential recordings, found at The American Presidency Project and White House Tapes: Presidential Recordings Program. Students can use podcasts to collaborate both with each other and with experts and other “people resources.”