Cinco de Mayo Web Quest

Don't be scared! This is just the Dragon Slide that was featured at Mainefest 2007 at Sebago Point.

Enjoy this frosty Web Quest!

Here's a site with some amazing ice sculptures!

Anchorage Fur Rendezvous

Ice Palaces

Amazing Snow Sculptures

Snow Sculptures

Harbin Snow & Ice Festival - Bejiing

Sapporo Snow & Ice Festival - Japan

Ice Hotels Around the World

On my dappled things blog, read about the Icy Queen who forced a prince and his bride to spend the night in a palace made of ice: Icy Queen

This info came from ptypes.com. Though I did not know it at first, it's a Christian site. I had some light bulb moments while exploring which I will share in a minute.

My score stated that my temperament type is Idealist. See the chart below. To learn more about this personality type go here.

They describe the Idealist temperment as melancholic. Seems to suit me. I'm a melancholy baby.

They also say that:

"Idealists pride themselves on being loving,
kindhearted, and authentic."

OK, that's nice. I hope so.

I hit 18 out of 24 areas of interest in the Idealist category. Although Traditionalist came in at a fairly close second, I only had 12 out of 29 areas of interest there. Some of these (collectively) include: Theology, Writing, Issues & Causes, Religion & Spirituality, Personal Growth, Arts & Crafts, History, Home & Garden, Society & Culture, etc.

It was nice to know that my temperment is akin to C. S. Lewis, but disturbing to learn that Hillary Rodham Clinton also shares this temperment.

While all of this is fascinating, I was confronted with an interesting concept on this site. "The idealized self is an idol of the imagination. The idealized self is an image of what we should be, must be or ought to be, in order to be acceptable."

I'm exposing myself here . . . (*blushing*). Deep breath. Do you want to know more?

Reading about the Idealist personality their article discussed The Idealized Self and Grace. This was rather enlightening. Sin, Pride, and Self-Acceptance by Terry D. Cooper (Intervarsity Press) discusses how the idealized self can interfere with the acceptance of Grace. I hate to admit it, but truth be told, I am my own worst critic. Paradoxically, that makes me a little self-centered. I know I am hard on myself and sometimes have a hard time accepting God's grace, although I am very happy to have Him lavish it on others.

Even if I have a tendency to withhold grace from myself, God's spirit within me is constantly reminding me that He is bigger than my greatest failing. Oftentimes my failings are perceived, expectations of self. It is important for me to remember that He makes all things beautiful in His time! Even me.

It is not unattainable to find one's self acceptable before the Lord and in one's own eyes, even for an idealist. For me it requires the constant discipline of taking my insecurities and placing them in light of God's truth and his love. My focus must be on the realization of how God sees me through His son Christ Jesus, rather than how I see myself, or even how others see me.  I am becoming.  He is Grace.

1 John 3:19,20- "This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

Learn more about The Idealized Self and Grace.

You can take your own Temperment Test and discover interesting things about your personality.

The ptypes website also gives you a list of blogs by people with similar temperments. I took another test over at Bloginality, they do the same thing but it's not as complex. My FireFox web browser didn't work on this site so I had to default to Internet Explorer.

My Bloginality is INFP.

What does this mean?

According to Bloginality, as an INFP, I am intraverted, intuative, feeling , and perceiving. It also defines my personality as an Idealist.

The site says, "As a weblogger, you have wonderful words to express your feelings because of your idealism. Because you don't like conflict, you may be likely to make one list of links and leave it for a long time without updating for fear of offending." Though the former may have some truth to it, the later has little. I do not hesitate to place controversial links on my blogs or websites, if anything, I place them there to challenge you. Why? Because truth resides there. And I'm a truthseeker, idealistically anyway.

I'm listing this as another Web Quest because I just know you won't be able to resist exploring your own personality at these fun and interesting sites. Have fun! Let me know what you learn.

Today's web quest takes us to a circumstance that has spanned thousands of years. Slavery. Though slavery has been abolished in many places, it is shocking to learn that it is more prevalent today than ever due to increased population.

I invite you to visit these posts at my "dappled things" blog -

Free 27,000,000 Slaves

What Color is Slavery?

"Media Meanderings" blog - Amazing Grace, the movie

I'd love to just sit down with some of these ladies for a cup of tea and get to hear some of their great tales.

Women Travel Writers

More Women Travelers

Women in Power -

• 1800-1840

• 1840-1870

• 1870-1900

Ever wonder how to turn your house "green"? Or wonder what it means to be green? What if you could learn how to convert or build a house to be green? Where would this endeavor begin though?

This Web Quest will introduce you to green construction techniques, practices, and resources.

—Ever wondered how boats are made? What if you could learn how to build your own boat? Or even better, what if you could actually paddle a boat that you designed? But where should you start?Right Here!

This Web Quest will introduce you to boat building techniques, resources, and helpful hints.

I can think of one Web-Quest in particular that had the students look at primary and secondary sources about the Boston Massacre.  The focus question was. “Who Was To Blame For The Death’s At The Boston Massacre?”  The students had to read the different sources in order to come up with their own conclusion of what happened that day.  I know many Web-Quests have students research and present material on various subjects, but this one was more of a discovery or inquiry.  It also was a great way to introduce or practice reading primary sources.

There are other Web-Quests out there that are worthwhile.  On the flip-side, there are some that are a waste of time.  But you’re the teacher!  Pick a motivating, well written Web-Quest that challenges the students to learn something new.  And if there are none, create one your self.

Super cool pic - interactive - click with mouse, goes forward and backward

Art Morph - hundreds of years of art morphing before your very eyes

Face Recognition - what celebrities do you look like

Magic Gopher   - see if you can be outsmarted by a gopher

Los anglosajones, siguiendo su inveterada costumbre de ponerle una marca registrada y unas siglas a todo lo que hacen, denominan a este tipo de actividad “WebQuest”. Así pues, cuando un profesor está preparando una actividad en grupo, con información procedente de la Red, se dice que está haciendo un WebQuest.

Ese resultado puede ser un documento escrito, un objeto, una conferencia a sus compañeros o, incluso, un documento digital que, a su vez, los alumnos colgarán en la red.

Los requisitos

Para que una actividad didáctica sea productiva y pueda denominarse WebQuest debe cumplir varios requisitos: el profesor debe establecer un objetivo claro y concreto para la tarea, proporcionar las fuentes documentales con las que deben trabajar, para que los alumnos no se pierdan navegando por la Red, fijar los requisitos que debe cumplir el producto de su trabajo y establecer los criterios con los que será evaluado el trabajo.

• Con un enfoque constructivista

Una WebQuest es una actividad de investigación, centrada en el uso y elaboración de la información que, casi en su totalidad, se extrae de la Red. El modelo WQ se sostiene en la firme creencia de que cada alumno es el único protagonista de la construcción de sus conocimientos.

Algunos profesores utilizan formalmente el formato webquest para que los alumnos hagan lo de siempre: estudiarse un tema para memorizarlo o elaborar un resumen de un capítulo del temario. Pero es un error creer que una WebQuest consiste, simplemente, en suministrar los contenidos de estudio en soporte digital o extraerlos de una wiki para que los estudiantes elaboren un resumen siguiendo un guión.

• Una WebQuest debe ser motivadora

Las actividades propuestas deben ser atractivas y motivadoras. Pero no se trata de un mero juego escolar. Para garantizar la motivación, conviene que las tareas o preguntas procedan del mundo real. Se trata de plantearles necesidades reales, temas con importantes repercusiones para ellos y preguntas que necesitan, honestamente, una respuesta.

Para canalizar su implicación, a cada miembro del grupo de trabajo, que normalmente es de 3 o 4 alumnos, se le asignará un rol que deberá desempeñar en el grupo y una situación imaginaria en la que situarse para desempeñar la tarea.

• Un resultado indeterminado

Las tareas más ricas son las que reclaman respuestas elaboradas y matizadas, que son el resultado de un discurso argumentado y que no se encuentran en la Red. Son mejores las tareas cuyo resultado esperado es opinable o el resultado del equilibrio entre factores contrapuestos. No sirve de nada esperar que los alumnos lleguen a producir "la respuesta correcta".

Hay que llegar al resultado utilizando diversas fuentes de información y las capacidades cognitivas de los alumnos, trabajando en equipo, para elaborar y argumentar las ideas.

• Hecho para compartirlo

Con el producto del trabajo de los alumnos (un documento, una presentación, una acción) hay que hacer cosas que tengan sentido: publicarlo en la Red, enviarlo a personas reales para que opinen y lo evalúen, etc. Se trata, en plena sintonía con el espíritu de la web 2.0, de compartirlo para que sea útil a otros y así se convierta en un recurso para la construcción de nuevos conocimientos.

Para ello es útil cualquier plataforma de publicación colectiva: el blog del centro, una página web construida por los alumnos, el blog del curso, etc.

Bancos de WebQuest

Preparar una buena actividad WebQuest lleva su tiempo. Seleccionar las fuentes de información adecuadas, redactar las instrucciones de trabajo, elegir los roles, definir y redactar cuidadosamente los criterios de evaluación, etc. Es una tarea laboriosa.

La filosofía abierta que impregna este tipo de trabajos conduce a que los profesores, que invierten tanto tiempo en preparar una buena actividad, la pongan a disposición de todos los que deseen utilizarla. En contrapartida, pueden utilizar libremente en sus clases una WQ de otro profesor, sobre un determinado tema, como modelo para hacer una nueva WQ sobre un tema semejante, aunque sea en otra disciplina diferente.

Existen comunidades de profesores que utilizan este modelo de actividad didáctica y comparten sus WQ. La web principal de la comunidad WebQuest se encuentra en este enlace. Pero hay abundantes ejemplos de WebQuest, en cualquiera de las lenguas del estado, en alguna de las siguientes bibliotecas o recopilaciones de ejemplos:

• Biblioteca semántica de WebQuest del CFIE de Valladolid
• Bitácora sobre WebQuest
• Biblioteca de WebQuest de aula21
• Grupo de trabajo WebLinex del CPR Don Benito - Villanueva
• Comunitat Catalana de WebQuests
• Colección de Isabel Perez Torres
• Reseña de proyectos y WebQuest de Eduteka

También es aconsejable, para iniciarse en la elaboración de WQ, seguir alguno de los cursos que han elaborado las distintas comunidades de WebQuest. Por ejemplo, el curso “ WebQuest: una metodologia per treballar amb Internet a l'aula” de Carme Barba y Sebastià Capella, que está disponible on line en la web de la red telemática educativa de Cataluña (xtec).

Be prepared to learn more about Brain Surgery and Rocket Science!!!

Brain Surgery and Rocket Science

Black History Month WebQuest

 WebQuest