Media Evaluation Blog Post

Each week, a member of our class will find an online educational module and evaluate it in terms of design and digital media applications using the WBI rubric provided in Blackboard. Then post his or her findings as a post to this blog. The rest of us will come to this blog to visit and post our comments to the original weekly evaluation of the instructional multimedia products.

Freerice

Thursday, November 15, 2012

www.freerice.com

Freerice was developed by the World Food Programme.  Its main objective is to fight against hunger, while providing free education online.  They have raised enough rice to feed millions of people. For every correct question answered on Freerice, 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program.  Participants are warned:  “This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance...”

The website can be used for middle school students and high school students, as the level goes from one to sixty.  If a student answers a question correctly, they get a harder question. If they get it wrong, they get an easier question.  So the student’s level is basically targeted at the beginning to make the learning appropriate for that student.  The subjects included are:  humanities, math, language learning, English, chemistry, geography, science and test preparation.  Teachers can create a group for a class and register each of student so that they have a login username and password.  Up to 40 students can be registered if you register them as under 14 years of age). Give them the link to your group, and let them "Join". 

When you are signed up as a player on Freerice you can:
- track your totals permanently,
- join and create groups,
- share your results on Facebook and Twitter,
- find and follow friends,
- see your results in the ranking table

-let others see and be inspired by your totals.

WBI Scoring            

Instructional Aspects
• Objectives clearly stated:   4
• Objectives appropriately sequenced:   5
• Instructional strategies appropriate for the objectives:   4
• Instructional activities / process clearly described:    5
• Tasks adequate/significant for achieving objectives:  5
• Resources adequate/significant for achieving objectives:  5
• Learning achievement adequately evaluated:  5
• Evaluation criteria clearly expressed:  3
Motivational Aspects
• Gaining and maintaining learners' attention:  5
• Relating to learners' interest and goals: 5
• Building on learners' prior knowledge and foreshadowing what lesson is about: 4
• Providing positive feedback and feeling of accomplishment: 5
• Motivational strategies serve for objectives: 5
Web Design Aspects
• Navigation clear and easy to access: 5
• Authorship and date clearly stated: 5
• Text follows rules of grammar, spelling and literary composition: 5
• Using of multimedia visually appealing: 5
• Mechanical aspects: 5
• Web design appropriate for objectives: 5
• Web design appropriate for learner characteristics: 5

Total     95 /100

In my opinion, Freerice is a good website to use.  At my school, we have an unusually high number of basic and below basic students, who can really benefit from the English vocabulary and grammar.  I can use the website to incorporate literacy into my classroom.   The bowl of rice is a GREAT motivator for the students, as they compete to donate more rice than their classmates.  In the process, they are learning, as they receive immediate feedback.  If they give an incorrect answer, they are given the correct answer and the opportunity to answer that question correctly, as the question will be asked again until the student gets it right.   This is not a sophisticated website, but it would be practical and beneficial for my purposes.

Finding Common Ground Curriculum Evaluation

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Education/ConservationCentral/teacher/default.cfm

Finding Common Ground Curriculum is a middle school curriculum developed by the Friends of the Smithsonian National Zoo and Fujifilm.  This curriculum is aligned with both the National Science and the National Social Studies Standards, and contains six modules.  Teachers may choose to incorporate all of the modules into their curriculum, or simply choose the ones they want to use.  If all six modules are incorporated, students may develop a Class Conservation Action Plan at the end of the modules.  The curriculum includes several online, interactive simulations and games that greatly enhance the modules.  It also includes family learning activities and investigation questions for students to answer as they are investigating the environment.

The six modules are:

1. In My Own Backyard – Students conduct a biological inventory of their schoolyard
2. Understanding Habitat:  The Temperate-Forest Biome - Students apply what they learned in the first module in a live field study and an online, virtual field study
3. Exploring the Temperate Forest:  Biodiversity and Interdependence – Students explore the interdependence of plants and animals
4. Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park Research and Conservation – Students apply research and design a virtual Panda Habitat
5. People and the Forest – Students create a conservation model
6. What You Can Do! – Students create a Class Conservation Action Plan

This curriculum is inquiry-based, stimulates creativity and curiosity, encourages students to journal, ask questions and take steps to create a collaborative product at the end of the modules.  The virtual games and activities are well-done and engaging for middle school-aged students and younger.  I’m going to go through some of the modules with my 5 year old daughter, and I believe she will be very interested and able to understand many aspects of the curriculum.

WBI Scoring
Instructional Aspects
• Objectives clearly stated: 5
• Objectives appropriately sequenced: 5
• Instructional strategies appropriate for the objectives: 5
• Instructional activities / process clearly described: 5
• Tasks adequate/significant for achieving objectives: 4
• Resources adequate/significant for achieving objectives: 5
• Learning achievement adequately evaluated: 4
• Evaluation criteria clearly expressed: 3
Motivational Aspects
• Gaining and maintaining learners' attention: 5
• Relating to learners' interest and goals: 5
• Building on learners' prior knowledge and foreshadowing what lesson is about: 4
• Providing positive feedback and feeling of accomplishment: 5
• Motivational strategies serve for objectives: 5
Web Design Aspects
• Navigation clear and easy to access:  4
• Authorship and date clearly stated:  5
• Text follows rules of grammar, spelling and literary composition: 5
• Using of multimedia visually appealing: 4
• Mechanical aspects: 4
• Web design appropriate for objectives: 4
• Web design appropriate for learner characteristics: 4

Total 90/100

Oops!

Well, I knew I had heard about Sumdog before, but I looked through all of our posts on this blog and didn't see Katharyn's post until today.  It was in response to Dr. Hu's first post, so it's not listed on the right side of the page as one of our posts and that's why I didn't see it!  Please understand that I review many, many websites each week, and after awhile it's hard to remember where I saw or heard of one.

So, I'll review another site and post another evaluation as soon as I can.  Thanks for understanding!

Waterlife (this is not a required post)

Hi!  Well, I came across this web-based instruction, and I just had to share it with you.

It's called Waterlife and is an interactive story about the water cycle of the Great Lakes.  Just look at it; it's amazing!  (Well, I thought so anyway.)

Again, this isn't a required post nor does it require a response.  I just wanted to pass this along.

View Waterlife here.

Khan Academy --posted for TayrenC

http://www.khanacademy.org/

 Khan Academy is a free websit4e designed to cover several different topics.  It started out as one man posting math tutorials for his niece on YouTube since she lived across the country, but need help with her math homework.  The tutorials became so popular that he founded Khan Academy and expanded the subject matter to include science, computer science, finance, economics, and humanities and test prep.  You can log in using your Google account and it will keep track of your progress.  Then all you need to do is choose a subject that you want to learn about.  When you choose a topic, you are then given a series of tutorial options to choose from that build on each other.  The tutorials are done using video, which are insightful and engaging.  In the math section you have the option to test your knowledge by quizzing yourself about the subject covered in the tutorial.  In other sections, you can leave questions in the comment area located below the tutorial and someone will answer those questions or expand on the topic more. 
Instructional Aspects
1. Objectives clearly stated - 3
2. Objectives appropriately sequenced - 5
3. Instructional strategies appropriate for the objectives - 4
4. Instructional activities/process clearly described - 5
5. Tasks adequate/significant for achieving objectives -4
6. Resources adequate/significant for achieving objectives - 4
7. Learning achievement adequately evaluated - 4
8. Evaluation criteria clearly expressed - 4

Motivational Aspects
9. Gaining and maintaining learner's attention - 5
10. Relating to learner's interest and goals - 5
11. Building on learner's prior knowledge and foreshadowing what the lesson is about - 4
12. Providing positive feedback and feeling of accomplishment - 4
13. Motivational strategies serve for objectives - 4

Web Design Aspects
14. Navigation clear and easy to access - 5
15. Authorship and date clearly stated - 1
16. Text follows rules of grammar, spelling, and literary composition - 3
17. Use of multimedia (Text, graphic, audio, video, animation, etc.) visually appeal - 5
18. Mechanical aspects (No broken links, misplaced or missing images, etc.) - 5
19. Web design appropriate for objectives - 5
20. Web design appropriate for learner characteristics – 5

Total 84 /100

 The objectives for this site are not easily found or stated.  If you click on the About tab, then you are able to view how the site works and the ideas behind it.  I think since the site covers so many subjects, one objective statement would be difficult.  I thought that using the site was fairly intuitive, though I did not see the option to test myself in the math section right away. I love that if you ask a question about a subject someone from the site will answer back with clear and concise information.  I also love the tutorials.  They are engaging, sometimes funny, and also put into terms that are easy to follow, so they are accessible to almost anyone.

Test Page

Test Page