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    • « At least one answer to the question, What Should I Do Now? | Home | Be the Change: Sign Up to Volunteer Soon »

    Web Resources Can Lead to Great Learning and Fun

    By Tobi Kibel Piatek | December 26, 2008

    Every semester, Making Connections students suggest resources that they use and recommend for other teachers and mentors who work with kids at risk of dropping out. Here are two great suggestions for web based tools. Each is a wonderful site on its own. Combined together, they can be the basis of an exciting, personalized learning project, These sites are perfect for teachers and/or mentors; whether you are working in a classroom, after-school program or one on one.

    There are many ways to make the most of this idea (and I hope you will share yours), but one thing is for sure, providing kids with access to the ideas, information, images and inspiration linked to these sites, can lead to hours of fun and learning, for kids (and adults) of any age, and learning style.   

    WebQuest.org is a “great educational technology tool!” A WebQuest “is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web.”

    This site contains everything you need to know to set up and work through a web-based research project, including numerous and varied resources, a forum where you can ask questions, or even post your own WebQuest ideas, and a searchable database of completed projects and examples you can adapt to your own classroom or program.

    Suggestion: Create a WebQuest about jobs – the kinds of work that people do, and the skills and education they need to do their work.     

    The Teacher’s Guide Virtual Field Trips

    There is lots of great stuff here, but my favorite part of this site is the list of Virtual Tours of Museums. This is truly a treasure trove of information, images, inspiration … for everyone. A mentoring pair can visit this site, choose a museum to visit together, and spend days exploring and discovering (the horse, the history of rock and roll, the art of Russia …)

    Keep in mind that each museum presents information in different ways, so you may need to spend some time checking out what is available, but one thing is for sure, whatever the interests, background, age and attention span of ‘your’ kids, there will be something to capture their attention.

    TIP:     Type Virtual Tour into the search box on the museum sites to access in-depth information.

    Note: On both of these sites and the sites that they link to, you will find numerous teacher, kid and family resources, lesson plans, ideas and more.

    SHARE YOUR CREATIVITY - tell us how you used these sites to work with kids in your classroom or program.

    Topics: Recommended Resources |

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