Course Statistics (7/14)

Well, we've changed our stats with everyone getting into the course full swing. Here's the report I generated today from 7/10 to 7/14.

Average user session length: 00:20:11
Average user sessions per day: 16
Average user sessions per day on weekdays: 17
Average user sessions per day on weekends: 0
Most active day: July 12, 2006
Most active hour of the day: 12:00-1:00 PM

You aren't the night owls that I expected you to be, but this activity makes sense since most of you are teachers!

Chicago Crimes Site

Thanks to a post from Cool Cat Teacher on her Westwood Wikispace, I just found an awesome website. ChicagoCrimes.org is a database that integrates the Google Earth database and the Chicago crimes. It gives a list of all the crimes committed in Chicago and also a map of the location of the crimes.

What would you do with a site like this in your class?

Course Statistics (So far)

Many of the participants in this class have never taken an online course, and it is my first time to teach totally online. I ran a course statistics report today in WebCT and collected data that might interest participants. Not everyone has logged into the course yet, which is totally expected since we don't start until Monday!

Here are the stats I can measure, and I'll repeat this post as we move through the course.
Total user sessions: 14
Average user session length: 00:08:02
Average user sessions per day: 2
Average user sessions per day on weekdays: 2
Average user sessions per day on weekends: 2
Most active hour of the day: 9:00-10:00 PM
Least active hour of the day: 5:00-6:00 PM

Looks like we have some night owls in the group! I'd like to know what time you normally access or plan to access the course information? Please post your response.

Extra Credit Available

I'd like to build a "Great WebQuests" list with examples of projects that adhere to the model we're studying for elementary, middle and high school levels. The class wiki site already has a page set up for Great WebQuests. If you find an example that you'd like to submit for the site, post a comment with the URL and grade level and I'll review your suggestion. If your recommendation follows the SDSU model and invokes understanding from students, then I'll post it to our class wiki site and give you 5 extra participation points. Limit of 3 recommendations per person please. If you don't have a Blogger login, you'll need to include your name with your post for credit points.

QuestGarden by Bernie Dodge

WebQuest creator, Bernie Dodge, has built QuestGarden for simple publishing. Here's his description from his blog:

QuestGarden is an online authoring tool, community and hosting service that is designed to make it easier and quicker to create a high quality WebQuest. No knowledge of web editing or uploading is required. Prompts, guides and examples are provided for each step of the process. Images, worksheets and other documents can easily be attached or embedded in the WebQuest, and users have complete control over the appearance of the final lesson.

QuestGarden is modeled after a community garden with all the resources needed to bring great WebQuests to life. Users are encouraged to comment on each others' work, to share links and images, and to build new WebQuests on existing ones. Rather than starting from scratch, users can bring a WebQuest written by another member of the community into their workspace, modify the content or appearance to suit their needs, and use it with their own students. Attribution to the first author is maintained, and authors are notified when another member of the community makes an improved or modified version of their work.

Powerpoint slides and a webcast about QuestGarden can be seen from the blog post.

I noticed that users can try QuestGarden for free until September 2006, and after that it will cost about $20/year for a subscription.

Give Blogging a Try

One of the quickest ways to learn new technology is to jump in and try it. Some of you may already have experience with weblogs, but others might not. Each participant should read from the questions below and chose one to respond to. Please copy and paste your question into your comment. The prompts should get you thinking about something you feel qualified to "blog" about, and provide an introduction to other classmates.

1. Read any good books lately? Tell us about one.
2. Go to (or look out) a window. Describe what you see, and why we should care.
3. What headline in today's paper got your interest? Why? What paper is it?
4. What's the most interesting thing you found on the Internet lately? Link to it in your posting and share why you like it.
5. What's your favorite sports team? Why?
6. Describe the best teacher workshop you've ever taken.

Hoax Detectives

We're on the hunt for Internet hoaxes, and here is what we found.