Stacy Roeschlein conducted research to find online resources such as wikis, blogs, podcasts and videos to teach Spanish vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure related to the theme of architectural elements in Spanish homes. She was unable to find suitable narrative resources for her specific theme and student level. However, she discovered social bookmarking tools like Delicious and Diigo that could help with collaboration. Creating charts to organize research helped prevent "tagging vertigo". Ultimately, blogs and wikis would be better used by students to share their own research findings, such as by creating an iBook, rather than as a primary research source.

1. Sect 09 My Inquiry Based Project
by Stacy Roeschlein

3. My goal in my inquiry based project was to discover if I could find
theme-related Internet-based sources such as wikis, blogs, podcasts,
videos, and other forms of narrative resources similar to those in the
“Civil War and the Southern family” example on http://webinquiry.org.
I wanted to be able to use these resources to teach curriculum-
mandated vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure. I narrowed
my research to the specific Spanish Level I house theme asking, “Why
have particular architectural and interior design and décor elements
developed in Spanish homes? How would you design your dream
home incorporating 3 or more of these elements?” Based on Dr.
Thornburg’s criteria, this topic focus meets the requirements of a good
question. Identifying important questions is one of the 21st century
literacy skills according to Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004.
Therefore in class I will use Dr. Thornburg’s criteria to do group
question brainstorming.
Stacy Roeschlein

4. Join Log In Explore Help Search s
What is a good question?
David Thornburg, "Forget The Future, It's The
Photo taken from David Thornburg, “Forget the Future, It’s the Present that Concerns Me: Preparing Students For Today’s World” on
Vimeo.com Present That Concerns Me: Preparing Students

5. Technology and 21 st
Century Literacy
Skills
Skills for the Future
By David Warlick
• What skills do I need to provide for my
students?
• What does the workplace need them to be
able to do?
• What should I incorporate into Inquiry Based
Learning Projects to support the development
of these skills for their working future
outside of school?
Photo taken from www.don.johnston.com

6. Workforce
Industrial Age: Wanted a workforce that could be directed
Digital Age: Wants a workforce that teaches itself using the
resources it finds
(David Warlick)

7. 21st Century information is:
Networked
Digital
Abundant
Operates without containers (the reader has as much
control as the publisher)
(David Warlick)

8. What is 21st Century literacy?
Literacy is the skills involved to resourcefully use information
to learn and accomplish goals.
use the Internet and other ICTs to:
identify important questions
locate information
critically evaluate the usefulness of that information
synthesize information to answer those questions
communicate the answers to others
(Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004)

9. Identify important questions
My Essential Question
Can personal, native-speaker letters, videos,
blogs, or other resources similar to those in
the “Civil War and the Southern family”
example on http://webinquiry.org be found
and used to teach vocabulary, grammar, and
sentence structure within the theme of why
particular architectural and interior design
or décor elements developed in Spanish
homes?

10. What is 21st Century literacy?
Literacy is the skills involved to resourcefully use information
to learn and accomplish goals.
use the Internet and other ICTs to:
identify important questions
locate information
critically evaluate the usefulness of that information
synthesize information to answer those questions
communicate the answers to others
(Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004)

11. locate information
critically evaluate the usefulness of that information
Keeping my topic in mind, I followed the recommendations of this
course and experimented with different search engines and key word
searches. I found this an eye-opening experience, as previously I did
not believe there was any difference in search engines. I determined
that www.yahoo.com and www.webcrawler.com were the best search
engines for what I was looking for. Therefore, in my class and as I
design inquiry based learning experiences, I will list the different
search engines as a resource. I will have the students do just what we
did here - take one part of the project and practice with 3 different
engines and search strategies.
Stacy Roeschlein

12. TOPIC FOCUS
(Keyword search scavenger hunt, Reading the Web)
Learning which key words generate productive
searches and evaluating websites and information
for usefulness and validity takes a lot of time!
Read the URL
Examine the content
Ask about the author
Links to and from the website
(Article Get REAL, How to Validate Information on the W

13. Technology and 21st Century Literacy
Skills
The Changing Work Environment
By David Thornburg
Photo from www.edutopia.org

14. Expectations of the New Workforce
• Collaboration with peers – Millenniums are used to
social networking (David Warlick)
– Intellectual work, intellectual capital, can be delivered
from anywhere.
– It can be disaggregated, delivered, distributed, produced,
and put back together again – this gives a whole new
degree of freedom to the way we do work, especially
work of an intellectual nature.
– You can innovate without having to emmigrate.
(Thomas Friedman 2005)

15. Collect and Highlight, Then Remember Tools
Plans and Pricing
Social Bookmarking Sites enable
Feature Tools Feedback
Sign In
Diigo for iPad
Collaboration across time and geography.
Your all-purpose digital library on iPad!
Diigo Power Note for Android
Your memory booster on the go!
Join Diigo
Help
Diigo offline reader for iPhone
Read bookmarks offline on iPhone
Students can use this resource to collaborate on their research.
Tools for desktop browsers
Bookmark, Highlight, screenshot...in one place!
Tr
Get Started Now! Educator ?
Get started here »
Welcome to
Delicious!
Delicious helps you find cool stuff
and collect it for easy sharing. Dig
Collect and High
into stacks created by the community,
and then build your own!
(www.delicious.com)
Feature Tools (www.diigo.com)
Diigo for iPad
Your all-purpose digital libr
Diigo Power Note for Andr
Your memory booster on the
Diigo offline reader for iPh
Diigo vs. Alternatives, or Why Diigo?

16. Web search textual vertigo! Photo from http://ladconciergegropu.com
Make a chart of website titles and URLs, brief annotations, and tags.
This enables the student to think critically and efficiently about tag
categories and website descriptions. This will help when it is time to
synthesize data.

17. collaborate
My next discovery was the existence of social bookmarking sites such as
www.delicious.com and www.diigo.com. These are spectacular tools for the 21st century
skill of collaboration with others to solve problems. However, as I bookmarked websites, I
started to get lost in tagging. I believe providing a chart or graphic organizer would be
helpful to prevent “textual and tagging vertigo.” As Dr. Douglas Hartman suggests,
mapping out or recording learning as a student conducts research will help keep the student
on track. Making a chart of my website titles and URLs, brief annotations, and tags helped
me become more aware of what I was using as tags and become more efficient in my
descriptions. It also helped me generate new key word searches. I will have students do
this also as it is a useful skill in organizational knowledge. Handout E-2 Questions about
the URL on p. 181 and the evaluation charts in section 07 helped me critically evaluate
each source, who is the parent company, and what might be the reason for a website design
and the message angle influencing it. The location and critical evaluation of information
are two more of the 21st century literacy skills.
Stacy Roeschlein

18. The Internet Search
for usable blogs, wikis, podcasts, and websites
Image from www.seminarpaper.com

19. The History LOS CIGARRALES
leave a comment
A Great Spain Photo Blog…
Posted in General
October 12th, 2011 at 9:35 am
Written by Ben Curtis
Spain podcasts, and even learning Spanish, at our sister site Notes in Spanish.
If this is your first visit then ¡Bienvenido! You’ll find endless information about Life in Spain, Spanish food, travel in Spain, our famous
4 comments
Welcome to Notes From Spain!
Definitely not in Kansas anymore: A pathway along the Noguera Ribagorzana river, which separates Aragon and Catalunya in
Se da en Toledo una rareza
of Spanish
9
arquitectónica y es que bellos e
históricos edificios se entremezclan
con los usos y costumbres de la
Style
10
actual ciudad moderna y es habitual
que esconda construcciones con
share
Homes siglos de antigüedad que se han
2
By Kate Wharmby Seldman, eHow incluido poco a poco, recuperado
share
Contributor para su intervención en la vida del
Spanish-style homes are nuevo milenio.
22
popular today in Southern
California and Arizona, as Un ejemplo de esta circunstancia
Errant in Iberia
Learn Spanish
well as Florida and Texas.
Podcasts
son Los Cigarrales, cortijos otrora
About
Home
The architectural style usados como casas de recreo por la
originated in the ornate burguesía toledana y hoy día
buildings of 17th- and 18th- reconvertidos en vergeles de paz en
century Spain. California las riberas del Tajo, especialmente
missions of the18th-century al sur de la ciudad.
California also influenced
this style. Spanish-style Construcciones de estética rústica,
homes combine simple red señorial, algunos incluso
roofs and stucco walls with conventual, se rodean de bellos
complicated wrought iron jardines, terrazas o patios repletos
detailing and colorful tile de plantas y flores
work. Does this Spark an
idea?

20. What is 21st Century literacy?
Literacy is the skills involved to resourcefully use information
to learn and accomplish goals.
use the Internet and other ICTs to:
identify important questions
locate information
critically evaluate the usefulness of that information
synthesize information to answer those questions
communicate the answers to others
(Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004)

21. My final discovery was disappointing. After hours of searching, generating different key
words, and scanning several blogs, wikis, and websites, I determined that the use of
resources similar to those in the “Civil War and the Southern family” example are difficult,
if not impossible, to locate for my purpose of teaching vocabulary, grammar, and sentence
structure within the home theme. Many blogs and wikis had inappropriate content on them
for K-12 education. Others did not have enough depth of information on the theme of
Spanish housing. In Section 08 you can read my synthesis of Spanish homes from two
valid websites. Handout S-1 Text Map on p. 215 was an excellent graphic organizer for
synthesis. The Synthesis Self-Checker, S-13 p. 229, will also be used in my class. I also
found good information on Wikipedia and Regional tourism sites, such as the Los
Cigarrales site, regarding specific regions of Spain and housing styles. Unfortunately, this
text was written in an advanced level of Spanish, which level I and II students would not
comprehend. Likewise, the Notes from Spain blog had podcasts and text about Spanish
culture. This style of blog is common and I believe would create a “textual vertigo”
leading students off track from the thematic goal.
Stacy Roeschlein

22. Synthesize information to answer those questions
s
y
n
t
h
e
s
i
s

23. What is 21st Century literacy?
Literacy is the skills involved to resourcefully use information
to learn and accomplish goals.
use the Internet and other ICTs to:
identify important questions
locate information
critically evaluate the usefulness of that information
synthesize information to answer those questions
communicate the answers to others
(Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004)

24. communicate the answers to others
Communicating
 Sharing information online through wikis, blogs, and
other tools.
(Dr. Douglas Hartman)

25. In conclusion, for this house theme, I could not use personal narratives, podcasts, wikis, or
blogs for research. However, we could use them as vehicles to share our own research
information and to create our presentations. My preference, though, would be to use iBook
Author software throughout the school year and create our own textbook with the results of
several inquiry projects. In this manner we could create our own podcasts, videos, and
graphics to support our textual findings. Students could explore a media that inspires their
own creativity and utilize it to convey the information found in both traditional and 21 st
century media.
Stacy Roeschlein