New Technology Policies Webquest

Introduction

Congratulations! You have been selected to be on the school board. The principal is trying to eliminate technology in classrooms. He believes that technology is distracting and does not benefit the students. Especially cell phones! By being apart of the school board, you are allowed to come up with new policies that allows technology in the classroom. However, you have to make these policies believable and that means you have to research to help justify your reasonings. What kinds of technology is beneficial for learning? Is all technology beneficial? Are there some forms of technology that is not beneficial for learning? If it is beneficial, why is it beneficial? These are just a few questions to get you thinking in the right direction on what kind of information you should be searching for. You only have a short time before the principal passes his No Technology Policy, so you better get busy researching!

Task

You will be a part of the school board and researching to help come up with a new technology policy. You have to make sure that you have done your research to help support why you believe that your form of technology should be allowed in the classroom. You will work with the “school board” to discuss and come up with a policy that you all agree on. You will need to make sure that have written your policy and come up with a way that you plan to present your new policy to the rest of the school board and principal. You are able to use PowerPoint, Prezi, or any presentation program you decided. You will be evaluated according to your creativity in how you present your new policy and how well you justify why this policy should be put into effect.

How can you implement a technology policy in the classroom?

Process

First, your teacher will assign you to a certain group of "school board members". Each group will then be assigned one form of technology (cell phones, computers, iPads, etc.). (There will be no group reporting on the same technology) Be sure you are up to date on your technology knowledge!

Step 1: Know your Technology!

Since you will be making a new school policy, you will need to make sure you are aware of what form of technology you are talking about. Your group will need to make sure to gather information on your technology describing it. This will help when you are having to present your policy and explain what your technology is to the school board.

Step 2: Visual Display

You and your group of school board members will be responsible for presenting the information that you gather. This means that you will need to put together a presentation and create a PowerPoint with the new policy that you plan to implement into classrooms. Your PowerPoint can include graphics, word art, or any images that you think will grab the audience's attention. The goal is to convince the rest of the school board and the principal that this is a reliable policy and a policy that will work.

Step 3: School Board Meeting

It’s time to start the meeting! As I have mentioned previously, you and your group of school board members will be presenting your new policy to the entire school board and the principal at the school board meeting. You will use the powerpoint that you have created (either using Prezi, PowerPoint or which ever program you chose) to help with your presentation. Remember, the rest of the school board might not be familiar with the technology that you will be talking about, so make sure to include information about your technology as well as how you would or why you would not implement this technology into the classroom.

Evaluation

	0 - Poor	5 - Proficient	10 - Accomplished
Presentation Tool	The student did not prepare a PowerPoint to use during their presentation.	The student did create a powerpoint to use during presentation, but some parts were missing.	The student created a powerpoint that they would use during the presentation and they included all of the necessary requirements: information about the technology, the pros and cons, their policy and justification for policy.
Group Participation	The student did not participate and help the group with in any way.	The student did participate some with the group, but did not participate in all the requirements.	The student participated in the group. They did their research, help make the PowerPoint and participated in the presentation.
Presentation	The presentation was not well organized, did not flow and it was clear that no practice was done prior to presenting.	The presentation was a little more organized, but still did not seemed practiced. It was interesting, but required a little more.	The presentation was well done and kept the audience's attention throughout. It was well organized and could tell that the group practiced.
Total Points:			_____ / 30

Conclusion

Congratulations! The school board loved your presentation. They are now going to have a vote over whether or not your policy will be implemented into classrooms. Did your policy match what you thought before you started researching? Did you find information that supported your thoughts or change your mind about technology in the classroom? Maybe you could research more and help the principal with even more policies for the school.