WebQuest Reflections plus Chapter 5 Discussion

WebQuests
After creating and sharing my own WebQuest assignment and viewing other people's WebQuest assignments, I realize that WebQuest assignments can be effective teaching tools for the following reasons:

• They enable instructors to clearly give instructions for a long-term assignment, explaining and displaying requirements of and processes involved in the assignment.
• They enable instructors to clearly explain and display a rubric for evaluation.
• They enable instructors to guide research by providing appropriate links related to the assignment.
• They give students easy and continued access to the instructions for a long-term assignment.
• They give students easy and continued access to the evaluation rubric.
• They guide students in their research for the assignment, providing them with appropriate links related to the assignment.  

Chapter 5
In Chapter 5 of Playing with Media, Wesley Freyer discusses the power of images, emphasizing that instructors and students alike need to develop media literacy skills and not only become discerning media consumers but also become effective media producers. The following are major areas of media literacy skills that Freyer covers in great detail:

• How can we find and use images created by others?
• How can we create and remix our own images to share with others?
• In using others' images and our own images, how do we understand copyright issues and respect intellectual ownership?

I especially appreciated the discussion of copyright issues because I had to deal with those issues as a producer of college textbooks for Prentice Hall. Any images, graphics, or directly-quoted text taken from outside sources to be used in a textbook had to be accompanied by the proper permission for use. Permission for use had to be formally requested of the copyright holders, and the granting of permission for use was usually accompanied by requests for fees and instructions for specifically worded and placed credit lines. Online use and sharing of images creates copyright issues that are similar in principle.