SBC Knowledge Network Explorer: Filamentality Formats

"To the ship without a compass, any port's a destination. "

Begin with a goal. Learning should be more efficient than wandering around aimlessly and being satisfied when learning just happens to take place. Start with a subject of particular interest. For students this might be a hobby or something they've heard about or always wanted to learn about. For teachers and librarians, it might be a subject in which they specialize. Another idea for both teachers and students is to look at existing curriculum units and see if there are any missing pieces.

Hotlist: A reasonable first step is to simply compile a list of web-based resources to a current learning activity- i.e. a good Hotlist of sites you know are appropriate for your users. These pages might not be standards-based or geared toward a specific learning outcome, but it will be like wheeling a bunch of good books from the library into the classroom.
Treasure Hunt: If learners are emotionally connected to the topic, then ask the question, "Are they learning enough background information on the subject?" If the answer is no or if the best information on the subject is "hot off the press," then try a Treasure Hunt.
Subject Sampler: If learners have factual knowledge about a subject, then ask yourself, "Do they come out of the unit affectively engaged?" If they are willing to do the higher-order thinking, but don't seem to care about the subject as you think they should, try creating a Subject Sampler.
Multimedia Scrapbook: If you want students to dig around the web, find resources, and create their own reports, newsletters, presentation stacks, or posters, you might try making a Multimedia Scrapbook.
WebQuest: If they learn facts, but don't pursue higher-level thinking, why not make a WebQuest? In this way you're using a clear goal to motivate the creation of a web-based activity for a learning aspect that you'd want to revise anyway.

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Another Suggestion...

Maybe you or a team of students or teachers are developing a unit and need several activities to achieve the instructional goals. Gather your Hotlists or Scrapbooks, then choose the order of your activities. For example, you might want to begin by striking a positive attitude with a Subject Sampler, then provide learners with information through a Treasure Hunt, and finally engage them in higher-order thinking with a WebQuest. This would seem to be a reasonable and fairly traditional approach. You might, however, want to start with a WebQuest that thrusts students immediately into a compelling aspect of the topic. This way, from the beginning, students have a broader perspective and a better sense of why this topic is important to study (i.e. , because it's challenging and doesn't offer a simple black and white answer).

Assemble Resources

Some of the things that make the Web so useful for learning are the freshness of current events information, the passion of many special interest causes, and the diversity of perspectives available on many opinions. Add to this the ability to communicate with people across the world, access to a wealth of multimedia resources, and increasingly interactive learning experiences and we've got a bunch of good reasons to add web resources to the learning environment.

Even if you don't create a Hunt, a Sampler, or a WebQuest, it's still helpful to create a Hotlist or a Scrapbook. This way you're adding web-based resources to those resources learners already such as the library, CD-ROMs, print media, and videos. If you do want to create a Hunt, a Sampler, or a WebQuest, the first step is to create a Hotlist by gathering relevant web resources that can then be incorporated into the other formats. Below you will find examples of both professionally created pages that vary from the standard Filamentality format and plain Filamentality pages created by real users.

Hotlist Examples: China on the Net * or A Hotlist on Colonial America

Using the power of the Internet for learning means linking to sites that you find most useful and appropriate. Doing this will save your learners hours of aimless searching (not an efficient use of class time). With Filamentality, it's easy to create a web page that collects the locations in a Hotlist. You might choose to have learners search for their own sites on the Internet; for example, when students do independent study projects (like for science fairs) or you have groups studying different aspects of a larger topic (an example would be 20th Century American history with separate student groups choosing a particular decade to study and present to the class).

Scrapbook Example: Exploring China: a Scrapbook * or A Scrapbook on The Great Depression

When learners already have a general understanding of the subject they are studying (i.e. , they've done some preliminary learning in class or with traditional resources), you might want their first web-based activity to be the exploration of a Multimedia Scrapbook. Here learners dig through a collection of Internet sites you've selected and organized around specific categories. Links can include photographs, maps, stories, facts, quotations, sound clips, videos, virtual reality tours, whatever! Learners use the Scrapbook to find aspects of the broader topic that they feel are important. They then download or copy and paste these scraps into a newsletter, desktop slide presentation, collage, bulletin board, HyperStudio stack, or new web page. The Multimedia Scrapbook offers a more open, student-centered approach that allows construction of some mental schema and an affective connection that's often so rewarding.

Promote Learning

Perhaps you want to create a web-based activity much like you create handouts, do research, and design lessons and classroom activities. Filamentality helps you integrate the Internet into your handouts, research, lessons, and activities. This allows your students and other teachers to access it from any connected computer. Isn't it better to provide compelling experiences that foster the attitudes, knowledge and skills you're working toward? Below you will find examples of both professionally created pages that vary from the standard Filamentality format and plain Filamentality pages created by real users.

Treasure Hunt Example: Black History Past to Present * or Team Treasure Hunt

When it's time to develop some solid factual knowledge on a subject, teachers and students can create Treasure Hunts. The basic strategy here is to find webpages that hold information (text, graphic, sound, video, etc. ) that you feel is essential to understanding the given topic. Maybe you gather 10 - 15 links (and remember, these are the exact pages you want the students to go to for information, not the top page of a huge website and expect them to find the needle in a cyberstack). After you've gathered these links, you are then prompted by Filamentality to pose one key question for each web resource. If you've collected 30 links and don't want to use them all, that's fine, Filamentality will take care of that for you by letting you deselect them. By including a culminating "Big Question," students can synthesize what they have learned and shape it into a broader understanding of the big picture.

Subject Sampler Example: My China * or Cells Sampler

Subject Samplers tap into the vibrant, quirky, up-to-the-minute vein of the Internet in order to connect students to the chosen topic. Samplers work like those boxes of chocolate samplers: you open the box, look them over, see something you like, poke your finger into it, and try it. If you like it, you eat it. If you don't, you throw it back. Learners are presented with a small number of intriguing websites organized around a main topic. What makes this a particularly effective way to engage student buy-in is that first off, you've chosen websites that offer something interesting to do, read, or see. Second, students are asked to respond to the web-based activities from a personal perspective. Rather than uncover hard facts (as they do in a Treasure Hunt), students are asked about their perspectives on topics, comparisons to experiences they have had, interpretations of artworks or data, etc. Thus, more important than the right answer is that students are invited to join the community of learners surrounding the topic, for students to see that their views are valued in this context. Use a Subject Sampler when you want students to feel connected to the topic and to feel that the subject matters.

WebQuest Example: Look Who's Paying the Bill! * or Thumbs Up?Thumbs Down?Are We as Violent as the Romans?

When it's time to go beyond learning facts and to get into grayer, more challenging aspects of the topic, your students are ready to try a WebQuest. Basically, a WebQuest presents student groups with a challenging task, scenario, or problem to solve. It's best to choose aspects of a topic that are under dispute or that at least offer a couple different perspectives. Current events, controversial social and environmental topics work well. Also anything that requires evaluation will evoke a variety of interpretations. The reason the web is so critical is because it offers the breadth of perspectives and viewpoints that are usually needed to construct meaning on complex topics. Students benefit from being linked to a wide variety of web resources so that they can explore and make sense of the issues involved in the challenge.

Logistically, all students begin by learning some common background knowledge, then divide into groups. In the groups each student or pair of students have a particular role, task, or perspective to master. They effectively become experts on one aspect of a topic. When the roles come together, students must synthesize their learning by completing a summarizing act such as e-mailing congressional representatives or presenting their interpretation to real world experts on the topic.

You might want to use an Introductory WebQuest as a first activity to quickly immerse students in real learning, then go back and fill in the broader picture with a Treasure Hunt or Subject Sampler. (Find out more about WebQuests.)

* A professionally created site that varies somewhat from the standard page you create when using Filamentalilty.