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Introduction/Aim/Rationale

Introduction

As one of the requirements for English 111 and English 112 online, first and second-year English composition college-transfer courses, students produce an E-Portfolio Project, which counts as a final exam. For this project, students create a web presence by designing a website or a blog. They are required to include several components: academic and career goals, one formal essay they have written during the semester, one multimedia component, a reflection letter about what they learned about themselves as readers, writers, and critical thinkers, and any other interesting information and/or resources they choose to include in this project. his WebQuest will help students complete the multimedia portion of their E-Portfolio Project.

Aim

The "Changing the World: One Person at a Time" web aims to promote an awareness of people, organizations, and/or movements world-wide that are improving people's lives for the better.

Rationale

Since the theme for both courses is global events and issues, this WebQuest focuses on how one person, a grassroots, non-profit organization, or an organized people's movement has changed people's lives for the better. One example of a person changing the world for the better is Mark Johnson, the producer of a remarkable documentary about the simple but transformative power of music, which can be viewed at the following website: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12052008/watch3.html.

Bill Moyers, the host of the Bill Moyers Journal, interviews Johnson about his documentary and mission (Johnson 2008). Johnson not only produced this powerful documentary but also plans to open music schools worldwide, even in places such as the townships of South Africa.

Students will complete several assignments in sequence. First, they will view the 17-minute video about the documentary; next, they will discuss its meaning with class members in Blackboard's forums; they will then conduct Internet research to find a transformative person, organization, or movement to share with class members; students will then brainstorm and solicit ideas from their class members about creating a multimedia presentation; and, finally, they will create a digitized visual presentation that can include, but does not need to include text. This presentation can be a video, an animation, a brochure, a poster, or any other artwork or artifact that conveys the mission of the person, organization, or movement.

Since Blackboard is the communications platform used at Tidewater Community College (TCC) for online courses, K-12 or college teachers who choose to use this WebQuest with their students will need to provide a similar platform for the collaborative activities portion.

Developed by M. Marits, modified 12/19/08