Saturday, June 29, 2013

Melville Intermediate - Quadblogging Teaches Levi a Lesson


We've been thrilled with the response that we've had and the connections that have been made with our Quadblogging buddies.  One of the tasks that we've set ourselves was to learn more about the towns and schools that we've been working with.  We searched for a program and settled on Quiz Revoultion.  We loved the features of it.  When the students of Room Five were creating the Quiz about different places we spoke about reliable information and details, and making sure our information was correct.   We've had huge success with our Tawa Intermediate/Wellington Quiz - according to our stats we've had over 500 people sit the Quiz since we first posted it online last Friday.

But there was a problem.    It turned itself into a teaching point and lesson in class on Friday.  Levi and Nathan H's Quiz Revoultion stated that there was a swimming pool at Tawa Intermediate School. We received feedback from students of Tawa Intermediate pretty  
quickly and realised that an error had been made.

Firstly we asked Levi permission to discuss his mistake in class.  We then looked at what process he had undertaken.  Firstly Levi said that he'd used a Google search to determine that Tawa Intermediate had a pool.  We asked if it could be re-created and Levi said no.   We had a positive discussion about this and what we could infer from Levi's statement. 

Levi responded by saying that he read online that Tawa Intermediate had a swimming competition, as they had posted the results online on their webpage, he inferred that this had meant that the had a swimming pool onsite, and Levi to his credit admitted that he hadn't confirmed this, he had made an assumption.

Its been a great lesson for our class - we need to ensure always that we are checking information that we gather online so that we can justify what we say, and if there is any doubt then we should be able to back it up.   When Josh and Harry went live with their Quiz Revoultion Christchurch/Selywn House School there was a question about the School Pig (that has even been made an enviro agent!) some of the students who answered the quiz said that there wasn't a pig at the school! But Josh had done his homework and had the link to back it up! Another great Quadblogging Aotearoa Experience

3 comments:

  1. Dear Levi and Room 5,

    What a valuable lesson learned by all. It is important to verify that facts are correct before publishing.

    We had this happen in our class...more than once. (I'm sad to report.) Last year, I had a boy in my room who read a lot about U.S. presidents and everyone looked upon him as an expert. When he and two other boys left a comment for a blogger, they incorrectly stated something about Thomas Jefferson. Although is was a minor mistake, it was incorrect. The other two boys had trusted that our "expert" knew his facts, so no one verified it in a reference book. After I read the comment, I stated that I thought the fact was incorrect and that we should look it up.

    Sheepishly, my expert went back to the blog where he'd left his comment and left the correct information.

    It is always a good idea to take the time to fact check. Unless someone says, "On your mark, get set, go!" there is no hurry and it is important that we spread true information.

    Thanks for a great lesson and good for you Levi for being open to teaching others. This is a common problem on the web, and this post helps teach others!

    Have a great day!

    Mrs. Y♥llis
    California

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  2. Thank you for your kind words of advice to ourselves and the students of Room Five. I will of course share your comments with Levi and we do appreciate it. Its turned into a great teaching point for our students and yes we all need to think about what we publish.

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  3. Dear Room 5,
    It's great that you found your mistake and realised something was wrong.
    We don't have a pool onsite at TIS but we do have a pool near the school grounds- walk able distance.

    From Helen

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