Topic Hotlist

Definition

A topic hotlist is a collection of useful and interesting sites related to a specific topic.

Curricular Goal
  • Enhance an existing unit of instruction. Goal depends on objective of unit.
  • Teach students to locate and evaluate relevant resources.
Uses
  • An instructor created hotlist can be used to enhance an existing unit of instruction with web resources.
    • Saves students hours of searching
    • Insures that students use quality sites
    • Makes instructor's bookmarks or favorites available to all
  • Students can find resources on a topic to create a class hotlist.
    • Practice search skills
    • Learn to evaluate the quality of web sites
    • Distributes work which saves time for everyone
Steps for Creating
  • Instructor created hotlist
    • Locate relevant sites and bookmark
    • Organize sites into categories
    • Develop a web page or word processing document that lists sites, URLs, and a brief annotation
  • Student created hotlists
    • Assign a topic for exploration
    • Ask students to locate relevant sites
    • Provide discussion forum in a Course Management System (WebCT, Blackboard, etc.) where students share the results of their search. Be sure to specify criteria for the posts.
    • If students have the skills, assign a small team (2-3 students) to organize the posts to the discussion area, edit them for consistency, and write a web page to be posted and shared with the class.
Examples
  • Instructor Created
    • Resource List for a Graduate class for classroom teachers learning to use the Internet with students.
  • Student Created Hotlist
  • Hotlists on the Internet
    • Frank Potter's Science Gems--a list of science resources for K-16 teachers that contains more than 14,000 Science Resources sorted by Category, Subcategory, and Grade Level
    • Blue Web'N, an online library of 1800+  Internet sites; has hotlists of sites by subject area.
    • Black History Hotlist--a list of links from various sources on the Internet
References and Resources

Last Updated, May 16, 2003

| Menu |