Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Final Project

Technology Integration Matrix

Increasing student understanding of the contributions of African Americans in history and how their efforts have changed the present.



The lesson plan I adapted for an English Language Learner dealt with Black History Month and the contributions that African Americans had towards the United States of America. The lesson plan was created by Susan P. Genesi and is entitled "A Walk Through History - In Honor of Black Americans." Essentially the main goal of the lesson plan is to have students understand the past contributions of African Americans and how they affect us today. The students are to understand the contributions of African Americans, choose a prominent African American, research their efforts and then create a monument of sorts to present to the class. When I adapted this lesson plan for an English Language Learner I found that much of the changes I made were actually technological additions to the lesson, in efforts to make the learning targets more easily attainable.

For the first row, the teacher would primarily teach the class some background regarding the Civil Rights movements, Black History Month and other African American contributions. In this row, one could see that at this stage, students are now "accessing" the information beforehand to help them out with the assessments later in the lesson. The teacher would conduct the lesson with a lecture, but to accommodate the English Language Learner, the teacher would also use a projector for pictures, handouts, video, or PowerPoint presentation. As a result, the information is presented in a more visual way rather than oral, as the English Language Learner may have trouble keeping up.  This portion of the lesson plans involves a lot of teacher participation as it is vital for them to get the content across as best as possible for the English Language Learner, as well as the rest of the class.

The second row has the teacher once again will review information however there would be more student participation at this stage. After the teacher goes over the content, the class will be open for class discussion. The class discussion will be a result of the information they saw on the teachers PowerPoint presentation. However the presentation, as mentioned above, would be used to spark critical thinking and discussion.

The third row will switch the roles of from having the students be more engaging rather than the teacher. After the teacher has taught the content, it would now be up for the students to collectively brainstorm before they begin researching. They will use online resources such as JSTOR or other academic databases to help them in their findings. This will not act as a mere addition to the lesson, but will help enrich their understanding of the learning targets, as it pushes them to research effectively using primary sources. As the students begin to create their report and presentation there will be editing, both self-editing and peer editing. Microsoft Word is an example of a program that would greatly aid the students with this. Both the peer editing and Microsoft Word editing would help the English Language Learner in editing their work if they having any trouble doing so. As a teacher, I would pair a student who is very proficient in researching and writing to help the English Language Learner with their project.

The fourth row would feature the participation of both the teacher and students. At this point, the students would ask questions if they have any concerns or confusions and the teacher would aid them in any way they can. Using email, Twitter, Google+ or any other form of digital messaging application would greatly help in the communication between the student and teacher. This stage of the lesson plan would depend heavily on the collaboration between students and their peers, and teachers. Students will once again be using the computer to create their project and could easily edit it after any recommendations from the teacher.

The fifth row explains the presentation portion of the lesson plan. The assessment piece of the lesson is the presentation that the students have created regarding contributions that a particular African American has done in American history. This stage deals heavily on student participation and teacher assessment. The students would be able to take advantage of many technologies such as presentation tools (Prezi, PowerPoint), video and other multimedia for their presentation.

As mentioned above, the technologies listed contribute greatly to the lesson plan. Though the NJ standards are the main focus of the lesson plan, the technologies definitely help a great deal in enriching their understanding of the content. Rather than just sitting through a lecture, students can be proactive and research to better understand what they are learning.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Twitter

Twitter is a great tool to send out messages to many people at one time. Unlike an email, it is part of a feed provided you subscribe or "follow" the twitter account. For a teacher this could be very beneficial because it can have them remind their students of homework assignments instantly. Also, it could serve as a reminder for students regarding the upcoming class on what supplies or textbooks they need to bring. Twitter could also serve as a Q&A forum if any students have questions. Students could also follow news sources to help them relate the past with the present. While researching Twitter accounts with historical content, I found a Twitter account in which it chronicles WWII events in real time. I thought this was interesting and could certainly lead to more accounts of a similar nature, but that cover different time periods. Following this particular Twitter account could once again relate the past to the present in my students.






Microsoft OneNote 2010

I found a great video explaining the benefits of the OneNote 2010 Microsoft application. The program is essentially a library of "notebooks" that you create and edit. It allows for text, video, pictures and other multimedia to be cataloged in the notebooks. One of the very useful features of OneNote is the search function, which allows you to quickly search for any bit of information that are in your notebooks. I find OneNote to be extremely helpful because as students update their virtual notebooks, it would slowly grow to be a giant study guide for them. Sharing is also an added feature which allows them to share info with their fellow classmates. All in all, OneNote greatly helps teachers and students with content management, productivity and time and for this I would use it in my classroom.



 


Wikispaces


Wikispaces are an extremely helpful online tool both for learning and organization. For project based purposes, the teacher can begin the wikispace by posting some learning content and then ask the class to add more. By adding links, many students can contribute to the wikispace at a time and very much like Wikipedia, it can be edited as well. An instructor could assign certain topics to groups and have them update the page over time to see their progress. For organizational purposes, wikispaces greatly benefit both students and teachers. Reason being, information such as when assignments are due or scheduling can all be posted on a wikispace. This way, class time will not be wasted by going over what is already posted online. Also, students and teachers could grab information such as the student handbook, handouts, guides or flyers to events on the wikispace itself. Wikispaces certainly contribute a lot organization to students and teachers alike, as well as include a lot of course content for the students and for this reason I would definitely implement it into my future classroom.






Virtual Tours

As a future History teacher I would strive to make my lesson as interactive as possible. I recently came across Virtual Online tours hosted by BBC.com. The website offers a wide variety of different moments in history and presents them in an interactive tour. Some tours are comprised of 360 degree panoramic scenes that allow students to zoom in and out and rotate by using the keyboard or mouse. One prominent example was a WWI trench showing the conditions that the soldiers at the time had to endure. The website also has even more interactive tours that allow the students to navigate through a 3-D model interpretation of articular historical sites. I feel this would be more engaging for students to take part in because it allows them to examine details they could not have otherwise seen through an old picture.






http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/virtual_tours/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/virtual_tours/trench_life/index_embed.shtml

iPads

The iPad has proven to be quite successful in schools, because of how engaging and interactive it is with students. It has managed to break down content into small parts so as to make it more manageable unlike a standard textbook. With the addition of over 20,000 educational apps, the iPad definitely has potential to being a mainstream educational tool. I would certainly advocate the use of the iPad in my classroom because of the tools it has to offer. It offers a variety of multimedia such as games and video editing that could help students understand the learning targets. The large number of apps and activities that the iPad could have leads to it being very versatile, as many different subject teachers could use them to their advantage. It is very important to note that the iPad is a supplemental tool. As mentioned in the Edutopia article, the iPad is to be used to enrich the learning of the curriculum and I feel this is the right way to go about it. Teaching a student how to use an app is not very beneficial, but explaining to them how that app incorporates into the lesson and content is very helpful.








Monday, April 30, 2012

Video Games

It seems like video games are a taboo in the world of education. After all, the classroom is the haven of critical thinking and enlightenment. Video games are meant for pure entertainment and have no educational merit. While this may be the case for a majority of mainstream games, they are some video games that break this mold. The PC game series Civilization has players take charge of a nation and ensure its survival and growth. The game primarily focuses in on history, but does go over some political issues. Students can draw parallels to how their nation is doing when comparing them to ancient civilization discussed in World History classes. By using the videogame, history students could have fun and learn of ancient civilizations concurrently. However, the use of videogames in the classroom has met and will meet criticisms, and it is rightfully so in my opinion. As a future educator, I will have to make sure that my students are learning as they engage themselves in the game, and not just be playing it leisurely. Videogames can be used in a wide variety of school subjects as evident of the use of the SimCity series in classrooms. Elementary schools in Ontario, Canada have experimented with their 3rd grade class using iPads to play Simcity to help in their social studies classes. It has been reported that the students have a deeper understanding of rural and urban communities and have also unintentionally, but certainly fortunately, practiced their math skills because of the economic aspect of the game.





http://blogs.nitle.org/2010/10/06/teaching-with-a-video-game-the-case-for-civilization/




http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/sci_tech/simcity-educational-ontario-grade-3s-learn-social-studies-with-ipad-game--146635525.html