Technology Integration Plan

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgDqJcGS3TLgdEx0X0xCVFdIakNoVW1fSzF3MS01TlE&usp=drive_web#gid=0

     

     When searching for a lesson plan to use for this assignment, I decided to go back quite a bit, and wound up using a lesson plan I had made for one of the prerequisite courses for the Education Program, Philosophical Orientation to Education, a High School History lesson on the US Civil War.

     I will use the beginning of the lesson to try and figure out how much the students already know about the Civil War.  Each student will be asked to take out a sheet of paper, and write out what is known as a K-W-L chart.  The students will state what they already know about the Civil War (K), what they would like to learn (W), and upon the lesson’s conclusion they will state what they have learned (L).  The students will then go up to the SmartBoard, which is slowly finding its way in more and more classrooms, and fill in a K-W-L chart that is representative of the entire class.  This is a good balance of having the students work collaboratively and on their own.

     Next, we will dive into the lesson itself.  A short lecture will be given with some background information on the events leading up to the war, such as the building tensions between the North and the South, and the election of Abraham Lincoln to the office of President.  The lecture will be aided by the use of visuals playing in a PowerPoint slideshow in the background, which I think can help the students better grasp what is being discussed, as simply hearing me speak may not be enough for everybody.  Also, at various points throughout the lesson, at times that I feel are appropriate, I will also be including segments from the Ken Burns documentary series The Civil War, bringing a multimedia aspect to the unit.  Having watched this whole documentary series several times, I have nothing but good things to say about this series.  While there is nowhere near enough time to show the entire documentary (it is over 11 hours long), I feel that showing segments of it can be a great help to the student.  As I stated in one of my weekly posts for this course, I do believe that videos and films can be a great help in a classroom setting, if implemented properly.  

     Moving on, the next segment of the lesson (this obviously will span multiple class periods) is something that, while it would take some coordination with other teachers in order for this to occur, could be a very interesting piece of the lesson.  I would speak to a fellow teacher, either in the same school I am teaching in or, if possible, another school, and try and hold a debate between the two classes, via a website like Skype.  Having heard and read about the ability for businesses to hold video conferences with people cross-country (or in another part of the world), I would like to apply this idea to the classroom.  While many would be content with just holding a debate within the classroom, and this would probably be quite successful, I think the idea of discussing this with another class or school, without the hassle of traveling there, would be quite interesting for the students to engage in.  It will help them to possibly hear another perspective on the same events that are being discussed, and as they debate on a specified topic (one possibility would be which battle is considered to be the most significant on the outcome of the war, or if documents like the Emancipation Proclamation truly had any bearing on the outcome of the war), it will hopefully help them gain a better understanding of the greater unit as a whole.

     Finally, the students will, in small groups, be given a specific event, person, or document/amendment from the Civil War, and will have the choice to make a PowerPoint presentation on it, make a video re-enacting it or analyzing it, or any other idea that they can come up with, and then post it to a group page on VoiceThread, a website which utilizes “cloud software” to make collaborative work among classmates easier.  The students will then be able to study and critique their classmate’s work.  

     Upon the conclusion of the unit, we will revisit the K-W-L chart from the beginning, and proceed to fill in the final “L” column, as the students state what they have learned throughout this unit.  

Technology & Social Studies: VoiceThread and Other "Cloud Softwares"

     As the world becomes more and more technologically advanced, it is important that schools try and keep up with the times.  Back in high school, the only way for students to collaborate and exchange ideas with each other on an assignment would be to talk via e-mail, or possibly on a group message in Facebook.  Now, more and more exists that can help students work together when class is not in session.  One example is VoiceThread (http://voicethread.com/).  

     I only recently discovered VoiceThread, and upon further investigation, it appears to be something that can be quite useful in a class setting.  It is described as an “online learning environment,” which is similar to the functions of a website like Blackboard.  Here, students are able to share all different forms of content with each other, be it photos, videos, or PDF’s.  The website uses “cloud software,” which is simply a fancy way of saying that all of its users are connected through a network like the Internet.  Websites like this are proving to be extremely successful because it makes collaboration among students outside of the classroom an easier process, and it allows for interaction to occur via multiple formats, from documents, to videos, to photos and so on.

     As stated above, VoiceThread is not the only “cloud software” that exists today.  This was merely stating an example of what is out there now that allows students to more easily work together outside of the classroom.  The fact that more and more websites like VoiceThread are being created shows that these are proving to be successful, and I think it is safe to say that we will be seeing “cloud software” becoming more and more prevalent in the classroom in the not-too-distant future.

Technology & Social Studies: Using Digital Cameras to Explore Communities

     When most people hear History, they don’t think it applies to them in any way.  It’s simply a bunch of people and events that happened in the past, with no bearing on what’s happening in the here and now.  And when the words History or Social Studies (depending on the education level) homework are said, the first thing that will come to mind for many is reading a textbook or writing a paper.  One way of proving both of these beliefs wrong is to make the class and its assignments as interactive as possible, and making sure that they revolve around something that would be of interest to the student.  One possibility for this is an assignment on the history of the town in which the student lives, whatever that may be (in my case growing up, this assignment would have been done on the history of Rockaway).  Students are to use digital cameras (or cameras of any sort) to go about and document the history of the town, noting any historic buildings that may exist, discussing what may or not have existed in that location in the past, and so on.  The pictures that they attain can then be used to make a collage or binder, with written captions explaining each photograph.

     While some more work would have to be put into the exact details of an assignment such as this, I think it is something that could be very successful.  It would help the students learn about the history of their community, and will hopefully help them to see how interesting and interactive learning History can be when taught correctly.  There is a generally negative opinion of this subject by many students, and it will be up to the future teachers of this subject (myself included) to break this. 

Technology and Social Studies: “Living through” History with Muzzy Lane

     While I can’t remember the last time I have played a video game, it is something that has always been present to some extent in my household, from the Intellivision which was first released in the 1970’s (and surprisingly still works) to the PlayStation 3.  While I don’t think it is a good idea to let this be the primary activity in a child’s life (potentially leading to problems like obesity) in moderation I think that video games are not detrimental to a child, and can, in some ways, be quite helpful.  It is here where the idea of bringing video games into the classroom is discussed.  

     Some may immediately shoot down this idea of using video games in a school setting, but upon further investigation, it has proven that it can be a useful tool.  The most prominent example has been the PC game Making History: The Calm & the Storm, developed and published by a studio named Muzzy Lane Software.  Players are able to play as any nation that had some sort of international recognition in the World War II era, and they are expected to “manage” the country, via economics, politics, and combat.  The game was marketed as one that could provide benefits in educating those who play it, and this helped lead to its being a part of the World War II curriculum in over 150 schools, according to a Newsweek article published in 2007 (http://www.newsweek.com/why-wwii-videogames-are-hot-94465).  This is very interesting to note, as many may not believe that something like video games can help a student in any way other than to distract them from the lesson at hand.  It is clear that more and more teachers are seeing the potential benefits.

     While obviously not every game can help a student learn, there are some out there that can, and if properly implemented can be a help in a classroom setting.

Technology & Social Studies: Videos

     

    
      When one hears the words "Social Studies class" and "movie" in the same sentence, their immediate thought tends to be something like this: a VHS tape from the 1980's, found in the very back shelf of a library, that, instead of teaching the class anything about the topic at hand, will more likely put most of the class to sleep. Unfortunately, in many classes, this can be the case when a film or documentary is watched. However, if implemented correctly, watching a video (or videos) of some kind can be quite effective in trying to help students learn whatever topic is being discussed.
     Videos can provide a visual representation of an event or person being discussed, and can potentially help a student better understand the topic at hand.  For example, several weeks ago in my READ-411 class, as part of a course requirement, I helped teach a lesson in my content area, and my group chose to present on the Titanic.  Towards the end of the lesson, two relatively short videos were shown via Youtube: one showing a new computer-generated model of the ship’s sinking (which originally aired as part of a National Geographic special), and then another showing news footage discussing Robert Ballard’s 1985 discovery of the wreckage of the ship at the bottom of the sea.  These clips were very well-received by the class viewing the presentation, who stated that this helped visualize the lesson for them, and for many was the most interesting and effective part of the lesson.

     Saying all this does not mean that the use of videos in class does not come without its pitfalls.  If there is an over-reliance on these, it can be argued that the teacher is, in a sense, not really teaching.  While there are plenty of films and documentaries out there that can be a great help in the class, there are many out there that are poorly done, or factually inaccurate.  A teacher must proceed with some caution if they wish to use these in a classroom, but as stated before, it does come with its benefits.  Used properly, it can be a great help to a lesson.

Technology & Social Studies: Apps

     Cell phones have existed in some way, shape, or form since about the 1980’s, and have experienced a massive increase in popularity within our lifetime (I would assume that most, if not all, of us in this course own one).  Something that has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years is the “smart phone,” thanks to companies and brands like Blackberry, Apple and Android.  One of the key parts of these phones, along with recent inventions like the iPad and other tablets, is the “app,” leading to the relatively new saying “there’s an app for that.”  While there are many apps that are nothing more than games or something mindless, there are many that exist that are quite educational.  There is an app that exists for the Blackboard system that is integral to our education here at Montclair State, and there are multiple apps that exist that can provide information for a specific historical event or individual.  Some examples that I have come across are “The British Monarchy,” which provides the user with detailed information of each leader of England and Scotland since the 8^th century.  There are also apps that range from a history of the RMS Titanic, to virtual tours of the pyramids in Egypt, to interactive timelines of wars, to one titled “This Day in History,” which, as you can probably figure out, explains the important events that have occurred on that date in History.  

Apps like these can be extremely beneficial to students, as they can be used to either reinforce or add to what they have learned while in class.  They are tools that are either free or relatively cheap, and as more and more schools begin to use devices like iPad’s in the classroom for work (my brother’s high school plans to have an iPad for every student beginning next school year), these can be very helpful to the teacher as well.  As the outside world becomes more and more advanced in technology, the classroom should as well.  Apps can be a great benefit to the classroom, if it is implemented properly. 

Collaboration Canvas

     Some might not consider there to be a connection between Art and History, but when I stumbled upon the lesson on Ancient Egyptian Art, I immediately remembered my 6^th grade Social Studies course, where we spent an entire unit on Ancient Egypt.  To put it simply, all we have to understand ancient cultures is what was left behind by them, and for Egypt, much of that is artwork and artifacts.  I expanded upon the video and photos present in the original plan by adding some that I feel can benefit the students.  The essential question and content standards were changed, to fit the requirements for this assignment.

     This is an assignment that can benefit Art students, as they learn the history of the artwork they are studying.  And the original lesson plan that I remixed can be a benefit to History students as well, so this could be a very good collaborative lesson.

http://www.play.annenberginnovationlab.org/play2.0/challenge.php?idChallenge=2638&mode=edit#network6