Week 11: Explore Two Tools

Chapter 9: Visualizing with Technologies


Tool: Photo Story 3/Digital Camera
A tool that can be useful in the classroom is Photo Story 3. This software can be a challenging software to students, however, once they get started they become very creative. Students will explore how to use visual images, text, and sound.  They will need to use these three elements to creative a cohesive presentation. This will develop a student's critical-thinking skills. First the students need to create the story, write it, organize the information for the story and finally create the story.  Students learn to work collaboratively and learn to "establish a connection between the creator and the viewer." Photo Story is a tool that can be used at any grade level. Any student can pick up a camera and create a story that will be meaningful for them.



Grade Level: 3rd Grade
Subject: Reading/Language Arts
Topic: Story Structure
Learning Objectives: Students will learn the elements of a story: plot, characters, setting, problem, solution
How students will use this tool: Students will fill create a written story in their writing notebooks. They will need to make sure that they include characters, setting, a problem, and a solution. Once their story is complete and they have all the elements needed for their story they will then take pictures of illustrations they have made or pictures of their friends acting out the parts of their story. They will then insert these photographs in Photo Story 3. After the images are uploaded in their project they can include the audio to their story. This is a great opportunity for the students to be creative and learn more about the important elements a story needs. 

Tool: Digital Cameras
Another tool that students can use are digital cameras. Digital cameras are very useful for students to think critically and be able to show others their perspective through their digital camera lens. They can explore the classroom and take a "field trip" around the school and capture images that can be later shared with their peers.  Students can use their creativity this way because everyone takes a picture differently. This tool promotes creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. The NET Standards that are met in a lesson like this one are creativity innovation, communication and collaboration, Research and Information Fluency, Critical thinking, problem solving and decision making.


Grade Level: 4th Grade
Subject: Math
Topic: Geometry (parallel lines, perpendicular lines, intersecting lines)
Learning Objectives: Students will be able to identify parallel, perpendicular and intersecting lines.
How Students Will Use this Tool:  In this scenario students will be divided in groups of 2-3. They will be going around the school and outside of the school to explore the different types of geometric lines: perpendicular, intersecting, and parallel. They will need to find at least 5 examples of these types of lines for each line. They will use the digital camera to take the pictures of each of these types of lines. When they are finished taking the pictures they will print out their photographs and will post them onto a poster to display to the class.

Week 11: Developing Ideas for Final Project

My lesson plan is designed for a third grade science class.  I will divide the students in groups of two and each group will get a different habitat: forests, grassland, oceans, and deserts. The learning goal will be to research what types of animals and plants live in these  different types of ecosystems. By the use of Google and Gale Online Databases the students will do much of their research. 

Once the students have acquired most of their research they will be ready to make their information presentable. Students will log on to edu.glogster.com to create their Glog with the information they have learned. They will be required to include text, audio, video, and graphics to display their research onto their glog. When students are finished, they will present their glog to the class through Smartboard. This will be an interactive presentation for the entire classroom.

Week 10: Exploring Ideas and Resources for Final Project

For my final project I want to create a science lesson plan that will incorporate the use of technology. There are many ways to communicate with various technologies and Glogster is a student-friendly tool students can use to share information that has been researched. In my third grade class, my students have been learning about different habitats: deserts, oceans, grasslands, and forests. In groups I had my students do research on these different habitats in cooperative groups. Glogster is a presentation tool that will allow my students to insert pictures, text, links, video, and audio to illustrate what they learned about their unique habitats.

The great thing about this lesson is that it can be used for any grade level. I chose to use this presentation tool for a science lesson, but I could also use it for social studies, reading, writing, or math. I am excited to be able to explore this tool with all the other subjects. Just like it can be used for all core subjects, it can be tailored to any-grade level. Students can get as creative as they want. The younger the student the more graphics and less text on their Glogster; however, the older the student the more text and different features can be expected.

Chapter 5: Communicating with Technologies

Chapter 5 Communicating with Technologies 
This chapter explains how technology can be used to communicate with others.  There are many different forms of communicating with people through the use of computers, internet, and others forms of technology. Through technologies students can communicate with peers outside of their classroom, school, city, and even country! This chapter explores the many different tools that can be used to communicate through the use of technology. Students can interact through discussion boards, instant messaging, presentation technologies, video conferencing, and podcasts.

Discussion boards are a tool teachers can use to get students to communicate their learning with their peers. This is very beneficial for those students in the classroom who express themselves better through writing as opposed to speaking:

ePals

VoiceThread

Chats and Instant Messaging some programs that support chatting among peers are Skype, GoogleTalk, AOL Instant Messaging, and Windows Live Messenger.  All these tools can help students get a better way of communicating with more than one person from different parts of the world. However, every teacher should follow certain safety guidelines for online communication.

Presentation Technologies is a tool to help present information in a more interactive, creative way. Some popular presentation software are Google presentations, SlideShare, Glogster, and Prezi. Each software has a their unique way of putting gathered information into an organized, visual presentation.

Video Conferencing is a great tool teachers could use whenever they may want to talk to someone outside of the classroom. Many times students cannot always take field trips or have presenters come to their school due to scheduling conflicts. However, video conferencing is a great opportunity to be able to hold video conversations with experts in another profession outside the school.