Final Project

Final Synthesis Project


Target Audience
The audiences for this lesson plan are students in 7th/8th grade special ed. classes at Navarre Middle School. The time of delivery of this lesson would be in the beginning of the school year when students are getting back to school and need some refreshers on Navarre Pride and School Spirit, which tend to go hand-in-hand with classroom behavior. Teachers spend the first few days of class going over classroom expectations and rules, so this lesson would tie in perfectly with the early back to school days. I chose to create this lesson for students in 7th/8th grade special ed. class, because I plan to use this lesson in the fall as an introduction to our subjects. It also helps students make a connection to home and school. Not only does this lesson provide a sense of school spirit, but it also incorporates some of the Indiana Curriculum Content Standard through math integration.

Context
This lesson is designed for a co-ed 7th/8th grade special ed. class of a public school, particularly Navarre View Middle School. Navarre View has a population of approximately 100,000 residents. It represents both rural and urban living. South Bend View School District is a Class B district which serves over 10,000 students in K-12th grade. The curriculum is aligned with the Indiana Curriculum Frameworks and Grade Level Content Standards. AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) has been made for all qualifying buildings. For this lesson a computer lab is necessary with enough computers for each student. Computers must have internet access and students must have availability to Google accounts.

Learning Objectives
From this lesson, students will be able to use Google Maps to create a map of a particular location desired based on the directions of the instructor. Students will be able to use placemarks, lines, and shapes to indicate the details of their map. Cartography is the science of mapmaking. Students in 7th/8th grade special ed. class should be able to read and design maps as cartography is an important part of subjects and education. After completion of this lesson, students should be able to create a map using Google Maps and use the tools of this application. The lesson specifically asks students to map the route from their home to school. Students must use markers to indicate the start and end points as well as high the roadways taken.
Mathematical Integration—Indiana Grade Level Content Standards
D.RE.07.01 Represent and interpret data using graphs.
A.PA.07.01 Recognize when information given in a table, graph, or formula suggests a directly proportional or linear relationship.

Detailed Description of Lesson

Explanation-The online tools that will be incorporated into this lesson plan are screencasting through Camtasia with video posts to YouTube and map making through Google Maps. Screencasting is a way to create a video from your computer screen to show students step by step what it is you want them to do (demonstration). Google Mapmaking is a way to create any map you like with a bit of personal design. There are various tools provided by Google to make your map standout and easy to interpret.

Description-As an instructor I will create a video using screencasting to lead my students into the training for this course. I will have created a webquest that would include students watching my screencasting video of mapmaking through Google Maps. The video will be a demonstration of how to use Google Maps. Students would then be expected to use Google Maps to map the route from their house to Navarre View Middle School. From here, students would print out their maps, look at the total distance from their home to school, and we would have an overall discussion as to who lives in the school district and who does not. We would relate this information to school pride.

Artifact
The artifact that I chose to use as an example for this lesson is a sample map of what a student may create for this lesson. I created a map using Google Maps that shows the route from my home to Navarre View Middle School. This is the type/quality of work that I would expect from my students.


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Justification
I feel as though these high-tech, technology based online tools are more effective and better options for my classroom because they are more appealing to students. For example, middle school students are always seeking ways of independence. By giving them a webquest assignment and allowing them to watch a screencast video of me, their instructor demonstrating the assignment, in a sense I am handing the reins off to them and putting them in charge of their own learning. This is more appealing to students as learners as opposed to me standing in front of a blackboard and asking students to take out their paper maps and markers to draw the route from home to school. With Google Maps, students are able to select terrain, satellite, and even traffic views. They are also able to calculate the distances from home to school and make relationships to math and science. It allows for many more choices/prospects and provides an outlet to information they may have never known existed about their world through mapmaking. Students are interested in learning more about technology and staying up to date. With these technologies, students are just a click away from a vast majority of resources. It takes less time, is neat and clear to interpret, and students also have many opportunities to personalize their work using these types of technologies.

Application Review

The first application that I looked at was Zoho Writer. It is basically just like Microsoft Word, except that it offers many online features. It allows the user to post directly to a blog and it also allows you to save to different folders. This would be great to use if several colleagues were working on a document together. One person could add a comment or make a change, and the document would be instantly updated for everyone else to see. It would also be great for teachers to use with students, or for students to use with other students if they were working on a group project. I was very impressed with what this online application does, and I would definitely recommend it to a colleague! It seems easy to use and it would be very beneficial in a school.

The second application that I looked at was Phixr. This is an online photo editing application that allows you to e-mail pictures to another person or upload photos to your account at another website (Facebook, Live Journal, flickr, etc.). The computer does not need to have a photo editing program installed; it just needs access to this web site. I can see a lot of uses for this application for personal use, but not as many uses in the classroom. You would have to be careful if allowing students to use this to make sure that inappropriate pictures were not uploaded. It could be very helpful for a teacher to use if he/she needed to share photos of something with students. Pictures could be easily uploaded and added to a website for everyone to see, even if the teacher did not have a photo editing program. So, I think it could be beneficial to use in a school, and I would recommend it to colleagues. However, I think there would be more uses in a personal setting.

Website

https://sites.google.com/site/78gradebestclass/

Bubble.Us

This project would be for students and for teachers to find out what students really know about science. Its a good way to break the ice to find out what all your students know about science. Science is such a broad topic, so teachers will know what they can just hit and miss on a certain topics.

Reflection

After reading about how instructional design/technology is used in businesses, P-12 schools, and higher education, I would say that a major theme between all of them is the idea of pushing yourself to always be better. In each of these areas, the authors discussed the importance of training. In a business, employees need to go through training to learn new procedures and or programs. In a P-12 school system, teachers and staff participate in professional development, continuing education, seminars, etc. As we read this week, professors in higher education are encouraged, if not required, to get their doctorate, submit articles for publication, and go through training. In all three of these areas, the idea of being complacent and unwilling to learn new things is unacceptable. With this type of attitude, a business, school, or university won’t be able to grow and change as the world around us changes. Therefore, it is important, no matter what you do, to look for ways to better yourself.

I think as teachers, we can learn a lot from both businesses and high education facilities. Businesses have put forth an effort to adapt to different cultures. This is a great example for schools to follow, especially in diverse districts. In the chapter about high education, Brenda Litchfield talked about using orientations and workshops to assist new faculty members. At the orientation and through the workshops during the year, Litchfield is able to help new faculty become acquainted with important aspects of teaching at the university. This is something that would be important to do as well in a P-12 school district. Some districts do provide new staff with assistance at the beginning of the year, but this is something that could be continued throughout the entire year (or longer), as Litchfield does.

One competency that I would like to work on is to become more involved in professional activities. As a reading interventionist, I am actually a part of the support staff, not the teaching staff. So, on professional development days, I spend my time in the classroom instead of attending trainings, meeting, etc. I think I would really benefit from being a part of these professional activities. However, I know there are many opportunities to attend conferences or workshops outside of school. I think that I need to put forth more effort to find valuable workshops that I could attend. Another way for me to work on this would be to becoming involved in other committees at school. I am currently a part of the school improvement team, but there are many other committees that I could be a part of next year.

Reflection

A theme that I have noticed throughout the last three chapters is teamwork. Instructional Design and Technology in any setting cannot be successfully accomplished alone; it requires the work of a team. Table 18.1 in the book, on page 176, defines the roles of different team members. Last week in my reflection, I talked about how these roles carry over to the educational setting with an example of a curriculum committee. One of the main topics in Chapter 21 is that of the Step-Up-To-Excellence (SUTE) process. There is no way in the world that this process can be done alone. This process needs multiple team members that work together. Chapter 22 gives us a look into the everyday lives of five common roles in higher education. All of these faculty members share how they work together with their colleagues to make the most of their careers.
I think that all professions work as a team in their environments. This is also something that can be worked on every year. I know that my district works very well as a team, but there is always room for improvement. This is why we all attend professional development meetings throughout the year. It’s always good to have a team building meeting at least twice a year to keep everyone on track and to keep them looking at the bigger picture. Wouldn’t it be neat if all of our school districts would move towards the SUTE process?
I think that my strength is communication. I communicate very well on a daily basis with students, parents, and coworkers either in person, on the phone, or through email. I’m always giving suggestions for improvements, encouragement, and also asking for advice. If I have a concern, I like to deal with it ASAP; I’m not one to wait around for someone else to fix something! Two competencies that I’d like to develop, or more improve, would be: 1.) Stimulate and sustain learner motivation, and 2.) Use media and technology to enhance learning and performance.
I think that we are all looking to develop, or improve, our skills in media and technology to enhance learning and performance; why else would we take this class. I’ve already learned so much in the six weeks that we’ve been in this class that I hope to put to use in my own class and district. Sometimes I wish we had more time with each new piece of technology that we are learning about!

Screencasting

This video is a tutorial demonstrating for students how to access our online textbook. I point out several features such as concept mapping, audio, textbook pages and review questions, and several others. These features would help students at home with their homework. It also provides a way for students to study/do homework if they have forgotten their textbook.

Navarre Walk

This lesson is designed as a “welcome back” or “school spirit” opener to a new school year. I have created a map using Google Maps that shows you how far students walk from school. They can go on a see where they live and how far it takes them to walk to school. In the lesson, students would receive a link to this map and edit/enhance it to include their house, familiar landmarks, and other places they would relate to “Navarre Country.” We would then have discussions about what common places are found in the district, how students can expand beyond the boundaries of Navarre View, and overall design of the buildings locations.
The overall goal of this lesson would be to get students thinking about what makes a school district and a community. Is it merely location? What other attitudes constitute as having Navarre Pride? Do you have to live in “Navarre Country” to feel school pride? We would also take polls as to how many students live directly on the bordered outline of Navarre Territory. And how many of those students walk to school, receive rides from parents, or ride the bus.

Navarre Walk-A-Thon

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Podcasting

I think that the Internet and Web will have a major impact on educational programs at grades K-12. The Internet offers so many educational things that I just can’t see it not having a major effect on education, especially at the high school level. The Internet is such a valuable tool to students who are working on research papers/projects. It seems like more and more, we are relying on the Internet over going to the library and finding books to do research. With so many journal articles, newspaper, and various other web sites available online, doing online research is so much easier than going to the library. However, I think that students should still be exposed to that and taught how to use library books as a reference. In chapter 3, Reiser and Dempsey talked about how media has had very little impact on instruction in the past. I think this is partly due to the fact that many of those forms of media did not offer as much as the Internet and Web offer. The other forms of media have not been as practical to use in the classroom. The Internet and Web offer so many uses in the classroom that I think this is one form of media that will create a major impact within the school system HPI, Human, Performance Improvement, can definitely be applied to the classroom and to my professional work. The basic idea of HPI is that a company or organization will work to become successful in a way that impacts everyone and is cost effective. This is exactly what schools are doing. Teachers are required to be involved in professional development trainings throughout the year to better themselves in the classroom, and are also required to take classes towards a master’s program. All of these things work to improve our teaching skills, help us to be more organized, and have a better understanding of how our students learn. The trainings, professional developments, and classes all work to benefit the teachers, administrators, and the students. Students can also be encouraged to improve in their performance at school. Teachers should be creating incentive for students to learn and giving feedback to students so that they can continue to grow and learn. We can create an environment that will foster continuous growth and improvement if teachers work to improve and continue to learn, and if we encourage our students to do the same.
Podcasting may provide a way to allow other practitioners to visually see applications of modalities and other treatments. It is simple to read about it in a book or to have someone to explain it to you, but to actual see the technique can dramatically improve the reapplication. This can provide a way to keep your colleagues updated if you attend a conference because they are expensive and not everyone can attend personally. To have students keep in touch with home school if they are field-working far away. I chose to view a podcast on a woman who presents up to date information of hot educational topics. As a parent I like to stay informed on new improvements, technologies, and Acts that states are trying to employ in the school setting.

Podcasting

http://podcast.com/show/98880/Education-Forum/

Application

The internet and World Wide Web have already had a substantial impact in the educational setting today. As new methods and techniques for technology become available it will become an integral part of the learning process. Currently there are ways for teachers, students, parents, and colleagues to interact through blogs and other forms of media. As we have learned in this class you can create news feeds to aid and support each other in information attainment. In the higher education you can use it to teach entire courses, in presentations, finding information and ways of enhancing your teaching methods in the classroom. Individuals can use podcast to interact with loved ones that are far away or to host meetings.

My daughter will be going to a Kalamazoo Public School, and the concept of HPI seems to be one that the Kalamazoo Public School system is employing with the Kalamazoo Promise. How they have promised to provide a sound educational beginning pay to enhance your learning and become a valuable professional to give back to the communities in our state. It’s interesting because I was a psych minor in undergraduate and this was similar to a concept that we learned about the many psychologist utilize in an organizational setting.

Podcasting may provide a way to allow other practitioners to visually see applications of modalities and other treatments. It is simple to read about it in a book or to have someone to explain it to you, but to actual see the technique can dramatically improve the reapplication. This can provide a way to keep your colleagues updated if you attend a conference because they are expensive and not everyone can attend personally. To have students keep in touch with home school if they are field-working far away. I chose to view a podcast on a woman who presents up to date information of hot educational topics. As a parent I like to stay informed on new improvements, technologies, and Acts that states are trying to employ in the school setting.

Blog Media

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New Photobucket

Photos of my daughter and I http://s1096.photobucket.com/albums/g336/arice53/

My Delicious

delicious.com/arice0784

Social Bookmarking

This is cool actually putting a name to tools on the internet that I use so very often. As for the social bookmarking the first thing that came to mind is when you bookmark web pages on your PC. I see that it is somewhat similar but with many other advantages. You could use this in a classroom setting to assist students when writing papers to help when writing works cited pages and formatting.(I always seemed to have difficulty with this one and as a visual learner it often times saved me time) It can also assist students in the classroom setting to additional self help tools with assignments as well as parents. It can serve as a way for students, teachers, and parents to stay up to date on current events in classroom and world.
I was just thinking about the degree program and what would it mean in 5-10 years. With the technology improving everyday and methods of utilization it would make sense that the definition would change so frequently. I do believe however that there should be a general definition to give a broad overview of this evolving field so as not to cause any confusion. I see that in many professions they question what they should be called and how to describe what it is that they actually do as a professional. I would agree that instructional technology is more then a process. You have to understand how and why you do things and be able to relay that to other individuals. Media does enhance instruction and does not replace it.In chapter 2 talks about instructional design model. I have never formulated lessons plans personally, but I was shocked to see that it is very similar in formulating treatment plans. In a treatment plan you pretty much follow the same process to attain an end goal. In occupational therapy you find out what deficit a person has that inhibits independence 100% and find a way to help the person improve or adapt the deficit. A lot of what we do is teaching a person new ways of participating in life to achieve independence to that specific persons maximum level. Not all humans are alike so when you create a plan try and tech/implement it, you as a practitioner have to be ready to go back to the drawing board. Figure 2.2 is a really good tool that I believe could be used in a healthcare setting as well with new practitioners maybe tweaking the terminology a little bit. The only difference is that you wouldn’t write out everything specifically but yet a lot if it would be involved in part of the thought process.

Wiki

The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001 marked a turning point for the web. Many people concluded that the web was overhyped, . The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and Media Live International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having "crashed", the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity.
The first of those principles was "The web as platform." Yet that was also a rallying cry of Web 1.0 darling Netscape, which went down in flames after a heated battle with Microsoft. People don't often think of it as "web services", but in fact, ad serving was the first widely deployed web service, and the first widely deployed "mash up" (to use another term that has gained currency of late).

Week 2

I have really enjoyed using both the Blog and the RSS Readers. I’ve have some experience with a Blog, but I’ve actually never even heard of an RSS Reader. So I have found the RSS Reader to be really interesting and I have enjoyed learning how to use it. Once I figured out exactly what it was, I was really excited to see that some of my favorite web sites would be updated on my RSS Reader. I have definitely enjoyed going to my RSS Reader and easily seeing what’s new on different sites. The news sites are especially useful because I can quickly see what’s happening around the area without having to actually search the web site itself. I also really like being a subscriber to the Blogs from the other people in the class. It’s much easier to read their responses from the RSS Reader page than to log into Blackboard. It saves a lot of steps. So overall, I am really enjoying this new experience.With Dale’s Cone of Experience, I would say that the Blog would fall at the bottom under Direct Purposeful Experiences. If a student was asked to keep a Blog, this opportunity would give the student a hands-on experience. A very basic and simple Blog may not require the student to have any previous knowledge or experience. I would also say that a Blog could fall near the top of Dale’s Cone under visual symbols. Part of a person’s blog may contain charts, graphs, maps, etc. All of these symbols would then be displayed on the Blog and available for viewing by other followers. A RSS Reader, on the other hand, would fall under Contrived Experiences on Dale’s Cone of Experience. A contrived experience summarizes and simplifies information so that the student is not overwhelmed. The RSS Reader definitely simplifies things and lays out simple bits of information for the student. It is easy to read and very easy to find new updates. This would eliminate a lot of confusion and unnecessary information that the student does not need. An “imaginative” educational use for a Blog would be to have your students journal several times throughout the week to share what they have been learning. Sharing through a Blog would be more beneficial than writing on paper and turning it in because than other students would be able to see what their classmates are learning. One student may have a better understanding of a certain concept or idea. Other students who may not understand the idea as well may gain a better understanding after reading that student’s Blog. If the students just write their response on paper and turn it in, the teacher will be the only one to see what the students are learning. While this is beneficial information for the teacher, it will not benefit the other students in the class. With the RSS Reader, an “imaginative” educational use would go right along with the idea for the Blog. Just like with what we are doing in this class, you could have your students subscribe to each of their classmate’s Blogs. This would allow for easy access to view updates and stay informed with what their classmate’s are learning.

Week 1 Duscussions

In reading both articles I would have to agree that both demonstrated points of interest that I agreed with. Postman’s article was a little more pessimistic in terms of the education and technology relationship. In a lot of the examples it seemed a little out of date and kind of hard to follow because I grew up with technology. A lot of problems that we are facing today as humans are not due to the fact that we operate technology. I believe that by providing technology in the classroom it enhances the educational experience. From personal experience it makes learning more interesting and more self directed with little to no instruction. Without technology neither you nor I would be in this class today. I believe with integrating technology into our lesson plans in a reasonable manner and monitoring allows children more practical realization into real world experience. It allows a child insight to other individual’s viewpoints and ways of doing things without always maintain our cultural bias. With advances today it keeps us up to date and competitive with other cultures. Postman stated that "One of the principal functions of school is to teach children how to behave in groups." In today’s society we are technology driven and I believe that if some form of technology is not integrated into the educational arena we may put some disadvantage students at an even further disadvantage. You cannot assume that even in today’s world everyone has the same access to the same technological devices. I agree with the other article that technology allows us to become more self directed learners at our own speed. I believe in some change to the current system in hand may provide value to the educational setting because not everyone learns the same or at the same speed. I believe that there is a way to integrate technology into a classroom so that a teacher may monitor the student’s progress while maintain stability and control with the self directed learning. I don’t see any person abusing technology to a point it replaces our values as a society pertaining to education.