Module 4: Fort Sumter, SC Flipchart

Promethean Planet Flipchart: Fort Sumter, SC

Promethean Planet: Fort Sumter, SC

Description

Interactive lesson on Fort Sumter for History classes grades 6 through 10. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. This lesson contains a variety of ActivInspire tools: magic ink, revealer, hidden objects, layers as well as a wealth of historic details, maps and much more.

Hardware/ Software

This flipchart requires the use of many current educational technology resources. Roblyer and Doering (2012) discuss technology facilities that would permit educators to use this 21st Century educational tool (p.11). The Promethean Planet software permitted me to download the interactive flipchart, but to operate the flipchart the classroom will need computers, a projector, preferably iPads with interactive smart pens as well.

 

 Technology Use Based on Problem Solving

The reason I chose the Fort Sumter, SC flipchart was due to the visuals, tour capability, and the student interaction. The individual graphics of the flipchart permit the interactivity that will captivate the students attention, and student motivation is problem number one (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.25). The Fort Sumter, SC flipchart also allows students to take a tour of Fort Sumter. Roblyer and Doering discuss the value of supporting students, and how educational technology is giving students a unique perspective that might not be available without this technology (p.25).

Essential Conditions for Technology Integration

This is the section that will make or break an educator trying to bring class content into the 21st Century. The need for skilled information technology (IT) professionals in public schools is crucial. Educators should not be asked to try and fix network or computer issues, and school should support their educators with continuing education regarding educational technology (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.68)

Software Support Tools

 The door is open to the new teacher starting their career. Educators have the benefit of test generators and rubric generators to aid them organizing their content curriculum (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.148). The Fort Sumter, SC flipchart helps to set up interactive classes, but there are other programs that create tests and study guides for your students. Quizlet is one of these programs. Quizlet creates test/study guide questions with multiple choice, essay, identification, matching, or a combination of each. The end result is a more productive educator, and a higher quality learning environment. 

This video is a tutorial of Quizlet.

References

Leysi Ortiz. (2012, July 10) Fort Sumter, SC  [Flipchart file] Retrieved from http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-us/Resources/Item/154178/fort-sumter-sc#.VbMx5flViko

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Secondary Solutions. (2014, April 25) Quizlet Tutorial for Teachers [Video File] Retrieved from https://youtu.be/UIO68tyxtRk

Module 5: Advantages & Disadvantages of Integrating Educational Technology

Advantages of Integrating Technology

There are so many Social Science applications to bring modern technology into the classroom and engage students. Roblyer and Doering (2012) discuss 10 separate themes applicable to the social sciences spanning the entire spectrum of the curriculum (p.334-335). The integration of programs involving simulations of historical time periods is quite intriguing. It is during these simulations that students develop problem solving skills and receive a better perception of historical time periods (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.338). The following video exemplifies the advantages of technology in the Social Studies classroom and activities for students.

Technology in Our Schools: The Social Studies & History Classroom

Disadvantages of Integrating Technology

The cost of maintaining a computer network available to students, especially with internet connectivity, is enormous. Even if the costs are accessible to school districts there are other problems for teachers. Roblyer and Doering (2012) acknowledge that teachers may be ill prepared or unaware of current technology programs to properly present their content curriculum (p.347). Roblyer and Doering (2012) also reveal that educators need further development to learn these new programs stating, "Teachers need to "know what they don't know" regarding technology in their content area" (p.347). Educators are now expected to not only know their content area, but also they are expected to understand new programs and software packages that better engage the 21st century students. The video below discusses the disadvantages of integrating technology into the classroom. 

Education: Teaching & Writing: Disadvantages of Computers in the Classroom

Specific Activities, Programs, Etc. 

I am fortunate to have been exposed to the ArcGIS software for geospatial analysis. This software contains absolutely wonderful graphic representations of may global locations, but the learning curve for the technology is rather steep. The use of this program by educators would benefit students, and the activity of "Geocashing" is readily available for anyone to create (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.344). The video below is of high school students involved in a spy camp at TSU.

Geocashing Exercise with local high school students at 

Tennessee State University - 2006

References

Ehow. (2009, June 1) Education: Teaching & Writing: Disadvantages of Computers in the Classroom [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPJQgFIUGuo

Lauren Buckley. (2013, March 31) Technology in Our Schools: The Social Studies & History Classroom [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_QRIVBGf8s&list=PLtCxrYhib9j1JKpoaFFZqdlqqIYDkbrVz

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall.

TSU GISlab. (2012, March 26) Geocashing Exercise with local high school students at Tennessee State University - 2006 [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MccQjRFEC8k

Module 3: Searching the Internet, and Finding Scholarly Resources

Search Engines

Educators try to guide students toward scholarly sources, but that is sometime hard to determine using the internet. Search engines, by their very name, search for information and allow the researcher to determine the validity of the sources. I personally use metacrawlers to search for information, "These programs use more than one search engine at the same time to locate things" (Roblyer & Doering 2012, p.219). The volumes of links provided by search engines may lead to confusion. Decipher the parts of the URL (uniform resource locator), and scholarly resources are a bit easier to find. Roblyer and Doering (2012) provide the explanations of the parts of a URL in Figure 7.3 (p.217).

Students should also be engaged in research projects working with their peers. Roblyer and Doering (2012) state, "Great online courses are defined by teaching, not technology" (p.227). Search engines are worthless if any website is considered scholarly, and educators must teach students how to find credible information. Roblyer and Doering (2012) provide an excellent example of keyword usage with search engines in figure 7.5 (p.220).

Website Evaluation Video

Students must learn what makes the websites they find with search engines credible. This video gives basic guidelines for students to determine the validity of the source provided by a search engine. Following these simple steps would be a great benefit to any researcher.

Website Favorites

Favorite Website #1

National Archives

http://www.archives.gov/

This repository of historical data is amazing. Yes, this does make me someone who loves history, but just try it and I think you might agree. If it is U.S. history you are looking for this is the place. Roblyer and Doering (2012) discuss the necessity of easy navigation, and I feel it is extremely easy to navigate (p.255). I would use this website to have students research both people and events in U.S. history. Look for Theodore Roosevelt to get a better idea of the website. Love this site.

Library of Congress

https://www.loc.gov/

This website has videos, pictures, and so much other information an educator really just has to pick a topic. I value this as a great starting point for research, and the stock photos are incredible. The webpages are visually designed quite well, and the website it is very well organized. There is a multitude of authors (library), and there is specifically a tab in the toolbar for education materials. Please try this one as well. The Library of Congress works for teachers covering just about any topic.

Favorite Websites #2

Chicago Public School
https://cpssocialscienceinstruction.wikispaces.com/

This is the perfect wiki for K-10. Resources and guidelines for teaching designed in association with the Department of Literacy. This wiki is for teaching Social Science. The site is well organized and is intended for educators.

References

David L. Rice Library, (2010, January 15). Evaluating Websites.wmv [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/14KFEJIEUrM

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Module 2 Blog Post

Reference Materials

Roblyer and Doering (2012) discuss reference materials and websites available to educators to develop multimedia projects in the classroom (p.176). The graphic images and programs to be used by teachers to aid in cognitive development abound on the internet, but educators and students should avoid copyright infringement (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.180). Many websites offer educators complete lesson plans, graphic images, themes, or various other teaching aids to their prospective classroom. The reference materials could be in the form of clip art, and as Roblyer and Doering (2012) state, “Illustrations can demonstrate or support a point that may be difficult to express with text alone” (p.180). The ability for educators to find reference software to use in the educational setting is readily available on the internet, and the Teaching Heart link is for educators in K-3 classrooms. 

Teaching Heart

http://www.teachingheart.net/ 

Audio & Video Production and Editing Software - Power Director 13

This software would allow educators to engage students in projects to create educational videos, and as Roblyer and Doering  (2012) state, “Placing students in the role of designer/developer is a path to achieving several 21^st Century Skills…” (p.193). Power Director 13 uses templates to create easy to follow steps for the video editing beginner. The other advantage to this program is the scalability of the software to permit experienced users to create and develop their own projects with advanced editing tools. The ability to collaborate with other participants in projects can be achieved through cloud storage and projects can be viewed on multiple devices.  One use of this software would be to have students partner and create projects together, and Robyler and Doering (2012) refer to studies that reveal better student engagement when the students created historical documentaries (p.193). My idea is to have one student be a reporter and the other a historical figure appropriate to class information. The projects could be a news station covering important information from a historical timeline creating an in depth and on the scene interview. The final part of the project for the student is to present their video to the class, and have the best interview video win a journalism award. There might be a future Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter sitting in a chair right in front of me!

The link below is for Power Director 13.

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector-ultra/features_en_US.html?&r=1

The video below is a tutorial of this extraordinary software.

References

CyberLink Channel. (2014, September 19). Getting Started With PowerDirector/ CyberLink PowerDirector 13 Tutorial [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/PupzbUKDtEo

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Module One Blog Post

Roblyer and Doering (2012) discuss the primary software programs used by educators, “…word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software” (p.134). All three types of software come in open source programs that are free for download, but more often costly proprietary software that is not open source is used (Roblyer & Doering, 2012). These three types of software are the theme of this blog post.

Word Processing Software

            Word processing software comes in the form of quite a few programs. Software programs like Microsoft Word and Mac Pages are very well known, but Apache Writer is an open source free software if the cost of proprietary programs becomes an issue. Word processing programs increase productivity of students by allowing quick editing of documents, but there are non-monetary costs to consider (Roblyer & Doering, 2012).  Issues stemming from the use of these types of programs involve teaching students to become better typists, and errors derived from allowing the programs to analyze spelling (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.120).

Spreadsheet Software

            Educators primarily focus spreadsheet software on math and science classes (Roblyer & Doering, 2012). Spreadsheet software programs have advantages over other types of software when dealing with numerical data (Roblyer & Doering, 2012). This type of software also enhances productivity by saving time and uses rows and columns to organize the data. Roblyer and Doering (2012) discuss the benefit of this software, “Spreadsheets help people visualize the impact of changes in numbers” (p.122). Microsoft Excel, Macintosh Numbers, and Apache Calc are all forms of spreadsheet software programs with the latter being free to the public.

Presentation Software

            Roblyer and Doering (2012) describe presentation software as follows, “Presentation software is designed to display information, including text, images, audio, and video, in a slideshow format” (p.128). Educators have the ability to enhance their lectures to get a greater impact on student comprehension. The problem with this type of software begins with educators needing a better understanding of how to properly use the software (Roblyer & Doering, 2012, p.130). Presentation software is not the lecture an educator gives to their students, yet many times reading from the slides to provide the lecture does happen. 

Here is a short video of common Power Point issues from the University of Miami.

Classroom Use

            I personally think the use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software  would yield excellent results teaching economics. The functionality of having each cell within a spreadsheet being able to manipulate numerical data via formulas is incredible. Students would visually see the impact of rising rates of inflation. One manipulation of a single cell on a spreadsheet theoretically could change every other cell on the page. Without spreadsheet software every change would require reconstruction of a new spreadsheet.

References

Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2012). Integrating educational technology into teaching (6th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill Prentice Hall.

UMiami Continuing Studies. (2009, November 17). What Not to Do in Power Point [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbfactc12Vw