Reflection 2.0

Throughout my experience in the Michigan State University Educational Technology Certificate program I have found new and exciting ways to incorporate technology into my classroom. There are many ways to effectively utilize technology. Cooperative learning/collaboration is a key element to working with technology. I have always been a big believer in cooperative learning and believe that when using technology it is important to share ideas and knowledge. Student learning is more enhanced when students are able to discover knowledge on their own or in groups. When information is gathered by the student instead of given by the teacher learning is deeper and more meaningful.

Web based technologies enhance learning in the classroom. Collaboration, real life connections, and study skills are all results of web based instruction. The techquest projects we have done, have proven that web based technologies increase student achievement. I hope more teachers use web based technologies in their classrooms.

I have learned a great deal about technology integration. I wanted to gain student interest in the classroom by integrating technology. I believe that this program has given me many tools to use in a classroom and I look forward to the day when I can use them in my classroom. I am excited to continue on in the Masters program and learning more ways to integrate technology. I hope to one day soon be in a classroom where I can use all my new knowledge to create lifelong learners.

Techquest: Project Evaluation

Throughout this techquest project, I have been searching for ways to connect classroom material to the real world. I have found many great resources that I plan to use in my future classrooms. I wasn't able to implement this project, but if I had I believe my students would have benefited from the experience. Making connections with other cultures, places, and people is a priority in the social studies classroom. Using a site like epals.com, can create a classroom community in which students have more respect for other people. This in turn creates teachable moments and turns students into lifelong learners. I hope to be able to utilize these tools in my classroom.

A project like this one gives students a deeper look into the world. As a student who has had extraordinary teachers, I remember those special lessons and I strongly believe that students in my classroom who experience this lesson would remember it for a very long time. Once I am able to implement this lesson or one like it, I will be able to see where modifications and adjustments need to be made. For now I can say that a project like this one is a lesson in life. A project like this one is what I had in mind when I began my research. I can't wait to have a classroom of my own where students can connect with other students from around the world.

TechQuest: Project Implementaion

Here is the link to my podcast. Below the podcast is a transcript of what is said in the audio portion.

http://web.me.com/learend/Site/Podcast/Entries/2010/2/18_TechQuest__Project_Implementation.html

EPALS Video

TechQuest: Internet Research

I have researched this project extensively on the Internet. I used the google search engine and mel.org. On mel.org I used ERIC as my primary database for articles related to using the Internet to connect the real world to a social studies classroom.

Internet Tools for the Classroom

• http://earth.google.com/: A fantastic resource to use in the classroom. Google earth can take you anywhere in the world without leaving the classroom. This site takes field trips to a whole new level. You can see 3D images of buildings (historic and modern), there a pictures, and street views. This is a fantastic resource for the classroom.

• http://www.epals.com : This site it "the largest global community of connected classrooms". You can connect with students from 200 countries and territories. It is free and safe to use. Please watch video in the post above for more information on epals.com.
  

• http://www.howthemarketworks.com/: This site provides a free Internet stock market game. This is great for an economics classroom. There is even a place where teachers can set up private classroom stock market contests. They also include the teachers guide.

Related Articles

An article I found on ERIC directly relates to the how the market works site. It is called "MainXchange in the Classroom: The New Internet Stock Market Game. Teachers Guide and Student Activities". This guide wasn't by anyone author but by many contributors. This is very useful if you are to use the stock exchange game in your classroom. It was written in 1998 so there may have been some updates since then.

Another article I found was:
Maskin, Melvin R. ""Infotectives" on the "Infobahn": Designing Internet-Aided Projects for the Social Studies Classroom." NASSP Bulletin. 80.582 (1996): 59-70.
Unfortunately this was only an abstract and not the full article. It is a little dated, as it was published in 1996.

When doing an ordinary google search I found a site for a middle school in Hawaii where they are using technology to enhance learning. http://www.edutopia.org/nuuanu. They are using technology to enhance both learning and teachable moments.

Overall I found a lot of great material. I was unable to find more recent articles but was happy with the resources I found for the classroom. I look forward to being able to use these sites in a future classroom.

TechQuest: Project Description

In a social studies classroom it is always important to find ways to connect the students with content material. Social studies has long been considered by many a subject of memorization, who, what, when, and where. However, the most important question to ask ourselves is why. Why did these events occur? Having a better understanding in social studies can foster future positive contributors to our society. So how can we make real world connection from the material to our students? In the past we have accomplished these feats through newspapers, CNN, and field trips. While some of these solutions are still very viable others have become daunting. Field trips is a great way to make real world connections, however, these can be both time consuming and expensive. Both CNN and newspapers are wonderful resources, but they can become boring and over used in the classroom. Technology has increasingly become more mainstream. Most schools have a computer in every classroom and a computer lab. According to Bransford, Brown, and Cocking's 1999 book, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, "An important use of technology is its capacity to create new opportunities for curriculum and instruction by bringing real-world problems into the classroom for students to explore and solve" (Chapter 9, pg 195).

Since teachers are able to access technology in the classroom it should be utilized to the fullest. Lets take real world applications to the classroom. Using the Internet, for interactive activities, in the classroom is has more impact on student learning than watching CNN or reading a current event in the newspaper. Using technology that we already have in the classroom is far less expensive than taking 180 students on a field trip. If implemented correctly in the classroom, technology will give students the opportunity to see, hear, and understand what is happening in the world around them. Some schools have already attempted to make these connections with their students. The Nuuanu Elementary School in Hawaii (http://www.edutopia.org/nuuanu) has used technology to "learn and to learn how to solve problems". There are many ways to use the Internet in the classroom. Such sights like google earth (http://earth.google.com/) make it possible to see places that a textbook just can't show. Two wonderful features of google earth are historical imagery from around the globe and ocean floor and surface data from marine experts (useful in a science classroom).

Proper implementation in the classroom is important. I am not currently in the classroom, however, I plan to implement an active lesson plan which is based on curriculum standards and which uses technology to enhance learning. After the implementation of the lesson I hope to use similar lessons in my future classrooms. This project will address the four common places of education, teacher, student, subject matter, and environment. Each will be addressed with proper research. I will look into websites that can be used in the classroom for practical real world connections. Also, I plan to research articles on the benefits of using technology in the classroom and look forward in finding similar areas of research from other teaching professionals.

TechQuest: Educational Oppportunity

Social studies is a subject that comes with a stigma. People believe that all social studies is, is the memorization of facts. Memorizing people's names, dates, places, and outcomes. I strongly disagree with this belief. Social studies isn't about memorizing facts, it is about learning why something in our past happened and how it affects us today. For most students lessons learned in a social studies classroom are so abstract and often say, "Why do we have to know this". The key to making social studies a subject of importance is connecting key concepts to the "real" world, in other words making these concepts more concrete.

Social studies consists of four subjects; economics, political science, geography, and history. All of these subjects need real world applications in order to make a significant impact in learning. I'm not suggesting that every lesson every day needs a connection to the present, however, connecting key concepts would give more of an impact to those everyday lessons. For example, students in high school learn about the Great Depression. If there were a way to connect that concept with today's economic crisis, students could have a better understanding of what it might have meant to be unemployed in the 1920's. In civics students learn about U.S. foreign policy. This can be a very difficult concept for students to understand. However, if we could connect this classroom lesson to what is happening now in Haiti, students might have a better comprehension of this very difficult subject.

People might suggest looking at newspapers, journals, and news stations for making connections. These resources are all great for information but they aren't student engaging. Students generally don't want to read articles or watch CNN; they would prefer an activity in which they can interact. Activities that can grab their interest and create a learning environment would be better suited for the classroom. Now we have to explore our options. What can be done? I will attempt to discover new and engaging ways to make connections from the world to the classroom.