Multi-Media Assignment

NASA Multi-Media Website
Subject Area: Science
Grade: 9
Space exploration
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html

Description of learning object: You go to the link above and it takes you to a NASA website. There the students will find a whole bunch of short videos on different space exploration projects. They can watch a real rocket launch or watch a rocket rotate the earth. These videos will help the students create a deeper understanding of space exploration.

Description of in class usage: I would use this website to supplement the unit on space exploration in grade nine science class. I would have the students go to this website and watch 5-7 different videos. They would have to chart the different videos that they watched and provide a short explanation for each video that they watched as well. Lastly we would discuss potential problems that might arise during a space shuttle mission.

Planning and Prep: I would first view a whole bunch of the videos to make sure they were relevant and good quality videos. I would also make sure that there was no risky pop-up ads that would appear when you went to the website. I would make sure all the students’ computers had the necessary software to watch the videos and adjust the volume of the computers as well. I would also make sure that all the computers in the class had a good internet connection so the students could connect to the internet. I would have the students work alone if there were enough computers as I believe they would stay on task better if they worked by themselves on this particular assignment. If students misbehaved I would have them read their textbook at the back of the computer room and also make them take notes from the text.

GLO: How different technologies are used to accomplish space exploration.

SLO:
2.0 - Identify problems in developing technologies for space exploration, describe technologies developed for life in space, and explain the scientific principles involved
2.2 - Describe technologies for space transport, and interpret the scientific principles involved
-Select and integrate information from various print and electronic sources or from several parts of the same source

ICT Outcomes
C-6 - Students will use technology to investigate and/or solve problems.
C-1, 3.3 - Access and operate multimedia applications and technologies from stand-alone and online sources

Webquest!!!

Here is the address to my webquest!!!!
http://teacherweb.com/WQ/ElementarySchool/China3/index.html

I would integrate this project at the end of the Greece unit as a lesson to help children build a map about what the ancient Greeks used to meet their basic needs. I would give them a map (on their computers) with just the ancient Greeks title in the middle and ask them to brainstorm the various aspects of Greek life focusing on aspects of their basic needs. Students learning about basic needs and finding out how the Greeks met their basic needs is one of the major outcomes that is outlined in the POS.
Some of the technology outcomes we would be covering are: use computer programs to collect and organize information, to write a paragraph or report on a computer, search on the internet, use computer to accomplish a task or project. Some ways that concept mapping can be used in the classroom are: for the teacher to convey information to students using projector, for a teacher to make handouts on for students, to make quizzes, for students to use to organize information, and many more.
Some of the ICT outcomes that are covered using concept maps are: Organize information gathered from the internet, assess and analyze information to create a product, compare and contrast information from different electronic resources, Organize information using tools such as a database, develop a process that manages volumes of information that can be made available through an electronic source, share information collected from a electronic source to add to a group task, record group brainstorming or sharing of ideas by using technology, and there are so many more.

Social Studies Grade 6, Greece: Internet search and blog assignment
General Learning Outcomes: The intent of the assignment is to help the students develop an understanding and appreciation of how people in ancient civilizations (Greece) met their basic needs by using various internet resources.

Specific Learning Outcomes:
-The students will use the internet to collect and organize information using a data base as their resource.
-Locate information on the topic from more than one resource
-Use a blog to post a fictional story
-Students will understand how to use basic internet searches using sites provided
-Students will collect and organize information using a data base
-Student will use a computer program to write a story
-Students will understand how the ancient Greeks met their basic needs
-They will understand that weather and Geography affected how the Greeks met their basic needs

ICT Outcomes:
-Students will use electronic research techniques to enhance understanding and acquire knowledge
-Students will compose, revise and edit text
-Students will organize and manipulate data
-Students will communicate ideas through multimedia
-Students will use technology to investigate problems

Outline for activity
I will start the class by going over what some of the basic needs of life are: food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and also discuss other needs: psychological, religious, political, and social. I would explain to the class what all these needs entail and get them to think about how their lives would be different if we didn’t have the things we do today to meet our needs, like: grocery stores or clothing stores. I would then explain to the kids that the ancient Greeks met their needs in very different ways than we did today. The kids would then be either grouped in pairs or alone (depending on the number of computers available) and start to search for the ways that the ancient Greeks met their most basic needs. The children would write their ideas down in point form on a sheet of paper. After they collected all the information they need I would ask them to write a fictional story of a day in the life of an ancient Greek, describing how the Greeks met their basic needs in that day. The students would then write their ideas out in a classroom blog so that all the other classmates could read the various posts of all the students, therefore learning from each other. This assignment also allows the student to be a little creative as they plan out what they are going to write.

Technology integration is a great tool in this lesson because the lesson covers at least five of the ICT learning outcomes, and probably many more. The students will get more comfortable using search engines on the internet as well as learning how to blog and sharing their stories with the whole class. The web sites are really well set up and I believe the students will have a lot of fun researching on these sites. When students have fun and are interested in the project, the quality of their work most likely improves as well.

A great site for kids to look up information on ancient Greeks:
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/index.htm
A very well organized web site for the kids to search on:
http://members.aol.com/Donnclass/Greeklife.html
An advanced site for kids who want to do extra work:
http://www.answers.com/topic/ancient-greece

Pro Blogging!!

I believe that blogging is a great tool in the classroom with benefits that are to great to ignore. Students get a taste into someone else's world and what they believe about a topic might be completely different from what they believe. One of the goals of social studies is to learn about other places in the world, and a great way to learn about other countries is by talking to the inhabitants of that country on a blog. In social studies grade 6 children are learning about China and this would be a perfect setting for using up a blog. As China has newly turned into a capitalist country the children could talk about how it has changed their lives in China, and the children in Canada could explain how capitlism affects them here. I can only see positives out of this blogging exercise as students learn about a country not from what a teacher tells them but from eye witnesses; very impacting learning.
Anne Davis (http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti/2004/10/000180.php) explains that blogging is a way to link your classroom with another classroom somewhere else in the world. Anne is describing exactly what i proposed, in which students could share ideas about topics to other students across the world.
Teaching Today (http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47) says that blogs are a great way to get students involved in discussion who might not normally talk in the classroom. Some children do not feel comfortable talking in the classroom and a blog is a great way to alleviate that fear.
If i were to use a blog in my classroom i would use the following steps to keep the students safe:
-Use a blog that only let certain people who have a password access the site
-Carefully monitor what the students write on the blogs to ensure comments are appropriate
-Have students check with the teacher before they are allowed to post anything, so he/she can make sure it is appropriate.
-I would not have any personal information about the students on the site except for their first name.
-That includes no pictures, addresses or phone numbers
-Inform parents and get their consent
-No email addresses allowed on the blogs
-Let the students know the strict guidelines that they must follow
These are just a few safeguards that need to be put in place before the students are permitted to start blogging.
Overall blogging is a great tool that enables communication of ideas over a new medium which the students can use to gain greater understanding of the world and people around them.

Wow i'm a blogger! My name is Ryan Seifert and I was born in South Dakota but have lived in Alberta for most of my life. I have been married for 3 years to my wife Heidi and we have a blast together. I love to do various sports but mainly now i stick to golf and the occasional floor hockey game. I work part time at the keg and will have been there for 3 years in November. It's a great job and i work with alot of fun people. I am in an after degree program at the U of L and can't wait to be a teacher, it feels like i have been in school forever.

There are many benefits to using blogging in the classroom but we also have to be careful of the challenges that it can create. Blogging could be a great tool for kids to communicate with other children in other parts of the world. For example in social studies students could converse back and forth about current events and how they feel about them or how the events affected their life. I thought a great example would be communicating with children from China to see how they felt of their country's new found capitalist ideals. By doing this it would accomplish one of the outcome's that was described in the ICT of aquiring alternate viewpoints using technology.

Blogging could be a great tool used as a way of communciation between students and the teacher. The teacher could have a blogsite which he/she could update daily with details of assignments or field trip specifics. Say if the student lost the instructions for an assignment they could simply look up the information on the blog. This style of communication is useful but should not be used as the main avenue for questions, students should continue to seek out teachers for help after class.

In the ICT it talks about how students should be able to navigate, edit, compose, and communicate using technology and blogging satisfies many of these outcomes. Students need to navigate the internet in order to get to the web site and they need to create their own blog which gains them more comfortability on the computer as a whole. Students will compose and edit pieces of imformation that they will display on their blogs and they can communicate with their peers using the blog.

Although i worry about internet predators who might look at the students blog. Hopefully secure sites could be set up that only people with access could only view.

Parents also have the opportunity to see what the students are learning and be able to check out homework due dates and a variety of information that could be posted on a class blog. But here again we have to be careful that the main type of teacher parent communciation is not through a computer but face to face.

Overall blogging could be a viable resource which has many positive outcomes that could be used for learning in todays classroom.