Inspirational Hero

Lesson: Research a person who has been inspirational to you and create a digital story about them using Animoto.

Objectives:

• Students will be able to research another person on their own
• Students will be able to create a digital story summarizing their research findings
• Students will apply digital citizenship while doing research and citing findings
• Students will be able to communicate information in a visual manner
• Students will be able to effectively write short summaries of information

Common Core Standards:

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.2
  Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.2
  Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.

ISTE Standards:

• Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:
• create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
• Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:
• plan strategies to guide inquiry.
• locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
• evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
• process data and report results.

The Lesson In Action

I chose to do my project on John Green because he has gone after his dreams, no matter what. He is an amazing author, and leads a fan group devoted to changing the world for the better.

Research Resources

Reflections
Creating this story felt a lot like creating a PowerPoint presentation, without all the fun colors and shapes it offers. Animoto did not give many options for editing, and would probably be best used with younger ages such as elementary and early middle school. This particular project would work especially well with the middle school ages because it asks for some basic research but is not overly complicated. It also asks for the works to be cited, which allows for students to practice citing where they got their information at an early age.

The actual execution of the project was very simple. The process of selecting images and rearranging them was one that a student of any age could easily grasp. Having a project plan with this simplicity provides a teacher with the ability to adjust the directions for any age group and for any subject. While this particular example focused on an inspirational figure, a teacher could ask students to research a historical figure from a war or a former political figure.

Technology Integration

Teachers cannot do everything on their own, sometimes they need help. Below is a list of things that technology can help them with and a tool for each subject.

Word Fluency and Vocabulary Development 

Source

Brainpop is a site that allows students (and educators) to interact with it. They can choose the subject and then the subset of each subject that applies to what they are learning. Each section allows the student to see the words as images to better learn and understand them. This is best used with middle and high school students,while Brainpop Jr is much better suited for elementary users.


Video Source





Comprehension and Literacy Development
StoryCenter connects students to others around the world while also teaching them about literacy. Not only does this fit into the English section of common core, it also encompases the global aspect of learning. While this site may be difficult for younger students, those in seventh grade or above would benefit from its use.

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Writing Instruction
Having students brainstorm ideas prior to writing can be very helpful to the process. By using concept map (or building one in a site such as Popplet) helps students to decide what they'll be writing about and where in their writing it will go. This tool is useful for all ages. In elementary school, having the students draw out their own would be easier for the students, while an interactive online tool could be more useful for middle and high school age students.

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Literature Learning
FamousPeople can help students learn about authors that the teacher may not know much about. Not every teacher is going to know everything about every author that their students are reading books by. Through using this site, students (primarily at the middle to high school level) are able to gain information through a reliable source without their teacher having to worry about the reliability of the websites they are using. 

Global Webinar: Study Abroad

listen to ‘Summer Abroad Webinar’ on Audioboo

The webinar that I based my podcast on can be found here.

What We've Learned (so far)

Objective:  explain why technology integration into curriculum is essential for 21st century classrooms

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Over the course of the past 7 weeks we have discussed this topic many times. It has been an important part of our ePortfolio, which is shown by the tools page on our websites. We have also seen how technology integration is effecting how material is taught. For example, in the TPACK model (shown on right) technology is a primary section. This shows us that technology is an important part of education today. We have also discussed how Web 2.0 can be integrated into classrooms today and how tool designers are working with educators to create the most useful tools possible. Because Web 2.0 tools are interactive they allow students to learn in multiple ways, and the teacher controls how the tool is used by their students. A classroom without technology is one that is not yet in the 21st Century.


Objective: continue to be a  reflective practitioner through an ongoing blog and other writing

Source

We have worked on this objective through our blogs, our Vision of Technology Paper, and discussing the TIP model (shown at left). The TIP model's phase 5 is all about reflecting on a lesson and how effective it was. We have used this to reflect on lesson examples from our text and examples given in class. Through our Vision of Technology Papers we are reflecting on how we will use technology in our classrooms as teachers and why we think it is important for students to use in today's society. With our blogs we are reflecting on various topics such as Web 2.0 tools, problems with technology in schools, and our own digital footprint. As part of the class we have also had chapter review questions that have asked us to reflect on topics from the text and to analyze how the ideas can be best used in classrooms today.


Objective: evaluate technological resources for professional and classroom use

We have had many projects that fall under this objective. We had a tool challenge project in which we each had to research a tool and present to the class on it. This assignment had multiple functions; we not only had to research our own tool enough to present it, but we also learned about the tools that our classmates did research on. This gives us a toolbox that we can use in our own classrooms during student teaching and once we become certified teachers ourselves.

Objective: Turn theory into practice by completing 5 hours of related field experience.

I did my field experience at my former high school. I was there for approximately 4 hours and had the opportunity to talk to not only the primary computer teacher, but also a social studies teacher, the technology director, the family and consumer science teacher, and an art teacher. During these discussions I learned about how integrating technology into every classroom is important. Students need to be learning about and using technology in every educational discipline. By using technology for art and psychology and sociology they are learning how to function as a member of society and are learning how to use tools that may help them at a job later.

Objectives Web

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Digital Footprint

What I Am Proud Of
Google my name and you will get past many pages before you'll find me. You won't find my Facebook, my Twitter, my LinkedIn, my Pintrest, my Instagram, or even a news article remotely related to me. Anyone who wants to find me is going to have to do some serious work, or will have to know a lot about me. I am proud to say that finding me online is difficult. In order for someone to actually find a picture of me, they would have to search for where I work during the summer and find the staff photo, and even then they would have to know what I looked like already since there are twenty-seven people in the photo.

What I Am Surprised To See
I was surprised to see that when I finally did find myself, I could get the location of my parents house. While it only showed an approximate location, there was an option to pay just under $4 to get my phone number, email, and parent's address. I was also surprised to see how many other people in the country (100+) shared my name. I knew that there were historical figures that shared my name, but I had no idea how many people in the states did as well.

What I Will Change
Nothing. The information that could be found was information from public records that I have no control over. Because of how many Google pages it took for me to find myself I am not worried about what others can see when they search me (I even had a friend search on their computer to see what came up). I am also aware that I have not been the subject of any news articles and that the pictures of me online do not put me in bad light. If a potential employer were to find me online, they would see me for who I am; a person who has some close friends, works at a summer camp, and whose favorite season is summer, and that's if they can find my Facebook profile. If they find my LinkedIn, they will get basically the same impression, minus the close friends and summer. They will find that I sell lotion to make some extra spending money, and have worked at camp under various job titles.

Digital Citizenship Prezi