Technology Integration Plan

For my technology integration plan, I want to expose my students to the best ways to utilize technology in historical research. I plan to assign small tasks using different digital tools throughout the year culminating in a year-end presentation using those assignments. Throughout the year, we will utilize Google Earth, powerpoint, concept maps, and podcasting. These assignments will culminate in the creation of a video to present their project to the rest of the class. A large part of this project is based on learning how to properly cite references and using technology as a research tool.

First, each student will choose a research topic that relates to American History. These should be complex questions that necessitate looking at historical interactions throughout time. These could be questions about things such as America's foreign policy regarding Israel and Palestine or the historical conflict between America and Al-Qaeda that led to 9/11.

Second, we will use Google Earth to map the area of the world involved in the question. This could mean Israel and Palestine, the US, or Afghanistan. As the year progresses and historical interactions are discovered, it might be necessary to go back and identify other players on a map.

Third, we will discuss the different ways you can go about researching history and the pros and cons of each. This will include discussion of copyright and intellectual property restrictions. After discussion, students will be able to spend a while researching their chosen topic. Depending on what else is happening in class, the research period could be a couple of weeks or a couple of months.

Next, after a decent amount of research time, each student will be responsible for creating a powerpoint about the basics of their topic. This powerpoint will include the maps from Google Earth and a couple of slides outlining a couple of the resources they used. This should include proper citations and a brief outline of what they learned from that source. It will not have to include each source they might use, but is just a way to ensure that they are on the right track in their research.

A couple weeks before the final due date of the project, each student will present a concept map. They can use any website they choose, but Webspiration will be recommended. This concept map should illustrate everything they have learned about their topic throughout the year. This will be my final assessment of their progress and final opportunity to guide them before starting their final assignment.

The last part of this year long assignment will be the creation of a video. Different students are more comfortable with different tools, so I will allow them to use whatever they choose. However, in my explanation of the video, I will discuss slideshare, voicethread, windows movie maker, and apple movie maker. The video should include the maps from the very beginning of the year.

Lastly, we will have a couple of days at the end of the year when we watch everyone's completed videos. I hope that this will be an interesting and exciting project that will better my students' understandings of American history and historical interactions. By allowing students freedom in choosing their topics, I hope that they will be engaged in the project by researching something that interests them.

Assignment 11A: Slidecasting

English cabbies

View more webinars from Hannah Dunn

Assignment 12: Newsletters

I created a newsletter that I would give to each student on the first day of school to inform their parents of what the year will look like in my class. The link to it is below.
Newsletter

Assignment 11A: Podcasts

Podcasts can be extremely helpful in the classroom. They can be used as lecture tools if I miss class or if there isn't enough time to cover all the material in the classroom. Lectures and questions could be given as homework where the students need to listen to the podcast and answer questions. It could also be a good review tool before tests or exams to go back over the key material of the section.

Assignment 10: Concept Maps and Learning Games

Concept Maps:

I created a concept map about the Don't Ask, Don't Tell government policy. The link below will connect you to the map.
Concept Map

Concept maps are extremely helpful in the classroom. In history, they can be used to show the connections between events, documents, laws, etc. It's a visually appealing way to illustrate the various aspects of a policy or law, such as DADT, by separating it into the people, chronology, setting, effects, etc. Students can more easily sort out information and identify the main ideas. Concept maps can also be used to show how seemingly unrelated events are related. Mapping things such as the Treaty of Versailles and then showing how the different tenets of the treaty helped directly cause WWII. Concept maps are also a great study tool. Students can fill in the map to test their understand and review for exams.


Learning with Games and Simulations:

Stay Afloat- WWII Edition

This FunBrain game is similar to hangman, but offers clues to the answer to aid in guessing. I would use this as a review tool before a test in order to help students review the material.

Who Is That?- Presidents Edition

Another FunBrain game, this offers clues and a portrait of a president. Then, you guess which president is being described. This could be used as a review tool, or as fun way to gauge student's previous knowledge of the presidents. It could also be a fun game to play as a class by splitting into teams and letting the students work together to figure out the correct answer.

Assignment 9: Word Clouds

Wordle can be used in the classroom as an aid students who learn visually. The word cloud arranges the words that are most used, so the main point of a paragraph can be easily identified. For instance, the word cloud above was created from notes from my history class. You can see that the topic of that day was women's participation in the workforce during the great depression.

Assignment 8B: Digital Storytelling...again