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.