Consumer Econ Budget Worksheet

IEP - A Tour Through History and Literature Using Google Earth

I had no idea what I was in for when I set out to learn Google Earth and develop lesson plans for use in my classroom.

Did you know Google Earth can do anything??
Well, practically. Besides basic functions like measuring distance, identifying coordinates, labeling borders, and zooming in on landscape features, Google Earth can help you:

• learn to fly a plane!
• view constellations!
• listen to penguins in Antarctica!
• pick a cause! (find about about the Crisis in Darfur, Water Issues, Endangered Species, and more)
• display historic maps! (population density, moving hurricane images, geology...)

And this barely scratches the surface. Needless to say, I bit off a little more than I could chew. But I persevered, muddled through, and have come out with a pretty sweet project idea that involves History, Technology, Geography, and Language Arts.

Vision

Read a historical novel of your choice. Connect the narrative to historical events. Present the book and its history through a Google Earth "tour". Imagine - a geographic approach to presenting information. We've all mastered Power Point, now let's explore a fun, new tool.

This project would ideally fall towards the end of semester one in a World History class (it could very easily be modified to fit US History). It takes a good two weeks of class time to master the necessary skills and create the final project, and more for presentation time. To make this a more realistic use of curriculum time it would be grand to draw on these skills during the second semester as well, hence positioning this project at the end of first semester.

Another idea for maximum time efficiency: collaborate on this project with a language arts teacher. Ideally students would have work time in both courses, and the final project rubric and expectations could be modified to include more language arts-themed information.

A third idea: use Google Earth during the semester previous to assigning the project. When discussing current events, zoom in on the area in Google Earth. Play with the different layers to find more information about the area or event. When the project commences, students will already have been exposed to many of the skills they must master. It might be possible to skip the first three lesson plans.

View my lesson plans and worksheets (the grand plan comes together in lesson plans 4-6):

Lesson Plan 1 Worksheet I Worksheet I Key

Lesson Plan 2 Worksheet II Worksheet II Key

Lesson Plan 3 Worksheet III

Lesson Plan 4 Worksheet IV Worksheet V

Lesson Plan 5 Worksheet VI

Lesson Plan 6 Planning Guide

Reflection

One thing I am still looking into is "publishing" such projects on the web. Though I created a project to go along with Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, it remains viewable solely on my home computer. In order to demonstrate this project for my students, I will have to recreate the tour on my school computer, buy Google Earth Pro, or submit it to the Google Earth community for publishing. Buying the pro version is something I might ask the school district to do should I make more lesson plans using this platform. This would also allow students to share their classwork with their parents and work on projects outside of school.

Google Earth is a fascinating tool with tons of potential for classroom use.

The biggest classroom challenge? Keeping students focused on the task at hand. There is so much cool stuff to play with!

The biggest teacher challenge? Keeping myself focused on the task at hand when developing lesson plans. There is so much cool stuff to play with!

I hope you enjoy reading and using as much as I enjoyed experimenting and creating.

Online Community Collaboration

The assignment: Monitor and participate in some sort of online community. This blog/forum/wiki might help answer these questions: What can help me in my professional development? What interests me? What do I want to know more about? What are the current goings-on in social studies?



The result: Many frustrating hours later, I had found numerous "communities" but all had their faults - out of date, not interesting, not applicable, intermittent postings with no real "dialogue". I was really turned off by the whole experience. Ideally, I wanted to find a forum directed towards high school social studies curriculum with technology integration. Perhaps my search skills are lacking, but there really did not appear to be much current dialogue on this subject. People sharing their thoughts via blogs, yes, but no debate taking place to expound on or defend their ideas.



Plan B: I resorted to finding a forum on educational issues in Alaska. I didn't have to look far. I stumbled upon the Alaska Teacher's Placement forum, which has been of some value in answering qualification and job fair questions. Posts are answered with prompt, knowledgeable responses; I think curriculum debate might be a possibility, but something I have yet to participate in.



Reflection: This was by far the hardest project for me to get into for our Integrating Technology class. I love questioning, exchanging, and debating ideas -BUT I LIKE TO DO IT IN PERSON. I don't like the lag time inherent with blogging, and I don't like the gaps in explanations that can occur in written dialogue. I think online communication has a time and place, but I much prefer to collaborate with people who know my students, my school, or my particular situation. I have a hard time giving credibility to people I don't know.

I'm happy to share my thoughts, but don't expect to find me doing it online any time soon. This blog is as far as I want to go in web collaboration. If you want to to argue or question - give me a call.

Important Educational Websites

Check these out if you teach history, love history, love technology, want to find ways to use technology in the classroom ... basically if you just want to know what is happening in the fields of history and technology.

Use them. Love them. Spread the word.

The Center for Teaching History with Technology This website has links to lesson plans using technology. *Ya? So do many other sites,* you're thinking. Check this one out. It is well-organized and non-intimidating, with additional sections for Webquests, Power Point, Podcasts, and Wikis.

Don't know what any of these are? Not to fear. The sections don't just contain links to lesson plans using these technologies, they actually explain the what/how/why questions you are asking yourself. *Aahh.*

Center for History and New Media You too will drool over this site. Links to lots of amazing sites with history plans (my faves: World History Sources and Exploring US History under Projects).

Resources section contains answers for why and how: why is history increasingly found online? how can we be sure of its validity and authenticity? how are others making use of this resource?

The Tools section has many fun tech things an educator could use to spice up teaching time: embedding surveys and polls in websites and creating a "scrapbook" students can edit or contribute to are just two of the options. I have not found time to explore the possibilities with these tools, but they sound fun. One of these days....

PBS Teachers Updated often! Some video clips or programming is available online. Lots of lesson plan ideas, and one of my favorite things, a section on media literacy. I intend to rely on primary resources in my classroom, not textbook analyses. Therefore, it will be very important to teach my students how media is used: what tools produce what types of motivation? what is the purpose behind this piece? PBS offers lots of activities suggestions to get students thinking and talking about the role media plays in society.

Another bonus - every month an educator's blog is highlighted, keeping us educators in the loop.

"Assistive Technologies for Reading"

A. Gustaveson
3/22/08
"Assistive Technologies for Reading" by Ted S. Hasselbring and Margaret E. Bausch

For my last article review, I will discuss and react to an article on pairing disabled learners with technology to enhance their educational opportunities. This article can be found in the magazine Educational Leadership.

Overview
Hasselbring and Bausch, two University of Kentucky Professors of Special Education, tout the benefits assistive technology can provide for disabled learners. Technology is so prevalent in today's classrooms, they argue, it is only natural this trend extend to special education learners as well. Assistive technology has not only improved learners' skills in the area of literacy, it has freed students from the stigma of individual attention as they struggle with decoding and understanding text.

Reference Points

1. Technology can help teachers educate disabled learners more effectively.
2. "Assistive technology" (AT) refers to anything that helps students with disabilities maintain or increase their capabilities. Pencil grips, positioning devices, and computer screen-reading technologies all fall into this category.
3. AT is used more often in special education classrooms. Regular education teachers tend to be uninformed of the potential technologies that exist and rely almost exclusively on special ed teachers for information.
4. AT is especially helpful in increasing literacy. It does this in two ways: a) through reading support and b) through reading intervention.
5. Reading support helps students "access grade-level text as they read" (73). For instance, this could mean a synthetic voice reads aloud an essay to help the student hear when they have left text out or noun-verb disagreements occur. If incorporated into statewide testing, students do not have to rely on a teacher to re-read parts of the text for comprehension purposes.
6. Reading intervention programs help students improve their reading skills. They are geared toward a student's specific ability level and needs. One program, READ 180, gives students a video to watch before reading an essay. The purpose is to provide the relevant contextual information learning disabled students often lack. This program then takes the student through vocabulary and comprehension activities. Once the student can pass these, as well as read the passage accurately and fluently, they can move to the next lesson.
7. Don't forget: success doesn't depend on technology, it depends on the teacher!

Reflection and Significance

One thing that really bothered me about this article is the authors seem to dispute their entire point at the end. They spend the time to hype up assistive technologies and all the good they can produce, only to backtrack at the end: "ultimately, it is not the medium, but the quality of instruction that makes a difference." So is your point then, that investing in these technologies should only be a priority when the teachers have failed to do their job?

I choose to focus on the message of the rest of the article, that assistive technology can be a huge help in the classroom, especially when long-term individual attention may not be a realistic alternative. I especially like the freedom it offers disabled students - they are no longer at the mercy of a helper for text access or instant feedback. Hasselbring and Bausch make a strong case for AT's presence in the general education classroom, where more SPED students find themselves as inclusion, not pullouts, become the dominating model in education.

This year I have had two visually impaired students in my classroom. I don't know how I would survive without this technology. It is unrealistic for myself or another student to pair with them for every activity. AT allows them independent access to the text. It also gives them a way to record their thoughts and reactions in written form, allowing me to use the same assessment tools I rely on with my other students (well, most of the time).

Without AT, it would take me multiple hours each week to provide instruction and assessment equal to the rest of their classmates. I agree with Hasselbring and Bausch - we need to get the word out to regular educators on the amazing potential AT can mean for special education students.

IEP Proposal - The Google Earth Challenge

For my next task, I will attempt to pull a rabbit out of a hat...or find some way to advance myself technically and incorporate this knowledge into a series of lesson plans. Thus I propose the

GOOGLE EARTH CHALLENGE!!

Until today I had never actually played with Google Earth - only viewed while others played. After a brief Internet investigation, I have found all sorts of SWEET stuff this program can do, including economic, demographic, transportation, and historic overlays on a topo map of the earth.

Apparently, if you have the latest and greatest version you can even view the night sky above your place of residence (or over the Sydney Opera house for that matter). You can "fly" a driving route between two cities or plot mountain adventures while measuring miles and elevation change. And this is what I know from the first hour!

This program appears to have a million and one applications in social studies curricula, and I aim to find the most spectacular ones. The other good news: this program is free to the general public, so I won't need any special funding to actually translate said lesson plans into my classroom.

Because at this point I have spent less than an hour playing with Google Earth, I am not sure what direction my lesson plans will take. I do know I have been very impressed in this brief amount of time, and am very excited to explore further. Check back for future updates on the Google Earth Challenge.

"The Overdominance of Computers"

A. Gustaveson
3/1/08
"The Overdominance of Computers" by Lowell W. Monke

For this assignment, I react to Lowell Monke's criticism of technology predominance in the classroom. This article can be found in the magazine Educational Leadership.

Overview
In his article "The Overdominance of Computers," Professor Lowell Monke asserts that we need to cut back on student technology use. Society's dependence on computers has left our children devoid of a connection with reality. Particularly in elementary school, students should be more involved with hands-on modeling and social interaction, not working with abstract computer processes.

Reference Points

1. Educators fear that eschewing classroom technology will mean students are not prepared for the 21st century working world. This has led to an overuse of computers.
2. Monke believes that technological preparation in the early years should center on instilling sound moral judgments, not actual computer use.
3. The power of technology plus personal distance from its consequences might result in a lack of self-control on a student's part. This is why ethics and morals are so important to instill.
4. We need to balance students' high-tech existence with physical and community interactions. Spreadsheets cannot teach "commitment, loyalty, and tradition" (22).
5. One study of 174,000 fifteen-year-olds found the more computer access a student had, the lower their overall test scores.
6. Moral judgments and decisions are required to deal with many of the problems technology has created: cloning, nuclear weapons, etc.
7. Technology should not be rejected outright during early education; instead of distancing the student from reality, any use should strengthen a child's internal resources.
8. Computer use should be introduced with a student's ability to process abstract thought (i.e. at the junior high level).
9. Teach technical skills in the final two years of education, so students are armed with up-to-date information, not obsolete knowledge.

Reflection and Significance

Monke has clearly articulated a problem that deserves focus in any educator's mind - providing a framework of meaning for our increasingly virtual world. Too often we fail to ensure our students know the how or why behind technology. Why is this source less reliable? How can we know that? How can this program help me solve a problem I will deal with in my own life? Why do I need to understand the link between computers and morality? These questions are less flashy and harder to answer than figuring out the mysteries of Movie Maker or posting blog entries, yet they must be the foundation from which technology usage proceeds. Educational access to computers should come only after this conversation has occurred. I will keep this in mind when designing my own curriculum.

I believe Monke makes an equally valid criticism of the supplanting of hands-on activities by video and computer games. This is particularly detrimental at the early stages of development. This fact needs to be supported by curriculum developers and education boards across the nation. Technology should play a limited role in elementary schools and an increased role as the student ages. High school educators need to ensure the balance between virtual and reality is maintained. In the words of Monke, "we should not be intensifying children's high-tech existence but compensating for it" (21).

Rubric for "Lost Children of Kenya"

My students have finished creating their current event narratives and are ready to present to the class. Now it's my turn. How will I be grading their presentations?

Current Event Narrative

"Wow" factor (degree to which the presentation caught the audience's interest):

1 2 3 4 5

Narrative is fact-based and draws info from at least 3 different sources:

1 2 3 4 5

Audience has a good understanding of the event after watching the movie:

1 2 3 4 5

Persuasiveness or objectivity (depending on your purpose) of presentation:

1 2 3 4 5

Ability to respond to questions from the audience (knowledge of event, easy to hear and understand, eye contact):

1 2 3 4 5

Process (met project deadlines, has a finished and polished piece, narrator's voice is clear on movie, pictures match story, effects do not distract):

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I made the last category, Process, count double. I figure if this is where the majority of a student's time will be spent, it should be worth more points.

Lost Children of Kenya

This project is envisioned as a future assignment for any Social Studies class. No matter which specific subject I end up teaching, I plan on starting each day with a current events discussion. This digital storytelling project is meant to take my students one step further in having them really "own" one such event.

The Assignment:
You will be producing a documentary about any event that has moved you in the last three weeks. It is your job to create a compelling story that both informs and moves your audience. As such, you will be creating a fictional account, but one that is based heavily on facts collected from newspapers, magazines, tv news, etc. In other words, create a story that could have been.

In addition to creating a digital story, you will be responsible for providing the facts on which your stories are based. You will need to draw information from at least three different sources.

Before you start on your movie, make sure you can identify:

• your purpose
• the effect you wish to have on your audience
• why should the audience care?
• how is this problem bigger than the characters in the story?

The following movie, Lost Children of Kenya, has been created as an example for this project. Use it as a guide to expectations regarding your finished product.

Step One in this process is creating a visual portrait of the story (VPS) you wish to tell.

VPS for Lost Children of Kenya

I created a character named Rasina Saisi who witnesses the violence in post-election Kenya. I have detailed three of the problems she faces while living in Nairobi. Each event was reported in the news, and thus is something any Kenyan child could have witnessed. Unlike most stories, you will notice this VPS lacks a formal resolution. The violence continues, thus, so does the story.

Step Two is taking this visual story map and transforming it into a movie using Movie Maker or a similar program. View my completed movie at youtube.com. (One factual correction -the slide with the anlayst's estimate of national economic shrinkage should read "over the last six weeks", not three.)

The interview with Rasina is set to a photo montage. These were snapped during the five weeks following the Kenyan election. Some of the photos are from various websites, while others were scanned from a local newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News.

Reflection

Having actually completed this assignment, I can say it was a lot of fun, I learned some interesting things, and it is a project I am excited to undertake with my future students. I think they will really enjoy getting to put their own "spin" on a story while simultaneously learning about the situation.

Ideally, after showing his or her movie to the class, the producer would entertain questions from the audience. This will give the creator further opportunity to show off his or her knowledge as well as create dialogue and awareness within the classroom about geopolitical events around the world.

The tricky aspect of this project will be ensuring a balance between fact and fiction while students are developing their stories. *Let's not get completely carried away with the creative side now, folks.*

Movie credits:

Anchorage Daily News, 1/25/08 - 2/17/08

You Tube "Kenya Song"

The following websites: euronews, children of africa, daily mail, the sun, affordable housing institute, the razor, shanghai daily, jimmy mccarty, cbs news, boston globe, un4saken.net, itn.co.uk, ny times