Week 6

Educational Technology:

At the beginning of the semester, I posted about a technology/history blog called HistoryTech.  This week’s post fits perfectly into what the class discussed last week on our blogs.  It sounds like the author is at a conference and posted about one of his sessions.  The session was using technology to bring the Emancipation to life using...VISUALS!

Posted to HistoryTech is a great screen shot of a video showing a movie/map/timeline about Emancipation.  While I could not view the video, the shot said it all.  It looks as though the viewer is able to watch as Emancipation spreads across the country.  There are 4 different points to watch for such as Emancipation Events and Union Army Occupation.  I am unsure if there is sound or if students just watch the video.  I think it could work either way.  I would hope though, if it does not have sound, a teacher using the video would speak over it to help explain what is happening.  If a teacher just let the video run without explanation, it could be a wasted visual.

The video looks like it might truly be able to enhance an Emancipation lesson in the classroom.  Students could even take the video as inspiration to create their own or as a vehicle to an end of unit project.

I attempted to leave a comment on the site, but was unsuccessful.  I did however e-mail the author about some of his previous posts and the current one.  I think the author does an excellent job of showing educators how technology and history can work together in new and interesting ways.  He replied stating he as glad I found the blog useful.  

CommonSense Media’s:

The lesson I looked at was Grades 4-5 Rings of Responsibility and concentrated on Teach 1: Learn about Citizenship.  The lesson starts out with the instructor using a quote from Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man “With great power comes great responsibility.”  The lesson uses the quote to explain to students that online they hold great power, but need to use it responsibly and introduces the vocabulary word responsibility. 

I particularly like how the teacher introduces the concept using student’s prior knowledge.  Students talk about the responsibility they have at home, school, or in their community.  Using students prior knowledge is a great way to introduce new or difficult concepts.

What I especially like about this introduction lesson is it can easily become an integrated lesson with civics.  In the 5^th grade students study United States History to 1865.  During this time, the Founding Fathers wrote the constitution and made other laws that the citizens had responsibility to uphold.  Teachers can easily, talk about the civics involved with being a U.S. citizen and the responsibility they have online.

The rest of the lessons involve students working through 3 different phases of responsibility online: themselves, their friends and family, and to both their online and offline communities.  All of these lessons work in conjunction with the previous lessons to help remind students how they should act online and why.  

PPT is Evil:

I listened to the NPR segment on PowerPoint.  The clip was produced in 2003, but I know I heard it a few months ago.  I am not sure if it was a follow up story or if it was this clip replayed.

Through the segment the reporter talks about how PowerPoint is over used in schools and is becoming ineffective.  He also speaks with top researchers in the field.  One stated that PowerPoint is great for the bottom 20% of presenters.  This is because it forces them to be organized.  The researcher then stated that is does not help the top 80% at all and only creates disfunction in their presentation.

When teaching students PowerPoint, teachers need to teach the students that the program is an aid, not the presentation.  Teachers and students need to understand that the PowerPoint slides can act as a visual aid and should only be there to enhance the spoken portion of the presentation.  Students should not read only from the slides, but should create an entire script that is performed as the presentation.

Teachers also need to tell students to limit both the amount of words used on the slid as well as special effects.  The more words that are published on the slide viewers are going to experience one of two effects.  They are either not going to read anything on the slid and only listen to the speaker or they are going to tune the speaker out and only read the text.  

When looking at the special effects, they only become a distraction.  With all of the sounds and slid motion combinations possible, instead of being informative, the presentation only become chaotic.  To limit the effects, teachers could allow students one effect total and then explain points will be deducted for more because they are not conducive to learning.  This way students get to have some fun but the class does not have to suffer.

While I do think PowerPoint is over used and used incorrectly, there is a time and place for it. If made to look minimal, by allowing the speaker to speak then I think it can be an excellent teaching tool.  It should not be used in all cases all the time, there is a time and place.