Week 7

VoiceThreads

For this week, I created a digital story that I would you as a teacher to assist me in a lesson about World War 2. I thought it was both fun and intersting when creating the digital story for this assignment. I was amazed to see how powerful the story became once my voice was put behind it, words are truly powerful. I was also surprised how easy it was to make a digital story. After doing it once now, I think that I could do it much faster the second time.

Digital Storytelling can really be a great idea and tool for teacher to use. In the classroom you could use it to view others telling a story through their words and pictures. It is a first hand resource that you can use to back up your lessons and activities. A teacher may also use it to help students who are more visual learners since it provides images with instruction behind it.

A teacher could use digital storytelling outside the class room in the form of homework or research. As a teacher you may give your students the task to browse other people digital storytelling to research a certain topic. Or you may create your own voicethread, such as I did above, that may be used as a mini lesson that students are responsible to complete at home. This is also a good way to get parents involved in their childrens learning which in return enriches the learning community of your classroom.

Week 6

Photo Attribution:

Original Image: "Lymington Harbor"

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1396/1403368794_9d8c910c33_m.jpg

By: Norm Walsh

Released under an attribution-non-commercial

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en

Knowing what I know now; I probably would have misinformed a student if they had asked me where and what to do with pictures on the internet. If the student asked me where they could find a picture, I probably would have told them to use one of the popular search engines such as yahoo or google. I would have told them that they could use the image search on both of the search engines by clicking on the image tab and then typing in what they want to search for. Once they found the image I probably would have told them to cite the image using AP formatting.

I never had heard of Creative Commons before this week. I never really thought of copyrights except for using them for citing papers, inventions, slogans or brands. All of these copyright gave executive use to one owner who needed to be contacted for permission to use or edit their copyrighted material. I now know that there are copyrights that let give rights to the owner of the material and let others share edit and use the material with permission. To watch a video of how these copyright work click here. Knowing what I know now, I would give different advice to that same student. I would first tell the student to make sure that they find a picture which is CC-copyrighted by using either FlickrCC or Creative Commons Search. These sight will allow you to search the internet for images which are CC-copyrighted. Once a student has found an image they want to use, I would tell them that they would have to cite it properly to give the author the proper credit. When using CC-copyrighted material, you have four options, 1. Claim fair use, 2. Ask author for permission, 3. Use CC licensed work according to permissions outlined, or 4. Use your own original work. To see all of the guidelines to giving work proper citation click here. To see how an image is properly cited look at the photo at the top of this blog.

Week 5

Creating A Lesson Plan

For this week I created lesson plans for Third Graders on Native Americans in Michigan. The lesson I created was focused around two third grade GLCE’s standards (grade level content) which involved the teaching of Native American life in Michigan and traditional stories or legends which have been passed down. The two standards that I focused on include:

1. Drawing upon traditional stories of American Indians who lived in Michigan in order to make generalizations about their beliefs. (GLCES Social Studies Standard 3 - H3.0.4)

2. Use informational text and visual data to compare how American Indians and settlers in the early history of Michigan adapted to, used, and modified their environment. (GLCES Social Studies Standard 3 - H3.0.5)

In my lesson, I also included two third grade METS standards (Michigan technology standards) on top of the GLCE standards. I incorporated these technology standards in my lesson in order to prepare my students technologically for the future. The METS standards that I used in my lesson include:

1. Proofread and edit writing using appropriate resources (e.g., dictionary, spell check, grammar check, grammar references, writing references) and grade level appropriate checklists both individually and in groups.

2. Identify search strategies for locating needed information on the internet

To help my students meet the goals of this lesson, I included websites which they could access from any computer using the website del.icio.us. You can access all of these websites by clicking on the link right here. The websites that I choose were aimed at helping assist the class with finishing the lessons which will be assigned to them, as well as providing them a way to research material that we will be working on in class. Below is an overview of the websites I choose to include in my del.icio.us page. The websites were saved under two tags, the first tag was “NativeAmericans” and the second tag was “Searchengines”. The websites that were organized under “Searchengines” were websites that the students could use to assist them with researching the Michigan Native American tribe that they choose. These websites were just your basic search engines which included Google, Yahoo, and Ask. The websites that were organized under “NativeAmericans” were websites that were relevant to the content that we would be addressing in the lesson. Below is a list that describes each website that is organized under the tag “NativeAmericans” and how they will be used to help my students learn the material in the lesson.

Shelters of Northeast Native Americans- This website addresses the type of homes that Native Americans in the Northeast region built. This webpage will help me teach my students how the homes of Native Americans differed, what they looked like, and how they were made. This information will be useful both in the first and the second day of my week long lesson when we are talking about the ways that Native Americans lived in Michigan and in America in the past. The website provides text and pictures to help student visualize and form a background of Native American lifestyles.

American Indian tribes- This website lists all of the Native American Tribes in the United States and provides links for further researching. Students will be able to use this in the beginning of the lesson to start gaining an understanding of who the Native Americans were and their different lifestyles. This website provides a tool for students to explore the lesson topics on their own or with their parents. They are able to browse tribes that they may already be familiar with or tribes that they may have never even heard of before.

The Northeast Indians- This website will be most beneficial on the second and third day when I am talking to my students about the culture of Native Americans in the Northeast region. This website gives a complete overview of the daily lives and culture of Native Americans in the Northeast tribes. This website will help students gain background knowledge about the Native Americans in this region, how they lived their lives, and an overview of their culture. This website will be useful because it provides instruction and a research tool outside of the classroom.

Map of Michigan Indian Reservations- This website will also be used to help my students research the Michigan Native American tribe that they choose. The website provides a map which shows where early Native American settlements were located in Michigan. Student will be able to locate the tribe that they choose and be able to identify the location of the state in which they settled. By looking at where the tribe was located, students will hopefully be able to get a better understanding of the lifestyle of their Native American tribe.

Quiz: Find out your ecological footprint- This website will be used in the last day of my lesson. This website provides a quiz that judges how big of an ecological footprint you have on the environment based on where you live, how much you consume, and what you consume. When I took the quiz it said that there needs to be 4 earths in order to meet my consumption needs. This website will allow students to take the test and see how they impact their environment. Rather than talking about it, this website provides terms and results that the students can relate with and comprehend. Seeing that there needs to be four earths to meet their consumption habits has a lot greater impact then just saying that we consume too much.