Teaching and Learning with Technology-Final Project

CSN

EDU 214 FALL 2018

Alyssa Hanzel

10/11/18
 Teaching and Learning with Technology-Final Project

Section 2: Position Paper

Technology has been a part of our lives and in the classroom for decades. If you look back

on the history of technology in the classroom, it is dated as far back as the 1920s when radios

were used in a class setting. From that point on, we have been craving for more and more

technology in the classroom. By 2009, 97% of classrooms had one or more computer and 93%

of classrooms had internet (Purdue University Online). With the constant growth of technology

not only in the classroom, but in the real world as well, it would affect our students in a very

negative way. When it comes to the students future, almost any career they will join will

require computer literacy at a minimum. If we are forced to abandon technology, we will not be

able to prepare our students to be successful in life.

In Potomac, Md. a teacher realized she was having a hard time keeping her students

interested during class. She substituted her traditional classroom setting for video lectures and

saw an improvement. "Roshan's students in the 2010-11 school year scored an average of 4.11

on the AP calculus test, compared to the 3.59 average." (UsNews, 2011). That is just one

example showing how technology has better the education system. Without technology, our

grades could potentially see a drastic drop and even cause our school to have a lower rating.

Technology has more learning fun for students. It makes challenging projects into something

they enjoy. It brings out creativity, engineering, problem solving, etc. Even the internet access is

important for them. They are able to access more data than a book could provide. As teachers,

we need to be able to constantly come up with new fresh ideas for assignments and technology

is a huge part of that. As you can see teaching and learning with technology is extremely crucial

and we cannot go back to not using it without major consequences.

References

1. Purdue University Online (NA/). The Evolution of Technology in the Classroom.

Retrieved from

https://online.purdue.edu/ldt/learning-design-technology/resources/evolution-

technology-classroom

2. Lytle, R. (2011, July 14). Study: Emerging Technology Has Positive Impact in Classroom.

Retrieved from

https://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2011/07/14/study-

emerging-technology-has-positive-impact-in-classroom
 Teaching and Learning with Technology-Final Project

Section 3: Identification of Standards

From my research on identifying the different standards, it seems that our district uses

the State of Nevada's Performance Indicators. They do not have any additional or different

standards in the school district. We are then left with State Performance Indicators and Nation

level Standards. There are 6 National Standards that are then broken down into multiple parts,

those standards are the following: 1. Creativity and Innovation, 2. Communication and

Collaboration, 3. Research and Information Fluency, 4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and

Decision Making, 5. Digital Citizenship, and 6. Technology Operations and Concepts. From that

point, the National Standards are broken down into 4 indicators known as A, B, C, or D. The

State indicators take it one step further and break them all down into grade levels. As each

grade passes, students are required to know all previous indicators while working on the

current grade's as well. I also noticed that some grades have more than one state indicator.

State indicators are a more in depth version of the national indicators. The grade level

state indicators breaks down the national indicator from being something as simple as "3D:

Process date and report results" and turn it into "3.D.5.1: Collect, organize, analyze, and

manipulate data using digital tools and report results in a format appropriate to the task". I

believe the reasoning behind this is each state may vary on what their use of technology is and

what they will be teaching. Keeping the National more vague gives states and districts more

wiggle room for what their grade requirements will be.

For my lesson plan I have chosen Standard 3C: Students curate information from digital

resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that

demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

Section 4: Lesson Plan

Name of Lesson: State Postcards

Grade Level Appropriateness: 2nd/3rd Grade

Technology Content Standard Addressed: Standard 3 3C: Students curate information from
digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that
demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

Other Content Standard Addressed: SS.2.22. Examine how environmental characteristics shape
the development of the nation

Objective: Students will use PowerPoint to create a postcard on the State they are assigned.
They will research the State and put together a postcard based on the facts and history of the
State. Students will also write down what they found as well.

Materials Needed: Internet, Microsoft PowerPoint (or similar program), printer, thick cardstock
paper, and pen.

Suggested group size: Individual projects

Procedures:

1. The teacher will assign a State to each student at random. A great way to this would to let
the student draw a State from a hat.

2. Students will research their State online to find the following information:

• State Symbol Examples: State Bird, State Motto, State Colors, State Animal, State
Seal, etc. A great website for this section is https://statesymbolsusa.org/
• The State's Capitol
• At least one fact about the state that they find interesting.
 Teaching and Learning with Technology-Final Project

3. Once the research is done, photos will be collected from the internet to create a postcard.
Find the photo you would like to use, right click on the photo and click save as. You will save the
photo anywhere you'd like to, as long as you remember where to find it. *I find it easier to save
onto the desktop to find quickly. It is also easier to clean up later.
 Teaching and Learning with Technology-Final Project

4. Open up Microsoft PowerPoint to a new blank page. This part is fully creative mode of the
student. Create a postcard with the information you found online about your State. Here are
some tips for working in PowerPoint:

• Move to the INSERT tab, press PICTURE. This box will pop open and you'll be able
to pick and choose what photo you want for your project. From the INSERT tab,
you are also able to click on TEXT BOX if you would like to add more text onto
the postcard. Also for a big bold title like NEVADA, you can use the WORD ART
button to create that as well.
 Teaching and Learning with Technology-Final Project

5. Once your postcard is complete, you will go to save your project. Be sure to save it in two
forms. Save it as is in PowerPoint in case you want to make any changes. Also you'll want to
save it as a JPEG.

6. Once saved as JPEG, print out postcard as 4x6 photo on thick cardstock paper.

*EXTRA CREDIT 5 POINTS: Open up a new PowerPoint page and create the back of the postcard
using the shape tools. You'll want a line going down as a divider, 4 lines for a name and address,
and an area of the stamp. Save the same way you did the front of the postcard. Once as a
PowerPoint, once as a JPEG. Print on the other side of your postcard that you have already
printed.*
 Teaching and Learning with Technology-Final Project

7. Whether you did the extra credit or not, you'll cut your postcard out and write on the back of
the postcard. On the right side you'll be assigned another classmate to write to. You'll put their
name and desk number (instead of address). On the left hand side, you'll write down the
information you found out about your State. Write about what you put on the front of the
postcard and also one interesting fact you found out about your state.

*STUDENT SAMPLE ABOVE*

8. Before turning in assignment, pair up with your classmate that you wrote your postcard to.
You'll switch postcards and read what the other wrote. Discuss for 10 minutes how your States
were similar or different. Turn in postcards afterwards.

Assessment: This assignment will be worth 20 points, with a chance of 5 points extra credit.

• 5 points the creative design of the project