Friday, February 20, 2009

TPACK for Google Earth

Content: The content I am using comes from the Utah State Core:
4th Grade Standard
Social Studies 1.1
Classify major physical geographic attributes of Utah.
The students will also be learning about the significance of some of the sites they will explore in Utah.

Pedagogy: The pedagogy used in this lesson is very interactive and independent. The students will be able to go through this virtual tour on their own. They will be able to explore at their own pace. I think that this is effective pedagogy because the students will be able to take control of their own learning. They must complete the stated criteria, but if they would like, they can continue to explore the wonderful and diverse geographic attributes of Utah. I think that this is a good fit with the content being taught because the the students will be held accountable for obtaining the information about physical geographic attributes of Utah while they are independently exploring an interactive map of the world.

Technology: This lesson would not exist without the technology. The students will view a virtual tour from Google Earth designed by me. This virtual tour will show the student diverse physical geographic attributes of Utah. Google Earth is a wonderful tool to help the students realize how complex and diverse our earth is. This tool ties in to the pedagogy of the lesson because the students are able to move at their own pace through the tour and they get to take more from the experience than is required than they have to. This style of teaching helps students be intrinsically motivated to take control of their learning. The technology is a great fit with the content of the lesson because Google Earth is an interactive and accurate map of the world and specifically Utah. Because the students will be able to view terrain levels and close up satellite views of the diverse destinations, the students will get a more realistic experience than they would if they were to look at still photos.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Virtual Tour Plan
































Location ActivityGoogle Earth Content
1Balanced Rock
In the first activity I will have the students look at a picture of Balanced Rock in Arches National Park.
Measure how high it is from the tip of balanced rock to the ground.
2.Dead Horse Point State Park
For the second activity, the students will read about Dead Horse Point in Wikipedia and look at a picture of Dead Horse Point Lookout.
The students will measure the narrow neck of land that leads to Dead Horse Point.
3.Mount Timpanogos
Read the Wikipedia Article. Record how high the highest peak is.
Watch a path of photos from near the summit of Mount Timpanogos.
4.Bonneville Salt Flats
Notice how flat and large this area is.
Read the Wikipedia Article about the Bonneville Salt Flats and their many uses.
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:The student will follow a path of 5 photos from near the summit of Mount Timpanogos.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Monday, February 9, 2009

Storyboard and TPACK Info.



The content I will be using for my story board will come from the Utah State Core for Literacy. In third grade Standard 5 Objective 2a: Read aloud grade level text in meaningful phrases using intonation, expression, and punctuation cues. I have chosen Mother Goose rhymes for the content because they are well known. Also, the rhymes flow easily for beginning readers. The text is also predictable and fun and engaging.

The pedagogy this lesson uses includes modeling. As the students will watch the presentation, they will hear the words to the rhymes as they look at the pictures. I will model how to use my voice to make the phrases of the rhymes more meaningful by using expression, intonation, and punctuation cues. Then the students can practice reading the same poems they have heard. This is also a form of scaffolding to help the students understand the concepts behind punctuation. Children must have examples set before them to be able to do something on their own.

The technology used for this lesson would be Photo Story 3. The students would watch the movie clip of the nursery rhymes and the modeled readings. As the students practice, they would be able to return again and again to the video to catch things they may have missed. For this reason, the technology of Photo Story would be a great fit with the pedagogy I am using because the students would be able to listen to a consistent voice pattern as they review the rhymes. The Photo Story technology is great because as the students are hearing the words to the rhymes, they are also seeing a visual to connect with each rhyme. It is possible to have music playing in the background as well to add to the aesthetic nature of the project.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

TPACK Questions

1. What is the content you are focusing on in your science lesson?
In my lesson I am focusing on being able to distinguish living and non-living organisms in an environment by using criteria to do so. The criteria for a living organism is that it must be able to grow, move, and reproduce. If an organism does not meet that criteria, then it is classified as a non-living organism.
2. What is the pedagogy you are using and why is it a good fit with the content?
The pedagogy I am using in this lesson is focused on hands on activity. The students will be actively engaged in collecting the data from their environment. Once they have collected their data, they will have easy access to refer back to it again. I think that discussing how to determine what criteria makes an organism living or non-living is a higher level thinking activity. By implementing higher level thinking the students are challenged and more apt to participate and stay interested and also remember and connect what they have learned for a longer period of time.
3. What is the technology you'll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy you are using?
The technology I am using is digital cameras and the ability to download the pictures onto a computer for easy access. Although this technology is simple, I believe it is very effective in this lesson because it helps with both pedagogy and content understanding. It is helpful with the pedagogy because the students have taken pictures of objects that they can call their own. Ownership of a project makes the lessons go easier and the students are more involved in taking control over their own education. It also helps with the content because the ability the technology gives the students to gather data and also refer back to the exact image they saw initially allows for accurate descriptions to take place.