Proposed+Project

What if we did a project to get the three classes using class response systems? The three classes could use them on inclass formative assessments as well as any summative assessment they might have in that week. We could have the three classes Skype to discuss the pros and cons of the system, as well as the teachers privately. Let me know what you think, but I think it would be a simple one week project to complete. I have knowledge of the iRespond system.
 * Idea #1 - Keith**


 * __Evonie's Idea__**

Hey guys. I thought this would be a good project for us to embark upon. It covers each of our disciplines, you all History and I English. With the researching of things that were happening or happened during the time each of the students were born, will be a great idea to teach across the curriculum while using technology.

It is my goal to always engage my students in learning that is beneficial as well as interesting. As I searched the various projects, I had to consider the age of my students as well as their various interests and learning styles. My tenth grade English students are all technological experts. They spend most of their time texting, creating blogs, wikis, chatting, and building their profiles on Facebook and Twitter. In addition, all of their technological habits are at the touch of their fingertip, on their cell phones. Therefore, with interests such as these, I must educate my students in a manner in which they can use these skills for learning.

Therefore, I chose “The Day I was Born Project” found at http://www.dayiwasborn.net/. In this project students are forded the opportunity to use the computer for more than leisure and social reasons. In this project, students will have to conduct extensive research about what was happening when they were born. This includes, who the president was, what movie was out, a famous author and their works during this time, what was going on in the news, etc. This project will require students to collaborate with one another by peer helping and sharing facts with one another.

This project and its use of collaborations will aid students in helping others outside of the school setting; In addition, it will offer students the skills needed to conduct research for other reasons and for a broader audience. With this being said, I share the idea with Januszewski & Molenda that it is important and beneficial for students to be able to have their hands on their learning. This makes the information being taught more meaningful and useful. For instance, with my experience here at Walden, I have been in control of my learning. I had a hand on the information being taught. Therefore, I appreciate the learned information and have implemented it into my psyche and into my classroom, thus putting into actions what I have learned.

Reference: Januszewski, A., & Molenda, M. (Eds.). (2008). Educational technology: A definition with commentary. New York, NY: Routledge

Students will identify the purposes of government, distinguish between limited and unlimited governments and develop a project that analyzes and traces the roots of democracy.
 * __Charles' ideas__**

Students will examine and evaluate the purposes of government in relation to the rights, responsibilities, privileges, and duties of American citizens, and develop a multimedia presentation to share their findings. In small groups they will compare and contrast chosen rights, responsibilities, privileges, and duties with those of citizens in at least three other countries

Explore global factors and economic principles which affect the price of oil and gas. Students will use the information they have gathered to create a visual representation (exhibit) which demonstrates an understanding of those factors that affect gas prices, i.e., photographs, newspaper clippings, graphs, and any and all the factors related to price: war, weather, transportation, consumerism, trade cartels. There will be a final essay in which the students find gas prices from the week they were born and compare them to the present gas prices and explain what specifically happened to cause the change (increase) then they will predict what gas prices will be in ten years. They have to support their prediction using real world issues and trends, i.e. alternative fuel sources, improved technology

Your parents have lost their jobs due to outsourcing. Your family must leave the United States and immigrate to another country in order to find work. What characteristics do you want to have in your new homeland? How difficult will it be for you to immigrate to a new country? What criteria will you use to determine the best country to which you will move?

Globalization in the 21st century is characterized by growing of economic, technological, socio cultural, political, and biological ties between countries. Specifically economic interdependence is characterized by trade so as to garner the critical resources, the division of labor, and the specialization of labor. However, opponents argue that the United States dependence on foreign products has caused outsourcing of jobs, an economic downturn, and even an increase in terrorism. On the other hand proponents support that globalization helps underdeveloped nation’s catch up to developed nations, and prevent major conflicts. In addition proponents argue that more jobs are lost to technology than to China or India. Whatever the evidence students will have the opportunity to apply knowledge of economic principles, and economic interdependence to determine whether it is feasible for the United States to practice economic isolationism.

In this interdisciplinary project, students will collaborate and discover ways to use recycled items. Students will create a new product using at least 50% recycled materials. Students will present their product and the process they used to create it though a multi-media presentation.

Students will compare gas prices from the five different geographic regions of the United States along with local gas prices. Through a group multi-media presentation and an individual essay, students will show how gas prices vary from state to state and how the prices ultimately make a difference in how people spend their money accordingly.

Each year, companies spend millions of dollars on short commercials during the Super Bowl in order to target a specific audience and sell their products. Students will be challenged to create a persuasive commercial that will target a specific audience using figurative language. Collaboratively, teams will choose or design a product, determine an audience, write a persuasive commercial, star in it, and film it using individual hand-held video cameras. Finally, they will present their filmed commercials to classmates, staff members, and local advertising agents who will judge them based on whether or not they would be persuaded to purchase their product. The team that receives the highest marks from the judges will have their commercial aired during the school’s morning announcements to promote the Super Bowl and the power of persuasion!

===*__***Hey Guys, as you upload your info to the wiki about the answers, please use the following colors to denote your work. Charles (Black-since you are already posting that way), Evonie (Pink - since you asked to use that color :-) ) Keith (Blue - if I can locate it on the color selector due to sever color deficiency)__===

__Project Statement __
__** Making Connections through Invisible Walls: H **** ow Communities are Affected by the Environment? **__ //__1. Briefly describe your project.__//
 * As we think about the education in which we received when we were in school, it is only fitting for us to see that society has changed tremendously. There was once a time where our teachers would stand before us and lecture, we would take pencil and paper test, and computers were a mere fantasy. Now Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and texting have captivated the minds of our students. Therefore, in order to properly educate students, we must cater to their interests, learning styles, and preferences. Therefore, this project, "Making Connections through Invisible Walls" embodies the needs of our 21st century learners. Engagement, interaction, collaboration, researching, and writing, are all skills that will be illuminated while embarking upon this project, thus allowing students to learn creatively and effectively in a non traditional manner. **

//__2. How will you improve learner performance by engaging learners in authentic experiences?__//
 * The idea for the project we are proposing comes from the idea of combining the five themes of geography in communities. ** **Even though communities are separated by distance, they share a common global existence. In addition, they have similar issues which are based on the five themes of geography: movement, region, location, human environment interaction, and place. Within this project we are going to tie communities in together using these five themes while focusing on ** **how communities are affected by the environment? During the matriculation of this collaborative project, we will be crossing curricular lines as well as political lines to complete this project. **

As educators, we have all learned that we cannot educate students in a manner in which we were taught. The "traditional" way of teaching cannot apply to students that are technologically savvy, such as the students we encounter daily. Therefore, assignments that will heighten engagment and lessons in which students see the relevence, are ones in which we must implement in our classrooms. This project does just that. I believe that the learners will see this as an exciting activity, and possibly will not understand that they are learning as much as they are because they see it as an exciting and different activity to complete in class. Maybe the fun aspect of it will engage them to learn more than they will realize. Completing a task like this will provide a great authentic experience as they are exploring so much about their area of birth and their own existence. Creating samples will provide various degrees of differentiation opportunities. For example, students could write a short story about a person s they were switched at birth with.

//__3. How will you facilitate learning through constructivist, collaborative learning experiences?__//

As an educator, it is the responsibility of the teacher to be a facilatator. Instead of lecturing, the teacher will allow the students to teach themselves. Instead of asking the students questions, the teacher will lead them to thinking and questioning. Students can incorporate colloboration by becoming experts in certain parts of this project. In addition, students can peer assit one another throughout the duration of this project. This will ensure that students are in charge of their learning which will make it more meaningful and fulfilling. The constructivist perspective says that collaborative learning, like this, is usually better with students that have a higher degree of knowledge of the subject area. I believe the learners, regardless of level (High or Middle school) will have a great deal of knowledge about their self and where they were born (at least in would be easy to gain that knowledge from a primary care giver - in most cases). Collaborating, talking, with other people about you and where you are from should come easy to most students. Once students are allowed to talk about themselves to other students, and share their artifacts with them, the collaboration should take on an entirely new level. This project will move beyond a poster session of the traditional classroom. It can expand to include the month or an event that could be important. The goal will be to allow students opportunities to create a unique history woven into the lives of other members of their learning community.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">4. How will you create sound instructional materials and learning environments that are based on solid research and learning theory?__//

It is understood that students do not learn the same. Therefore, a one size fits all education or lesson serves no purpose in today's schools. In order to ensure that all students are getting the best possible education, we must first know the intererest and learning styles of each of our students. In addition, allowing students to work with a partner or in small groups according to their common learning styles or preferences will be effective. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">There are numerous tools which can provide students the chance to explore their vision of their date in history. Various timeline software can be used, for example.

//__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">5. How will you facilitate the use of innovations through the diffusion and integration of new technologies and technological experiences for your learners?__//

There should be a certain amount of hands-on training involved, but because we are working initially in a short timeframe I suggest we provide one or two tools which have a variety of components available. For example, GoggleDocs would be appropriate. How to videos could be provided and we can ask for student volunteers to provide a short demonstration of tools they are familiar with as well. P rior to the need to use certain tools, I would be able to conduct a tutorial for the students to give them a better idea of how to utilize the technology we will use during the project. We might also have to test them on each other, like skyping or posting artifacts to a wiki or blog or website. //__6. How will you most effectively manage this process?__//

Upon planning this assignment, ensuring that certain skills have been discussed and understood will have to take place for effective end results. For instance, lessons on documenting as well as some computer skills. Therefore, in order to effectively manage this process, a pre-test, mini lessons, and post test on these skills will have to be done. During the pre-test, seeing and understanding the students prior knowledge of these skills will be considered amd lessons will be planned accordingly. After the mini lessons and possible assignments, a post test will be given to ensure that the skills needed for the project are obtained and a smooth transition to the project will be made, thus ensuring great results for the project. Students will create a checklist before beginning any online research. It should include websites, group responsibilities, and overall purpose of each step.

//__7. What ethical considerations will you make to ensure sound decisions are made?__//

For me, in a high school setting, I will have the students check each other, as a first line of defense, and then run their ideas through me, as a second line of defense before we post anything. Hopefully going through a process like this they will begin to self-assess themselves better and make better decisions. In addition, I will emphasize the learning experience is the first priority. Ethical considerations are a shared experience and students will be made aware through written and oral communication that knowingly taking credit for work of another and other acts of deception are incorrect and would be considered academic fraud. So with taking the approach in which I use for teaching my students to write term or research papers, I begin by teaching plagarism, paraphrasing, and documenting skills. This is done in various manners with several different exercises. This ensures that students know the seriousness of researching and referencing their findings.

//__8. What processes and resources will you include?__//

The processes will need to be broken down for the students so as not to allow them to think they know exactly what to do and try to complete the project in one sitting (as many of my students try to do when something is assigned) Breaking down the project into steps (processes) will keep the students on track and allow them to self monitor, and give them positive feedback needed to continue to the next step. The resources will be varied, but should begin with parents, grandparents, or primary caregivers to gain basic information. Research tools such as books and other periodicals from the media centers will help. Then the search capabilities of the internet will be a great help for a more varied type of artifact. A variety of technology tools will be used to create, document, and post artifacts and collaborate. I will provide links to help students with citing their resources and my ELA colleagues will assist students with mechanical challenges they may encounter with their writing. In addition, handouts on the writing process will be given as well as graphic organizers. This will ensure that all my students are receiving the best possible chance for learning effectively.

//__9. Describe the learning environment and population that will be engaged in your project:__//


 * __Audience__
 * high school and middle school students (for our needs), possibly a History/English cross curricular assignment (since those are the subjects we teach)
 * All stakeholders can enjoy this experience and I hope to not limit the exposure to present academic classes.
 * Parents, guardians, caregivers, and the family at large-great way to present information to the family


 * __Learner characteristics: grade level, number of students__
 * My students would be in 10th & 11th grade, and I have between 30 and 38 students in my classes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The possibilities of the project will allow for multiple group creations and the resources can be located to make the experience very engaging and extremely relevant to each learner.
 * This project can be modified and adjusted to meet the needs of any grade level.


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Anticipated entry-level skills of audience __
 * My students will be your typical “regular ed” student with students served with IEPs mixed in. I do not see a reason that this project would be too difficult (intellectually) for them
 * All students will have exposure to technology, but a large number will have limited experience with hands-on application of the array of available tools.
 * Being experts with using technolgy is not a requirement for this project. At the start of this assignment, basic skills will be discussed and practiced so that each student will gain the general knowledge of using the Internet and researching. In addition, colloboration will come into play. Students will peer tutor and peer help one another to ensure that all students are understanding and engage in the assignment as it relates to their skills.
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">School environment __
 * I am in a metro suburb with a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and roughly 1750 students
 * I am in a metro suburb with a small variety of cultural backgrounds and roughly 900 students.
 * Working in a poverty stricken town, many of the students are first generation graduates and do not view skill as important as surviving, an outlook shared by most of their parents. There are 1400 students in grades 10-12.
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Support for project by community, parents, or administrators __
 * I believe my administration would love the idea for the students to branch out and engage in learning like this. I would guess that the parents would be interested in this idea as they would have some stake in the creation of it, being the initial resource.
 * I expect great support from all parties because technology literacy is a platform we embrace and every opportunity to share with others is a mutually beneficial endeavor.
 * Understanding that learning goes far and beyond the classroom, the community, parents, and administrators will welcome the idea of this project. It will allow the parents and community an opportunity to see how the school is aiding students in becoming effective and life long learners. In addition, it will allow the administrators to see that students are excited about learning in a non traditional fashion while learning across the curriculm. Therefore, all of these entities will be supportive of this project.