|
Enhancing Your Opportunities to Learn
A Different Slant on Professional Development
Educators must be lifelong learners. But keeping
up with current technology
can be a challenge. In the April 1999 editorial, David
Moursund explores how
to be an efficient learner of information technology
(IT) by seeking to expand
your personal knowledge base in your leisure time and
restructuring your
classroom to help you learn to use IT.
Back
to Table of Contents.
The Student WebQuest
A Productive and Thought-Provoking Use of the
Internet
K-12 teachers and administrators who are
interested in using the Internet in
a safe and productive way with students probably have
heard at least a little
about WebQuests. Developed by Bernie Dodge and Tom
March, these projects use
Internet sites to help students learn problem-solving
and decision-making skills.
In this feature article, the first of two in this
month's issue, Maureen Yoder
details the history of WebQuest and how to make the
best use of them.
Subject: Project-Based Learning, Technology,
Information Literacy,
Agriculture, Space Science, History
Grade Level: K-12 (Ages 5-18)
Technology: Internet connection, Web browser
Read
online...
Back
to Table of Contents.
The Never-Ending Story
Questioning Strategies for the Information Age
The project-based learning (PBL) environment may
well be the classroom of the 21st
century. It may come to be simply because technology
allows a teacher to direct
students through experiences that bring understanding
of the material they study.
The author of this month's second PBL feature shows
how educators can engage children
in a new way.
Subject: Project-Based Learning, Inforamtion
Literacy, Neuroscience
Grade Level: K-12 (Ages 5-18)
Technology: Microworlds (LCSI),
Cocoa
(Created by
Apple, now licensed by Stagecast);
e-mail, Internet connection
Read
online...
Back
to Table of Contents.
Traversing the Web Up the Mississippi to Lake
Itasca
An Internet Experience
This thematic curriculum article describes how
one teacher's dedication and
approach to project-based learning expanded his
students' horizons, taught
them basic skills, raised their standardized test
scores, and strengthened
school ties with both the local and regional
community.
Subject: Elementary, Math, Social
Studies
Grade Level: 2-5 (Ages 7-10)
Technology: MapQuest,
Internet connection, e-mail
Back
to Table of Contents.
Blast Off!
A Technology-Supported, Project-Based Learning
Model for Success
A multidisciplinary project may be just the
thing to get students excited about
technology, science, and language arts. In this
project, a group of "cyberreporters"
covered the June 2, 1998, Discovery space shuttle
lanuch--from Cape Canaveral and
from their classroom. The students developed science,
writing, technology, and
broadcasting skills as they learned to work as a team.
Subject: Math, Science, Language Arts,
Journalism, Video
Broadcasting, Technology
Grade Level: 10-adult (Ages 16 & up)
Technology: Microsoft
Office, video editing and broadcasting technology,
Internet
Back
to Table of Contents.
Revolutions in the Classroom
Two Views of Technology
Using the World Wide Web in the classroom requires a lot
more of students--and of teachers--than ever before. Critical-thinking
skills are no longer just desirable, they're essential. As the authors
of this article show, these skills can be enhanced by providing
students with good topics to investigate on the Internet, focused
guidance, and challenging and thoughtful discussion afterward. This
article is written from the points of view of the classroom teacher
and the library media specialist and is based on Educators Take
Charge: Teaching in the Internet Revolution (ISTE, 1998).
Subject: Language Arts
Grade Level: 7-10 (Ages 12-16)
Technology: Internet Connection
Back
to Table of Contents.
Surf and Serve
Student-Navigated and Student-Designed Internet
Service Learning Projects
Service learning projects can get students
really excited about their schoolwork.
But why give students a list of projects you selected when they can
research
topics they are interested in on the Web and create their own
projects? Rose Reissman
describes how a focused Internet search can show students all the
ways in which
they can do service learning and volunteer work.
And, view the online
supplement to this article.
Subject: Service Learning
Grade Level: 7-12 (Ages 12-18)
Technology: e-mail, Internet/Web
Back
to Table of Contents.
The Museum in Our Classroom
and the Mastodon in Our Backyard
Classroom walls truly are disappearing. In this
month's science article, Beth Buchler
describes how an Illinois State Board of Education
grant opened the walls of her
classroom to both museums in the state and other
classrooms. By working directly
with other institutions, students understood more of
what they learned and felt
far more connected with that knowledge.
And, view the online
supplement to this article.
Subject: Science
Grade Level: 2-6 (Ages 7-11)
Technology: Apple
QuickTime VR, videoconferencing software, and
QuickTake camera;
Adobe Photoshop; Kaidan QuickPan; Legoi's
Lego Dacta; Videolab's FlexCam; multimedia
computer; Internet connection
Back
to Table of Contents.
Flashenlightenment
Denki is the
Japanese word for "electricity." The Kanji, or pictographic,
character for den is the first character in
many Japanese words about
electric things and ideas. Denchi is the word
for "battery." Denchis run a
multitude of gadgets in your home and car, and perhaps
in your hand as you use
a denchi-powered power tool to solve a math or science
problem. Learn about various
ways to make your own batteries or run gadgets without
buying batteries in this month's
Power Tools for Math & Science.
Also read the online
supplement to this article.
Subject: Science
Grade Level: 2-12 (Ages 7-18)
Technology: spreadsheet software (e.g.,
Microsoft Excel or Works,
AppleWorks); graphing calculators, CBL, and
CBR (
Texas Instruments); microcomputer-based
laboratories; data loggers
(Onset
Computer Corp.)
Back
to Table of Contents.
Come Dream with Us
Online Projects Teach More than Technology
Technology-infused projects can do much more than teach
subject=area content. They can develop students' skills in ways
that can be measured. As Leni Donlan shows using the project she
developed in 1998 with Kathleen Ferenz as an example, a technology-based
social studies project can help students learn to research, analyze,
and think critically, all while they learn U.S. history.
Also read the online
supplement to this article.
Subject: Social Studies
Grade Level: 5-10 (Ages 10-16)
Technology: presentation software, Internet
connection
Back
to Table of Contents.
Creating a Mathematical Laboratory
Using a Spreadsheet to Investigate the Connection
Between Matrices and
Geometric Transformations
Have you limited your teaching of matrices to
advanced high school math classes?
Now, technology can help you teach them to middle
school students. In this month's
math column, the author shows how careful planning and
a computer spreadsheet program
can foster a highly constructive learning environment.
Also read the online
supplement to this article.
Subject: Mathematics, Technology
Grade Level: 7-12 (Ages 12-18)
Technology: spreadsheet software (e.g.,
Microsoft Excel or Works,
AppleWorks)
Back
to Table of Contents.
Project LINCOL'N
Improving and Enhancing Student Learning
For eight years now, public schools in
Springfield, Illinois, have changed the
educational experience for students in kindergarten
through Grade 12. Each school
has a different process, but all curricula are
student-centered and integrate
technology. As technology director Michael Holinga
writes in this month's For Tech
Leaders article, this new model has improved student
achievement across grades.
Also read the online
supplement to this article.
Back
to Table of Contents.
New Software Releases
Back
to Table of Contents.
|
