Sunday, May 6, 2012

Using Technology to Learn and Create

When most people think of technology in education they have a tendency to think of internet as a tool to research information.  But why do many people often ignore the fact that technology can also be used to create?  I too thought like this at one point, but after realizing the potential of using technology to help students exercise their creative muscles I decided to create a project to do so.

My America Through the Decades project is a technology based project in which students will use technology to learn about a decade (70s, 80s, or 90s) and present their findings through Prezi.  Students will be challenged to characterize each decade and support their characterization with 3 important events of the decade.  Each presentation must also include an overview of the fads and fashions, important technological advancements, and other historical events, all of which must be tied in with a final conclusion.

To help keep the focus on creation, I did much of the background building in the classroom by having students, in their project groups, explore important events of each decade in class by using the textbook and encyclopedias.  I also warmed them up to using the class website by assigning them homework tasking them to use links I discovered and added to the project site.  By doing much of the background building in the classroom, my students have already  an idea on how they would like to present their decades and would simply use the technology to further explore their themes.

Prezi will be used to help students demonstrate their creativity.  When introducing the project to them, I took the time to express the importance of creativity.  How they organize and present their information will be weighted pretty heavily in the rubric I created and it is my hope that by making creativity an important component will motivate them to think outside of the box.  

I welcome everyone to review my project and do not be afraid to leave a comment on my blog.  I am always looking for ways to improve my lessons and projects.

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