Teacher's+page

 =__**TEACHER'S PAGE for ED4134 M. Hilton, P. Hutchinson**__=

=__ICT Integration Project Understanding (Overview)__=

The education system is continually evolving. In order to remain competent educators it is our duty to immerse ourselves into new educational technological developments. Through the development and completion of this ICT intergration project, we believe this will enable us to become competent educators. The ICT intergration project ensures the following objectives are achieved:
 * an effective, inquiry-based and/or problem-based learning resource is produced
 * the ICT learning resource is intergrated into the curriculum
 * the ICT learning resource incorporates engaging and relevant content which fosters collaborative work
 * social constructivist theory is envelops the ICT learning resource

There has been much media reporting recently about Australian home and bushfires. Although this topic is very confronting to children and adults alike, our school culture is one of meeting challenges 'head-on' and believing we all have the power to contribute and make a difference. Our (Pretend) school is well resourced and each student has a laptop computer. The ICT integration project consists of 4 x 80 minute lessons which will culminate into a final ICT project that will require high-order thinking and learning. A fifth week has been set aside to celebrate the learning that has taken place.

Through the completion of the ICT integration project the students will be engaged in activities which foster high-order thinking and student-centred learning.

First brainstorm of project
 * __Inspiration Graphic Organisers__**

Deeper overview of all topics

[|Inspiration ICT link Curriculm.isf] Linking Learning Area Outcomes With Technology

[|Fire facts overview.doc]__** [|Stay and defend fire overview.doc] [|Help, Hope, Renewal.doc]
 * __Word Overviews for People Who Without Access To Inspiration Software

=__Project Management Plan__=

=__Justification For Choosing The ICT Our Students Will Use__= In our fire safety project we are including the following ICT: __ 1. Youtube 2 .PowerPoint 3. Video Conferencing 4.Cassette tapes (Supplied by Fire & Emergency Services for visually impaired students) 5.Wikispaces 6. Video camera 7.Inspiration Software 8. Photo Story 9. Word or Publisher 10. Comic Life __

We have chosen these particular ICT tools because they vary in difficulty and therefore will meet the learning needs of a wide range of student abilities. We also felt that these ICT tools promoted higher order thinking because they involve taking information and interpreting it in their own way. Using (Or watching others use) these tools will raise class awareness of the many possibilities avaliable to them for developing and sharing their ideas.

__** Social Constructivist Project Integration **__

Our project has been designed around Social Constructivist beliefs. The researchers who formulated this branch of constructivist theory stated that people learn best when they are actively involved in finding out about concepts and facts for themselves. Each person brings to learning their own perceptions; developed through prior learning, experience, culture and emotional makeup. In this model the instructors and learners are equally involved in learning from each other. Mentoring and relationships within the group are very important.

When members of the group freely compare their versions of knowledge, it opens the possibility of creating new knowledge or correcting misconceptions. For the above reason, our class will be working in collaborative groups. Social Constructivists also believe that deeper learning takes place when people take part in authentic tasks. Our project is based around the very topical issue of fire safety. Our students will be creating products that will directly reach the community through a Wiki. Exploring authentic issues is also an ideal way to integrate subjects.

Our class will be given scaffold activities that lead to higher order thinking. While they will be given guidelines, it is our intention that there will still be enough scope for discovery, interaction, creativity and fun. Assessment, according to Social Constructivists, should be an **ongoing; two way process** between the instructor and the learner. As well as informal assessment, all students will be given a **rubric** at the start of the project. Students will have access to a **message board to share insights, ask questions, submit answers or give feedback** to other group members. A reflection activity will be given to the class at the end of the project. To keep the students on the right track, they will also be given a checklist of important markers for their learning. Some Social Constructivists believe that multi-media literacy can play an important part in constructing higher order thinking projects, so we will make a variety of equipment, software and tutorials available. =**__Lesson Plans__**= __**Weeks 8-9**__ The pressure is on! So much to do- so little time to do it!
 * __Project Management Journal:__**
 * __ Week 4: __** Integrated project? You've got to be kidding! All of our time is focused on our bloggs and group presentation. At least we can use some of the same resources for the integrated project.
 * __Weeks 5-6__** The Inspiration software has been a real headache! We find it time consuming and one page doesn't give us enough space for what we wanted to say. If you fill the page full and reduce the viewing size so you can see the whole overview at once it's too small to read. If you enlarge the page so it's big enough to read, you loose the whole point of a mindmap... which is to overview the whole project. The only good thing about it is that it has pretty colours and writes much smaller and more neatly than we could have.

As a team we were quite overwhelmed when we first looked through the ICT intergrated project. However, we decided to meet at least twice a week to tackle the assignment step-by-step. It was a steep learning curve to build on our computer skills but we have survived and feel very proud of what we have accomplished. The best part is we are able to share our project on the WWW for our friends, family and wider community to view. We were fortunate that our individual strengths and weaknesses complimented each other. Overall, we are really excited to implement this wikispace into a real classroom.
 * __Final Journal Entry__**

Credits & References