Interviewer: I'm going to ask you if you have a story about a use of technology in a lesson module or unit that had a successful outcome.
Teacher: Well, there would be a lot that I could choose from, I guess, but to choose one....that I did recently.
Interviewer: Okay. Well, I think so. We'll just go from here.
Teacher: Okay, I will tell you about a lesson I did recently with my second graders and it basically involved researching owls. They had read a book about owls in their classroom. We started with the computer lab. We did research on owls in general using a CD ROM encyclopedia. Then we talked about the benefits and the pros and cons of having that type of media, that type of resource in that type of format as opposed to traditional bookshelf of the text to use versus a disk and all the features it added that weren't necessarily available with the books. So, we talked about that and the advantages, mostly advantages, of using the CD ROM format because of the extra types of media that it offered - videos, the sound effects and recordings and voice-overs and photographs and so on. So, we did some research there and I had them look up some specific information. Then after that, they filled out their handouts – a set of questions based on the content of the article.
Then they experimented with the little animation in the owl article and it had a sound to listen to. So, after that the goal was to end up with a slide show, a cooperative group effort slide show, where they each contributed a slide or two of information about owls. We actually narrowed it down...we started generally reading a general article about owls...then we focused on the Great Horned Owl which was the type of owl in the book that they had read. So, at that point we broadened our scope of the lesson to include the Internet as a reference resource. So, we did a search for as much as we could find about the Great Horned Owl and again they had another hand-out and they were in charge of recording a certain amount of information. But, along the way in that process I taught them Internet terminology. So we learned what a browser was, what a link was, what a search engine was, and we looked at different types of links – textual and graphic, different search engines.
We used a couple of different browsers. And we also talked about...also at that point, learned how to decipher...when you've got a list of links, how to decide whether that's a...if you've got a list of ten links in front of you, which ones would be good links to follow, to click on and explore it. That is just to say, based on what the search engine gives you with a short description of each link, they learned to read the short description and, you know a gift shop selling owl shaped ash trays or something like that, or a bed and breakfast called The Great Horned Owl, or something. They learn to read the brief description that the search engine spit out and skip that link and go on to one that might possibly have more educational content or maybe came from a University. So, we talked about, basically spent half a day or half of that lesson anyway, before we actually got to owl facts, owl information. We talked about how to use the browser, how to use a search engine, how to use a link and so on. Then once they had that under their belt, then I turned them loose and let them follow links and find, they were specifically looking for, their directive was to not come back with, not to record generic information that you could find anywhere.
They were specifically looking for really strange facts, unusual facts that made that animal very interesting or very different from its peers and all the other types of owls. Sort of the amazing, hard to believe type stuff. They had to do a lot of reading and we would reject it if they'd say, 'The owl is grey.' Some kind of fact like that we say, 'No, we want more hard to believe, amazing kind of stuff.' They researched for a day or two and recorded their facts and then after that we continued the lesson. A lot of times we'll teach...if I'm doing a project like that...we'll teach how to use two or three applications at one time, where they carry something from one application over into another, but I don't think that we did that, in fact we didn't. Then after they had recorded all of their facts on their hand out, then we used another application to create the slides. So, each kid was told to choose his favorite amazing fact from his handout and create a slide that illustrated that fact. At this point they also had to type the fact and illustrate the fact. At that point it's an opportunity for them to practice their key-boarding which they've had prior experience and training on. Then, they created in Paint It an illustration that illustrated what they found out. It took a day or two to do that and once they had finished their slides, we put them all together into one big slide show.
I kind of monitored what everybody was doing and made sure that no kids were doing the same fact. If a couple of kids had found the same fact out on the web, I'd split them off and say, well, this is already being done over here, why don't you choose one of your other facts? That's why when I had them do the research they had to come up with multiple interesting facts to record.
Then they each contributed a slide and a couple of kids who worked quickly may have finished two in the slide show – two slides – but most of them...everybody got at least one. Then we just combined them into one big slide show and strung them together using some basic kids painting software and then we presented it to the class. At that point all the kids basically learned from each other's slides. (inaudible) This is a big presentation screen...so we went through all these slides that presented all of these interesting facts about the Great Horned Owl. After we watched the slide show then we talked about what we learned from each other. Mary said, 'I learned from Johnny's slide that Great Horned Owls have an amazing wing span.' We talked about what they taught each other in pulling the project together. That's basically the extent of it. It took a while – a few weeks of one-hour sessions in the lab.
Interviewer: Was this a PowerPoint presentation?
Teacher: No, we actually used Kid Pix I believe. We use two or three different programs for slide show type presentations. We've gotten, the District just got licenses for PowerPoint for all of the students not too long ago, so I'll probably try to roll that out at some point. Come in here and get some training on that...using that.
Interviewer: When they drew their pictures, did they draw those on a computer or were those hand drawn?
Teacher: No, they drew them on the computer. And sometimes we'll do...instead of drawing a picture for a slide show, they'll actually pull in a photograph off of a website or something. Which is a whole 'n other set of skills and gives us another set of opportunities to teach, again, Internet skills and computer skills. So, that was it. As it turned out, they really did learn a lot. They taught each other a lot about the Great Horned Owl. Now they'll be able to teach anyone for the rest of their lives the amazing facts about the Great Horned Owl.
Interviewer: Was that your goal? What was your specific goal for this lesson?
Teacher: The goal was to end up with a cooperative group project and I also had Internet skills goals buried in there...but, yeah, for them to be a project to share...they did independent research and learning but they shared cooperatively and taught each other. Of course, I've always said the great thing about teaching, even in an elementary school, is the teaching you learn yourself as the teacher along the way, too. I'm constantly learning things about subjects that are interesting.
Interviewer: Do you have any advice for another teacher who might be doing similar projects?
Teacher: Well, as always, be prepared...what you want to present each lesson and have the materials ready and you've got to be pretty structured about it. A mistake that I see a lot of teachers make is just to tell the kids to go out on the web and you've got to find this. It helps to give them a little bit more direction a lot of times. Never pass up an opportunity to teach the mechanics of the technology along the way, which I mentioned like learning about browsers, and search engines and so on. I do that a lot in a lot of my lessons just because I'm kind of a computer nerd so I'm always telling the kids, 'You guys could be a computer nerd like me, right?' Try to make it a good thing or a fun thing.
Interviewer: Now, these were second graders?
Teacher: These were second graders. They do an owl unit at this particular school in second grade. They have a book and a few other things that I may not be aware of.
Interviewer: That's a wonderful story.
Teacher: It's a good project. And , like I said, there's...I've been teaching computer courses to elementary kids for almost 15 years so I have tons of them. But, that's just one that came to mind that I did recently.
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