TED622-4Pinkleton

media type="custom" key="9186736" align="center" __**Check Point # 5: Annotated Bibliography for Use of Technology in Differentiation**__ > Prezi is a web-based zooming presentation tool that students can use (instead of Powerpoint) to create a presentation to showcase their work. Kids seem to enjoy the more free-flowing format of Prezi and like to embed images and videos in their presentations. I use Prezi when I am preparing a lecture so that kids can see images and words as I talk. I will usually throw in a couple of surprise images just to keep their attention. Downside: last time I checked, Prezi is not compatible with all types of image files (which is somewhat limiting), and youtube is the only video format that can be used--these require teacher override for them to be shown. >  I like Prezi (as opposed to PPt) because the student's (or my) presentation can be saved right on the web and we don't have to worry about keeping track of a flash drive (we can't save anything on the class computers) and the format ( // I // think) mirrors more accurately the way we think—more like a tree with branches than in a straight line. Students can also opt to make their presentations public for other Prezi users. > I would include Prezi as an option for kids to “show what they know” after having done in-depth research on a topic, giving them the choice of doing a Prezi, Powerpoint, poster or some other type of presentation (like a song, poem or skit) as a summative assessment with a clear rubric (for example, include six accurate facts) to keep them on point. > This is free software I recently downloaded and I just keep finding new and cool features. I originally used the interactive globe in a lesson on latitude and longitude. The grid is a nice bright yellow and shows the equator, Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the poles, and the Prime Meridian and Antimeridian. There is also a mouse-over which displays the latitude, longitude and elevation. The globe has lots of “layers” which users can select (or de-select if things get too cluttered): the ocean layer alone includes ocean expeditions, marine protected areas, animal tracking, shipwrecks, ocean sports and much more. The only problem is that so far I have only used it on the activboard for whole-class use—it is a download (as opposed to web-based) and it's not on the school computers so kids can't use it individually, at least at our school (unless we can get the tech person to help download it). > If we can manage to do so, I'd use it in our study of the oceans—the wide array of ocean topics ensures that every student will be able to find a point of access to this unit based on her interests, whether it be animals, shipwrecks, sports, the environment or weather. > Geocaching reminds me of kind of a high-tech version of an old-fashioned scavenger hunt. Geocaches are boxes (or other containers) hidden outdoors by other geocachers. Geocaches are looked up online by zip code and then located with the use of hand-held GPS devices. Once geocachers have located a cache, they will typically leave some evidence of this inside the box and then go home and log their find on the website. > Rockingham County Schools does have 10 GPS devices that classes can reserve and use, but unfortunately, we were unable to do our planned activity last week due to the weather. When we reschedule, the plan is to hide camouflage “eggs” at specific latitude/longitude points and have the kids use the units to locate them. The “eggs” come apart so a message or a “treasure” can be hidden inside. We are including this activity in our unit on mapping and this is follow-up to a discussion of satellites and satellite imagery. > [] > This is a wonderful website to use in a webquest when studying contour maps (there are other mapping resources available on the home page as well). The lesson is framed as a dialogue between two characters, Lou and Lulu, as they discuss what contour maps are and why they are useful. Very cute and kid-friendly—I think this page would be fine even for sixth graders (some of the other pages on the site get a bit more technical). This is a topic where you can talk 'til you're blue in the face and they're not going to get it—they need something interactive like this with lots of visuals. Links on the site cover all the basics (labeling contours, spacing and steepness, choosing a contour interval) as well as some more advanced topics that would work well as extensions for my AIG group. One caveat, though: on the day of our planned webquest, the site // would not load on any of the computers at school //. I am not sure why, as I have had no trouble with it on my home computer before or since. So, sadly, we ended up using some other sites, none of which were even close to this good. How I // would've // used it: as a complement to a brief talk on contour mapping (with an example on the Activboard). I'd follow up with having students pair up to do the webquest and then create a simple contour map of the school grounds. > This is a downloadable lesson plan at the “beginner” level which walks students through a series of 24 interesting satellite images of the earth. They are to choose their five favorites and try to figure out whether the feature is natural or man-made, where it is and how big it is. Images are oddball little things that kids will like: a happy earth man painted on top of a building, an image of a lizard cut into a field, etc. The ArcGis site has tons of interactive maps on science (and non-science) topics: soil survey of the US, Gulf oil spill over time, recent earthquakes near Japan, USA National wetlands inventory, just to name a few. This site will be valuable in adding a visual component to nearly any science lesson. I would use the aforementioned lesson plan in a unit on mapping/satellite imagery and looking at change over time/human impacts. One caution/problem: the ArcGis Explorer (which students need in order to zoom in and out on the maps) requires a download that not all school computers will have. > This is a game similar to some of the role playing games kids play where they go around and talk to people (in this case, residents of a village which is plagued by Malaria, among other things) and then sift through all of the information they gain from various sources to decide on a course of action (but without the fighting). This game is nice as it doesn't really offer “wrong” choices, but does emphasize critical thinking skills and making decisions that offer long-term solutions, and kids get immediate feedback from the “mayor” regarding their choices. This activity is also good from the standpoint of literacy since students have to do a fair amount of reading to get the information they need to make informed choices, yet I think kids will still find it fun. > I will likely use this as an enrichment activity during my Microbiology unit as we will be doing activities on Malaria and other water-borne illness.
 * 1)  **Prezi:** [|http://prezi.com]
 * 1)  **Google Earth** : []
 * 1)  **GPS/geocaching** : []
 * 1)   **Brooklyn College Geology Department - Contour Mapping:**
 * 1)  **ArcGIS: []**
 * 1)  **Malaria Challenge: []**

> [|**www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/previous_seasons/lessons/lp_shroud.html**] > Interactive portion of a larger lesson on carbon dating: students can click on parts of an image of the the shroud to explore different parts of it and see what arguments people have made disputing the carbon dating results of the shroud. The entire lesson is intended for HS students—I'd probably just let my students view the short video clips and play with this interactive portion of the site as kind of teaser before introducing an activity demonstrating half-life by using M&Ms. > I have not yet subscribed to this—I only have an individual (free) account but I believe teachers can have a limited amount of access for themselves and their students for free (not to exceed 250 MB) but there is also a monthly subscription option ($10) so you could do that if you only needed student access for one unit. Voicethread is basically another web-based presentation option where students can record their voices, add music clips, download images and video, and even add doodles if they like and adding doodles and audio commentary to the video clips as they are running. I like this as an assessment for a group project because it is collaborative—kids can pull it up from home and just add whatever they like to put their unique spin on it. I think presentations done with voice thread are likely to be easier for kids who have issues with standing in front of the class and delivering a presentation—I just feel that it is a great tool for getting better participation from students, especially when they know all they have to do when it's done is post a link to it for the rest of the class, and class members can post comments and feedback. > Bransford, J., Brown, A., and Cocking, R. // How People Learn. // National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. p. 217 > Students benefit when they see their work published as opposed to graded and thrown out. This sends the message that writing is a “powerful tool”. > Armstrong, T. //Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom//. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Alexandria, VA. p. 52-54 > Armstrong, T. //Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom//. p. 58 > Windschitl, M. 1999. // The Challenges of Sustaining a Constructivist Classroom Structure. // > “ When a teacher encourages a student to look at a topic of study through a lens of that student's own interests, All four goals (of learning) are likely to be achieved”. Tomlinson, C. // How to // // Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms. // 2001. Pearson: Upper Saddle River, NJ. > I really see math and science, especially as one moves into the physical sciences, to be inseparable.
 * 1)  **Shroud of Turin Activities on PBS website:**
 * 1)  **Graphing Calculator:** Since most of the kids already own these for math, I'd have them use them in my class to graph half-life functions and exponential functions—topics where it is useful to have a visual to show a rate of change of something--such as radioactive decay or reproduction of bacteria, especially where the rate can be expressed by an equation they already know, like f(x) = x2. There are also free graphing calculators online for use on the activboard: []
 * 2)  **Website/blog:** Allow students to contribute to a classroom website. I have been collecting students' questions this year, and many of these are terrific. Some of these include: what is friction? Can fish see color? Isn't acid rain // good // for certain kinds of plants? Can sharks jump out of the water (breach) like whales and porpoises do? --I would love to let students earn extra credit by researching and blogging about their musings/answers/explorations on the class website for all of us to learn from, and other students can read and post comments and additional questions.
 * 3)  **Voicethread** : []
 * **Malaria Challenge** : Students benefit from timely feedback/ formative assessments.
 * **Voicethread, Class website/blog:** Students are able to give each other feedback and “an added advantage of networked technologies for communication is that they help make thinking visible.” Bransford, et al, p. 221
 * **Geocaching:** Students get to go outside and walk around and manipulate physical objects with their hands—great for kinesthetic learners.
 * **Shroud of Turin/ Carbon-14 Dating Activity:** Student interest is piqued by mystery. Here I use a (hopefully) well-known problem, namely: is the shroud of Turin a hoax as an introduction to a lesson on carbon dating. //Problem-based Learning in the Middle School Classroom,// p.15
 * **Prezi:** “There is a need for assessment that allows students to demonstrate what they know and that connect with rigorous criteria of excellence”. Students are required to show evidence of their learning that they construct from scratch, as opposed to passing a multiple choice test.
 * **Google Earth, ArcGIS:** Google Earth works so well for students at virtually all levels of readiness that I expect I will use it frequently. It also allows for differentiation by student interests by allowing students to come at the information I want them to get (for instance, the oceans) from a variety of different places based on what they want to know about—for instance, dolphins or submersibles. ArcGIS is a competing product, but has a less “layperson” type of feel and one gets the sense that this is the real deal—what most geographers use. Students will have to be given explicit instruction on both of these sites until they are familiar with them, but I find GE more user-friendly—it seems to be geared more to student users.
 * **Graphing Calculator to illustrate mathematical principles in Science** : “It is a good idea to keep alert for interesting numbers and intriguing math problems wherever they may be found.” Armstrong, T. // Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom // . p. 54.
 * ** Brooklyn College Geology Department - contour mapping webquest: ** “Webquests can easily be differentiated by readiness...” Tomlinson, C. p.59. What I like about this activity is that the lessons progress from fairly general and easy to more in-depth activities that AIG students can move into after they finish the main part of the lesson.