Part B: Email, Chat and Instant Messaging and Education

Email

Lesson Plan: Email
Objective: Students will use individual e-mail accounts to compose, send, and receive e-mail messages, links, and other attached documents.

Procedure:
1. Introduce basic email concepts.
2. Tie in to the previous less on the Solar System and have each student write a 1 page paper about 1 planet in the solar system and save in Microsoft Word.
3. Establish an e-mail account by submitting an application to www.hotmail.com.
4. Choose a login name and password to protect their account.
5. Compose and send an e-mail to another student in the class.
6. The email will contain a greeting, body, and signature.
7. Students will attach a file (The Solar System Paper) in their email.
8. Students will send an e-mail to another student they do not know by using the Student Member Directory.


Chat

Lesson Plan: Chat
Objective: Students will search a site such as Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia located at http://en.wikipedia.org. to learn about Martin Luther King, Jr. for Black History Month.

Procedure:
1. Discuss what the students already know about Martin Luther King, Jr.
2. Divide the students into small groups (3-4 students)
3. Have each group research on the Internet
4. In class. have each group chat online with each other about what they learned about Martin Luther King, Jr.
5. The first group to come up with 3 facts from each group about Martin Luther King, Jr. gets a point.


Instant Messaging (K-12 Outreach)

Lesson Plan: Instant Messaging
Objective: Students will learn safe ways to chat and message online.

Procedure:
1. Split the students into teams of four or five.
2. Give each team a name.
3. Instruct the students that they are to send messages to other groups without saying their own name, but only their team name.
4. Allow 5-10 minutes for the students to exchange messages between the different teams.
5. During the exchange of each message, each team is required to correctly use two terms in context from their current vocabulary or spelling list.
6. Remind students not to tell their age, height, gender, or any personal information about themselves that would give away their identities.
7. After the students have finished giving and receiving messages for a period, have the students guess who told the recorder what to write for each group. Students must be able to support their answer.

Part A: 5 Tips for Creating an Effective Multimedia Presentation

1. The contents should be current, accurate, clear and concise.


2. The content should include graphics, text, sound, and visuals.


3. Each slide should have text and graphics appropriate to the content.


4. There are not too many fonts or type sizes.


5. The type should be large enough for reading when projected.

Part B: Freeware Programs for Students and Teachers

Dhaatu: The Periodic Table of Elements 2.40: Extensive information for all of the 112 elements of the modern Periodic Table. Name, Symbol, Atomic Number, Atomic Weight. 1st and 2nd Ionization potentials, Electronegativity, Atomic Radius, Boiling Point, Melting Point, Electronic configuration and more.


Keyboard Explorer 1.1: Keyboard Explorer will train any novice user to use all the common keys on the computer keyboard. It is ideal for computer training centres and workshops. A novice computer user can become acquainted with the computer keyboard, without the intervention of a supervisor. Please note that Keyboard Explorer is NOT a typing tutor, it just explains the use of all the keys on the keyboard.


Seterra 3.0: Seterra is a challenging, multi-lingual, geography program with 70 different exercises, a colorful and addictive way to learn geography. Learn about countries, capitals, flags and cities all over the world. Examples of exercises: countries in Europe; American states; American state capitals; French cities; cities in Mexico; countries in Asia, and more. Seterra runs in English, German, French, Spanish or Swedish. Each exercise has a high score list to keep track of your progress.

Part A: Digital Camera Usage for Teaching and Learning

Interest in digital cameras is increasing in schools. Teachers find having a digital camera in the classroom very useful. Also, a digital cameras can be used in several ways for teaching and learning. A teacher can give students a list of items to look for in the classroom or in the school. The items would consist of science book, skeleton, circulatory system chart, plant, animals, word wall words, digestive system chart, and science fair projects. They must take pictures and compile a slide show presentation of the things they found during their scavenger hunt to prove they found them all. Also, once the pictures have been complied in a Power Point slide show, the teacher can type text onto the slides to correlate with the pictures. The text would be information the students know about the subject and information the teacher believes is pertinent to the subject. Then the teacher can printout the Power Point as a handout for the students to take home to study and show their parents.

Part B: Database Usage for Teaching and Learning

Science Lesson Plan: Finding Out About Dinosaurs
Objective: Students will create a dinosaur database, learn about dinosaurs, sort alphabetically, practice using Boolean operators, and sort by number.

Materials: Dinosaur Database Form, Microsoft Access, and a 1 Computer per group (3 students per group).

Procedures:
1. Have each group read about a dinosaur.
2. After the reading the assignment is completed, have each student fill out the dinosaur database form. The Dinosaur Database Form fields will include Name, Habitat, Food, Feet, and Armored.
3. Instruct each group to enter their information on the same data file disk.
4. After the task has been completed, have the groups do the following:
a. Sort the file by the number of feet in the field, highest to lowest.
b. Using the Boolean operator and, find out if there are any two-legged plant eaters and any four-legged meat eaters.
c. Sort alphabetically by name and print out the list.

Part C: Spreadsheet Usage for Teaching and Learning

Science Lesson Plan: Force (Newton's Second Law)
Objective: To know how to create a spreadsheet and scatter graph for use within a science experiment.

Question: How does the mass of an object (in g) affect how much force is needed (in N) to move it?

The First column should be weight in g, 100g increasing by 100g increments to 1kg. Next, the
Second column would be force needed to move it in N.

g=gram
kg=kilogram
N=Newton

In cell A1 type Mass of the object in g. In cell B1 type Force needed to move it in N. In cells A2 through A11, respectively, type 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 and 1000. In cells B2 through B11, respectively, type the results recorded from the experiment. The results (the amount of force needed to move the object) should correlate with the appropriate mass of the object.

The students would do the experiment on the floor in the classroom. The students will use balls made of paper. The surface at my school is tile. Also, after the information has been recorded on the spreadsheet, the students will use the Chart Wizard in Microsoft Excel to create a scatter graph to interpret the results of the experiment. To create the graph highlight column headings and all the data in those two columns to make the graph.

Teacher-Directed versus Constructivist Strategies

There has been no clear agreement regarding which learning approach is the best. However, interest is generally centered on the teacher-directed and the constructivist approaches. To me it would appear that the constructivist approach as several benefits like the teacher-directed approach. For example, the constructivist approach allows learners to control their own knowledge, and emphasizes group learning. However, as a student I am more comfortable with the teacher-directed approach.

The Teacher-directed approach is more structured. I am working on my Alternative Master of Education, and I had limited knowledge regarding the educational system prior to my admissions. For this reason, I need to learn in a structured environment to receive and obtain correct information regarding the education field. It would not be a benefit for me to determine my own knowledge and work in groups at all times when I would not be contributing.

Most importantly, I am more comfortable when I know my objectives in advance. For example, to me EDT 574 is mostly structured. I know what my assignments are and when they are due. Also, if there are any changes we are notified. However, it allows opportunities to work in groups and to promote higher-order thinking with certain assignments to a certain extent. Moreover, it is the structured environment provided that I thrive on. Lastly, I am learning the correct processes to complete tasks without numerous errors. For example, I have learned how to create a classroom newsletter and a mail merge list through a structured environment, but I had just enough freedom to include my personal interests and ideas without creating incorrect information. In conclusion, the teacher-directed approach is the best learning approach for me as a student.