Technology Lesson Evaluation #1 Good Lesson: http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/satellite/lesson.html
Poor Lesson: http://www.schoolnet.ca/aboriginal/lessons/wwweb-e.html
|
|
Technology Lesson Evaluation #2
I began my search by typing in “technology lessons”
in the google search engine. This gave me a few different avenues to take. I began by looking at one site www.ed.sc.edu that gave me a Literature based
technology lesson. After
evaluating this first lesson using the rubric I created I gave it a
score of “2,” or limited.
There are a few reasons I gave this lesson a “2”
and the first is that it scored in the incompetent level for grade level
appropriateness. The lesson was written for the 5-6 grade
level and it requires students to read a book that is recommended on
the internet and then write their appreciation of what they have read. Students are then required to send their
opinion about others’ written appreciation through e-mail. I feel that this lesson is too advanced
for 5-6 graders. Another
reason I gave this first lesson a “2” on the rubric is because
there is little relevance to students lives.
It does teach the students how to search on the internet and
maybe use e-mail, but many students at this age are already using the
internet and e-mail. This
lesson provides little collaborative work.
The only collaboration students have with one another is having
the opportunity to read one another’s written appreciation and
then respond to it, but students do not work together to create any
type of final product. Also, the last reason I gave this lesson
a “2” is because it is missing examples for clarification. There are no examples for the students
to follow in beginning their internet search, nor are there examples
for creating a written appreciation for what they read.
This first lesson also could have many problems with
its goals and objectives because many things are unclear such as who
is going to be responsible for setting up all of the students on the
internet and giving them all access to e-mail to be able to e-mail an
opinion about others’ written appreciations.
Also, the only schools that would be able to use this lessons
are schools that have books on the URL in the school library, which
poses another problem because who will be responsible for ensuring that
the school library has all the necessary books?
I did not think that this first lesson I found dealing with Technology
and Language Arts was a good technology lesson because it was lacking
in many areas on the rubric, and because it leaves many unanswered questions
for anyone who might wish to use it.
The second lesson I found was on the New York Times
website at www.nytimes.com/learning. I also found this lesson through the same
search at google. After
evaluating this second lesson on “Exploring the Internet’s
Role in Academic Plagiarism” I gave it a score of “4”
on the rubric, or Thoughtful.
This lesson scored a “4” on the rubric because it
is grade level appropriate, has clear objectives and expectations, is
relevant to students’ lives, has examples for clarification and
has collaborative work application. This lesson is for grades 6-8 and 9-12
and is age appropriate and relevant because students have access to
the internet and at age span is when they are coming into contact with
plagiarism. In the younger grades plagiarism is not
as much of an issue as it is when students begin the middle school level. This is the best time to start explaining
just what plagiarism is and what the consequences are because many students
don’t understand this yet.
Also, the very first part of the assignment is a journal that
asks, “You and a friend have been working on your final research
papers for one of your classes for the past month.
The night before the papers are due, you get together for an
all-night editing session. At
1 a.m., your friend’s computer dies, and he loses his entire paper. He has no back-up disk. Your friend is devastated and he decides
to download a paper off of an Internet term paper site. How do you respond to his actions?”(www.nytimes.com/learning
- Exploring the Internet’s Role in Academic Plagiarism). This
allows students to begin thinking about the assignment by putting them
into the situation and students love to participate in an assignment
that could really take place.
Also, the objectives are aligned with the standards,
which are listed at the end of the lesson for both 6-8 standards and
9-12 standards, and the actual topic searching and project is done in
groups, providing collaborative work application.
The only problem I found with the lesson is how the students
are going to get to the computer to find their one internet resource. It did not state whether this was for
homework, to be done in class, would the class need to go to a computer
lab, or does one person at a time from each group use the teacher’s
computer to search the internet for a source?
I feel that the second lesson from the New York Times
website provided the better of the two lessons using technology. The second lesson had all necessary elements
to be rated a 4 and thoughtful.
More than anything the students are using the internet to learn
about plagiarizing, something that many of them do and don’t even
realize that they are doing. This
allows students to see just how easy it is to make the mistake of plagiarizing
by getting information off of the internet, information all students
should know. |