Assignment #4

The project I am doing is centered around an ongoing class project throughout the year called Geobears. We will send out teddy bears with travelers and instruct them to pass them on to others. As information comes back, we will track the geobears and learn about other countries and cultures. The technologies I decided to use in my project are a class blog, the SMART Board and Google Earth. I am actually planning on doing this project when I am a teacher and am very excited about it!

The features in the technology I will be using are:

Google Earth: This program is fairly easy to use, but there were a few things I had to familiarize myself with and I'm still not very proficient at it.

• different features on the map (roads, places of interest, street view)


• record a tour - allows you to show "flight" from one place to another and record it


• zoom - in and out


• adding placemark - shows where the school is, marks where Geobear has been to
  

SMART Board: The SMART Board will be used as a base to store all our information about the Geobears. There will be a link to our blog, a link to Google Earth and also maps for each bear and their journey as we track it. The class can also look up information on the internet about the places Geobear travels.

I have learned so much about the SMART Board. One of the most helpful things I have learned is how to make a link to a website, but also how to paperclip things to the presentation. I was able to paperclip Google Earth to it so that I don't have to exit out of the presentation to get to it. This would be incredibly helpful and time saving.

Another thing I learned was how to group objects together. Sometimes I would have several objects together, but would have to move them to another page or place on the page. It was extremely painstaking to have to move each individual object and get them back in line. So what you do is hold down ctrl, select all objects you want together and then hit g to group them all together to make one object. It's very easy to ungroup them as well. Other features I will use are:

• links


• paperclip


• gallery


• toolbar
• object transparency
• grouping tool
• lock/unlock objects

Issues:

Some issues I encountered with this project were that I wasn't sure if I should do a website or a blog for the project. I actually made a whole website for it and decided to just make it simple and do a blog instead. The issues with the website were that I didn't know if I should have a special website for the project in addition to the classroom site or just combine them. The nature of the project involves strangers from all over the world, so I didn't feel comfortable having all this information available to just anyone. The website was absolutely wonderful, but it was just too complicated for what I wanted to use it for. The blog just felt safer to me mostly because I'm familiar with it and can screen comments from people.

Another issue was finding a map that I could use on the SMARTBoard to track the geobears. Ideally, I would have liked there to be a globe that you can spin AND track travels on. I guess there's not an app for that. :( That inspired me to use Google Earth just to show students what the actual places are like (I LOVE Google Earth and could spend hours just exploring the world and would encourage my students to as well). On that program you can tag places with an icon of choice and you can also record a journey from tag to tag.

What this means to me:

This project is something that I have wanted to do with a classroom for a long time, so as a teacher it will mean a lot to me! I love geography, maps, globes, cultures and travel and want to inspire my students to as well. I think this is the perfect way for them to "see" the world! I will probably change the project to make it simpler or more complicated depending on what grade I end up teaching. A lot of it can be student created and led. All I have to do is be the administrator of the blog and I can let the students do the rest!

NETS for Teachers:

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity - As a teacher, I will be using my knowledge of geography to facilitate learning by the use of technology. I will be encouraging student creativity by having them write blogs and control the smartboard and Google Earth. I will be promoting student reflection by getting them to think about the places we are learning about and through researching places that Geobear is traveling to.

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments - As a teacher, I will use technology to help develop knowledge and skills by deeply incorporating several types of technology into the project. These technologies can be used as a class or individually by the student. They can be used in direct instruction by the teacher or by exploration by the student. The project will be very personalized as students name their bears and make presentations involving them and track them.

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning - I will be modeling technology throughout the project, demonstrating it to students so that they can learn to use it themselves. I will collaborate with students and parents for new ideas in how to best use the technology.

NETS for Students:

1. Creativity and Innovation - Students will use technology to show innovation in learning and applying what they are learning through Google Earth and SmartBoard presentations. Students can use the tracking of the geobears to show trends in travel. Students will think about and predict how the geobears will get back to the school on time.

2. Communication and Collaboration - Students will use technology to communicate ideas. The nature of the project is to develop global awareness and learn about other cultures through technology. Students will be able to show what they have learned in the project by presenting it to others.

3. Research and Information Fluency - Students will use research through digital tools gathering information from a variety of sources: Google Earth, the internet, maps, books, and videos.

Extra info about the project (in case you want to know!):

We will have 5 different geobears at the beginning of the year that we will outfit with backpacks that include a luggage tag with our school name and address, self-stamped and addressed postcards, a picture of our class, the blog URL and instructions for travelers. The bears will be sent with people we know who are traveling somewhere in the country or world. That traveler will pass the bear onto another traveler they meet and each traveler will send back a postcard or log onto the blog to leave us a message/ photos, etc. As the class gets information back, they log it and map out where the Geobear is on the SMARTBoard.

As we get information back about the travelers, we will get onto Google Earth to see where they are in the world. This program is amazing and we can "fly" from our classroom to where Geobear is at the click of a button! At the end of the year we can record the Geobears' trip on Google Earth to show the sequence of travel they have done. I would love to just do one bear since there will be so much more work with 5, but the reality is that many bears never return or don't send back any postcards, so we will track all 5.

Ideally, there will be lots of communication between the travelers and the class - the more, the better - so that we can learn as much as we can through this project. Hopefully, travelers will follow instructions and not steal the bears. There will be instructions to get the bears back by the end of the school year and hopefully this will happen as well!