Technology with Intention

Technology Connects / Technology Divides

By Jac de Haan On October 20, 2011 · Add Comment · In lesson plans

An Inquiry Lesson for 7th – 12th Grades

Objective:

Students will apply meta-cognition to conduct an inquiry into the effects of technology as a unifying or divisive force in their relationships with others, while critiquing source information and supporting a call to action with visual displays.

Inquiry Question:

Does the technology we’ve created bring us together as a society, or does it push us apart?

Materials:

Internet research access and digital presentation tools.

Preparation:

Create a digital presentation for your students which demonstrates either that technology pulls us together as a global community or that it tears us apart. Your presentation should model how they might present their own findings. It should be visually engaging, relevant to the age group you are trying to reach and controversial.

For example, you might highlight conclusions from the Kaiser Family Foundation about youth media consumption. Their research found an inverse proportion between hours of media consumption and personal contentedness. Or you might document the work of William Kamkwamba, a rural African youth who used any media he could find to create a hand-‐built, wind-‐powered electric generator for his village. (See [...]

Google Earth: search & rescue

By Jac de Haan On October 14, 2011 · Add Comment · In lesson plans

Grade level: Grades 6-8

by Thomas Petra

Objectives:

Plan and simulate a search and rescue operation

Choose and map a SAR search pattern
Compute time travelled using a rate
Justify problem solving decisions
Determine success of the SAR operation

Resources:

Google Earth
SAR Kmz file and supporting documents (click to download)

Summary:

Students work in groups as emergency responders on a search and rescue mission at sea. After identifying pertinent variables of the situation they become acquainted with U.S. Coast Guard search patterns and procedures. They are given a helicopter and cutter to perform the search but need to take into account each vehicle’s limits. Once the groups have gathered the necessary information they need to decide how to conduct their search using the equipment and data available to them. Google Docs is a great resource to guide and record this exchange.

The SAR patterns are mapped in Google Earth. One path marks the cutter’s search pattern and another for the helicopter. The search vehicles’ speed needs to be used to calculate each turn in the pattern. This is marked in Google Earth with placemarks [...]

Screencasting and flipped instruction: beyond math

By Jac de Haan On September 15, 2011 · Add Comment · In lesson plans, resources, tutorials

In response to recent articles on the concept of flipped instruction and iPad screencasting reviews, some educators have emailed or commented and asked how time-shifting lectures can be used beyond mathematics classes or math-based science classes.

Here are 10 quick examples of non-math flipped classroom ideas. The entire video clip was created using Explain Everything for the iPad.