Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
of semester. As the semester progressed, students had increasing opportunities to
make connections from readings, coursework, and their fieldwork. To help students
make relevant connections, they were provided with these examples: activating
students' prior knowledge of a topic, teaching strategies (e.g., use of scaffolding,
cooperative learning, and culturally responsive teaching); transfer to different sub-
jects, transfer to everyday life, theories from our course, students' metacognitive
knowledge, strategies, and skills; students' motivation and self-perceptions; teach-
ers' attitudes; and influences of the nonacademic environment such as parents'
attitudes, behavior, and school involvement.
Third, during our final class, groups selectively presented their annotated ques-
tions, lesson plans and video clips to the class from HyLighter using a Smartboard.
Presentations required shifting back and forth between the HyLighter-based ques-
tions and lesson plans and the InTime videos though hyperlinks. Students were
graded on their answers to the probing questions, the connections and videos
identified, and their class presentation.
Students benefited from this project in numerous ways including (1) They learned
from each other when discussing answers to the pre- and postvideo viewing ques-
tions in their groups; (2) Their ability to apply course concepts was enhanced by
reading each other's lesson plan annotations, discussing the course connections
based on their readings, coursework and fieldwork; and negotiating which were best
illustrated in the lesson and most important to include in their final group products
and presentations. For example, students analyzing the InTime lesson “Introduction
to Black Studies” made connections to course concepts such as open-mindedness,
and they critically analyzed the teacher's and students' performance, including
racial stereotyping and problem solving. They connected the lesson to course theo-
ries, including practical intelligence (Sternberg, 1985) and interpersonal intelligence
(Gardner, 1985); (3) Through this activity they obtained teaching experience as they
presented their final group annotated questions, lesson plans, and corresponding
videos to the class and learned from other groups who made presentations on differ-
ent lesson plans. Finally, all students benefited from their experiences working with
these cutting-edge technologies: the sophisticated InTime model and lesson plan
database, HyLighter, and a Smartboard. These benefits provided students and me
with windows into both learning and teaching. Students had deeper understanding
of themselves and each other as learners, how to design effective lesson plans, and
how to use technology to enhance instruction. I identified differential values and
difficulties learning and applying various course concepts and theories and learned
how to more effectively design technology-based group projects.
Collaboratively Developed Lesson Plans
Early in Fall 2008, students learned and practiced using HyLighter to prepare
for their major project of the semester: collaborative development of lesson
plans. Feedback from the Hypermedia-Enhanced Lesson Plan project the previous
