Reflection Ch. 10

Reflecting on What I Know pg. 257 of Integrating Computer Technology into the Classroom


1.  When presenting a lesson plan using graphic organizers, like Inspiration (Morrison & Lowther, pp. 261), it is said that students across the board tend to achieve higher results then lesson plans that lack this software (Morrison & Lowther, 2010). How does an educator gauge such success however? If the teacher assigns a project to his/her class that integrates graphic organizer software, assessing the achievement of goals becomes rather easy. This is because this software allows students to present information in such a way that the information becomes easier to understand. For instance, a student in history could create a timeline of the major events that caused the American Civil War. Since this information may be difficult to simply memorize, putting into a easy to view timeline will help them to better remember such information. This tends to work better than, say, writing and memorizing simple flashcards. If the students can accurately place events in the right chronological order it has become apparent that the information was retained.

2.  If a student has misplaced dates with their corresponding events, it would become apparent that the student did not fully grasp the lesson. Another example would be if a student incorrectly placed event in the wrong state or, during the presentation, placed a state in the wrong region of the country, one could conclude quite clearly that the student has yet to understand time and place of historical events. The text described using a comparison of Presidents Kennedy and Lincoln. Obviously they were both assassinated, yet if students failed to make this connection then one would have to rethink how the lesson plan was constructed in the first place. Regardless, the instructor would know immediately of this problem through the use of graphic organizers.

3.  I would begin a class project with brainstorming activities. First, I would have each group simply write down everything they associate with their topic. For instance, if the topic was "Socialism vs Capitalism" students may right down "Russia vs the US" or (this is all probably wishful thinking) Karl "Marx vs. Adam Smith." After they have written down these words, they may have an understanding of where they might want their project to go. They could start with contrasting the ideas of the two philosophers and the role these differences played in the Cold War between Russia and the US. Obviously, the use of graphic organizers, more specifically the Brainstorming application of such software, will enable students to save ideas as they may rapidly enter their minds. This way, they can always go back to include or exclude an idea and not have to worry about forgetting something that was potentially brilliant.