Tech-Tac-Toe Tools #3: Glogster

My final "Tech-Tac-Toe" activity was designed using Glogster, a "graphic blog" site. Glogster can be accessed at http://www.glogster.com and used for free after signing up for an account.


Grade Level: 8
Subject: U.S. History
Lesson Topic: Founding Fathers
Objectives:
- Students will know the accomplishments of the American "Founding Fathers" (and "Mothers") during the Revolutionary War, the Constitutional Convention, and the early American republic.
- Students will be able to create a "resume" for one of these historical figures using graphic media technology.
Standards:
Social Studies Common Core
- RH.6-8.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
- RH.6-8.7: Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information  in print and digital texts.
- ISBE-TECH.3: The competent teacher will apply learning technologies that support instruction in his or her grade level and subject areas. He or she must plan and deliver units that integrate a variety of software, applications, and learning tools. Lessons developed must reflect effective grouping and assessment strategies for diverse learners.

Step 1: Students will choose a historical figure from the founding era of the United States, and extract information from a variety of text and digital primary and secondary sources (provided by the teacher) to meet specific requirements (e.g., birthplace, duties, role during the American founding) for a biographical "resume" of that figure.

Step 2: Students will import the information acquired from lecture and their sources into the "Resume" template on Glogster, and present the resulting graphic blog to the class. The example below is a resume for my favorite "Founding Father," Thomas Jefferson. Information was acquired from biographical web sites on Jefferson, lists of his quotes from writings and letters, and one dramatization (video clips from HBO's John Adams).

http://www.glogster.com/zero1319/thomas-jefferson-s-resume/g-6l5d42rm8ei8kog6e34j6a0

I had some trouble with Glogster's interface; there was little tutorial information available right on the page, and some of the graphic functions were finnicky in responding to commands. That said, the templates are excellent, and a little more exploration of the site would probably assuage any issues I had with getting it to execute what I wanted. I'm intrigued by the idea of graphic blogs (though I'm admittedly much more at home with a text-based blog like this one), but I'd need to do a little more experimenting and troubleshooting before I'm confident using it as a classroom tool.

Tech-Tac-Toe Tools #2: Popplet

The second of my "Tech-Tac-Toe" activities relied on the use of concept maps as an instructional tool. Here I decided to use Popplet, a Web 2.0 map generator we experimented with early in our Tech in Ed course. The tool (available after creating a free account at http://popplet.com/) is very user-friendly and despite its fairly basic Flash interface, can yield some impressive mapping results for the creative teacher. Since my field is secondary social studies, I decided to use Popplet for a lesson on government - a subject that definitely lends itself to concept mapping.

Grade Level: 11-12

Subject: Government/civics

Lesson Topic: U.S. Constitutional amendments

Objectives:

- Students will know the basic provisions of amendments to the U.S. Constitution and how they affect American government and citizens.

- Students will be able to connect individual Constitutional amendments to their underlying concepts, such as civil liberties and federalism.

Standards:

Social Studies Common Core

- RH.11-12.7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

- RH.11-12.10: By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently. 

Core Technology Standards

- ISBE-TECH.3: The competent teacher will apply learning technologies that support instruction in his or her grade level and subject areas. He or she must plan and deliver units that integrate a variety of software, applications, and learning tools. Lessons developed must reflect effective grouping and assessment strategies for diverse learners.

I envisioned the map depicted in this Popplet (or something similar, since this example was done by one person rather than a collaboration of an entire class) as something developed by a U.S. history or government class over the course of several units or an entire semester. The concepts on the map grow outward from more general social studies concepts (civil liberties, political liberties, federalism, etc.) to the specific 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and their provisions. As the class learned about and discussed those amendments, the teacher and students could add new elements to the map. There may be some debate about where exactly they belong, but given the importance of critical thinking and differing viewpoints to a social studies classroom, I'd view that as a success!

One of the best things I can say about Popplet is that the example above just scratches the surface of what the application can do. I played around with color-coding to help visual learners and illustrate where the concepts overlapped, but the tool has many other functions. It wasn't until I was done with this map that I realized that I could embed not only pictures in the Popplets, but videos and social media links as well. As part of an exploration-style activity, a teacher using this map could have students link relevant videos or web pages to the corresponding Popplet. Finally, I had a lot of fun designing this activity. While some concept mapping I've done for my own research works better with something like Gephi (because of the sheer volume of data), Popplet works as well on a limited scale, and has a much smaller learning curve. As with Wordle, I expect to be using this tool again!

Tech-Tac-Toe Tools #1: Wordle

For our Tech in Ed course, my classmates and I were asked to design three classroom activities using Web 2.0 tools. My first activity is structured around Wordle, a "word cloud" generating tool available for free at http://www.wordle.net/.

Grade Level: 9-10
Subject: Government/civics
Lesson Topic: Political rhetoric and party platforms
Objectives:
- Students will know how politicians use rhetoric and vocabulary to express their party's platform.
- Students will be able to compare and contrast the platforms of different American political parties through their use of rhetoric and vocabulary.
- Students will be able to use technology to visually demonstrate these comparisons and contrasts.
Standards:
Social Studies Common Core
- RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
- RH.9-10.7: Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.
- RH.9-10.9: Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources
Core Technology Standards
- ISBE-TECH.3: The competent teacher will apply learning technologies that support instruction in his or her grade level and subject areas. He or she must plan and deliver units that integrate a variety of software, applications, and learning tools. Lessons developed must reflect effective grouping and assessment strategies for diverse learners.

Step 1: Students will locate the transcripts of the president's most recent State of the Union address and the opposition party's official response (available from a variety of web sources, including the official CSPAN site) and import the text into Wordle to generate two different word clouds. For the purposes of this example, I used President Obama's 2012 address and the response given by Governor Mitch Daniels (R-IN). As a side note, my first Wordle use revealed a hiccup: the words "Applause" and "Laughter" showed prominently in my word cloud because of their presence in the transcript! This was easily fixed by copying and pasting to MS Word, then using Find-and-Replace to remove the extra text.

President Obama's address (http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5968303/State_of_the_Union_2012)

Governor Daniel's response (http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5968309/State_of_the_Union_Response_2012)

Step 2: Viewing the two word clouds, the teacher and students will create a graphic organizer (digital or whiteboard/poster/etc) to examine where the two politicians/parties focus on either similar or differing concepts by their choice of wording. The word clouds and the graphic organizer will frame a discussion on how the politicians/parties use rhetoric to express their platforms and appeal to voters.

Extra: Students will locate the transcripts of each of the president's State of the Union address and import the text into Wordle to generate a series of word clouds, illustrating how his and his party's platform has changed its focus as time progresses. This was just another idea I thought worth inserting here, because it shows so well how Wordle and other word cloud generators can be useful in visually demonstrating abstract concepts. A similar exercise could be done with local instead of national politicians, comparing/contrasting a candidate's campaign speech to an address given in office.

2009 State of the Union address (http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5968352/State_of_the_Union_2009)

2010 State of the Union address (http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5968343/State_of_the_Union_2010)

2011 State of the Union address (http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5968336/State_of_the_Union_2011)