Learning U.S. Geography Through the Use of Technology

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Needs Analysis

Instructional Goals

Instructional Strategies

Instructional Plan

Formative Evaluation

Teacher

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Instructional Goals

Students will learn the states that border their home state by relative direction. Above students will also learn the fifty United States by name and be able to identify the state by its shape.

Learner Descriptions

The learners are fourth and fifth grade students between the ages of nine and twelve years of age who reside in a small rural town. Approximately 120 students will take part in this project. These students are primarily low income students who have had little to no exposure of states outside of their own home state. They attend a rural school with approximately 350 students. Some of these students are on IEP's and will need extra assistance, which may include an aide, extra class time, text-to-speech (for particular computer based applications), or visual assistance.

Learning Context

Learning will take place in the technology center housed inside of the media center. The students will have access to twenty-two Macintosh G5 desktop computers. I will incorporate various learning scenarios, some of which will be web-based, educational software, various paper-pencil activities, multi-media resources and board games. All web-based materials will be pre-determined and linked on our school's web page. A rubric will also be available to the students the school's web page along with the links. This allows students to work on projects at home on their home computers or as I tell my students, "if you don't have a home computer, go to plan B." For those students who need plan B, I will open the technology center before school, during recesses, and after school. This allows all students equal opportunity to study using the various resources on our school's web page.

Learning through playing educational games is a great way to keep students motivated. My students can not get enough of computers..they love technology! This will keep them motivated to succeed, which follows the Instructional Design that I chose: ARCS Model of Motivation.

Performance Context

Two rubrics will be designed (one for each grade level) and posted on our school's web page. The students will know in advance what is expected of them. They will have the choice to use the rubric as a guidline for success. The students will be assessed through web-based games on Quia. I will construct two games (assessments) one for each grade level.

Learning Tools