Creating a lesson plan is one thing and creating a multimedia lesson plan is just another step towards the 21st century and all the technology it has to offer.
According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, multimedia is defined as “a technique (as the combining of sound, video, and text) for expressing ideas (as in communication, entertainment, or art) in which several media are employed” (“Multimedia,” 2011) . With these requirements, my group members and I wanted to create a lesson plan that would involve all of these types of media. We also wanted to expose our students to some powerful, modern software that are actually being used now all over the world, which also includes them.
We decided to do a lesson on continents because through this lesson we will be able to incorporate the use of Google Earth, which is one modern tool that we wanted to introduce to our students. This satisfies the second point of the NETS•T Standards: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. In detail, “teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•T” (“NETS for Teachers,” 2008). We want to show our students that the globe is not the only tool that can be used to learn about the earth and its continents; now, we have satellites and programs to capture real-time data and images.
Other than Google Earth, this lesson plan can easily be modified to be more challenging or to accommodate the different needs of the students. If we feel that our students need a little bit more challenge from this lesson, we could also combine the lesson with learning the four oceans of the earth. We will still use the same tools as before, but this time the students will learn the majority of what makes up the surface of the earth.
This is also a great lesson to teach to English language learners because it is an introductory lesson to numerous terms that mainstream students may not know as well. As specified in the website, English language learners can write down the name of these continents in their first language in order for this lesson to be more memorable and relatable to them. Also, if the students are not proficient enough in the written English language, the test can be easily administered orally because this lesson involves much more images than words.
This lesson can also be effective with deaf/hard-of-hearing students because, as previously mentioned, it involves a lot of images. The teacher can learn the sign language for each continent combined with some help from the translators can really help these students learn and feel that this lesson was made with them in mind.
In conclusion, this project allowed me to see even more tools that I know will be highly useful when I become a teacher, like the website creator. I really enjoyed putting the website together because the creator that I used, Wix.com, was free and extremely easy to use. And because of this experience, I will definitely have a class website because now I know it is not hard to create and this is a great way of communicating to students and parents the assignments and different events that is happening in the classroom. And even though I did not enjoy filling out the ASSURE model as much because it required a lot of detailed thinking, I know that this it is important to know exactly the who, what, when where, and how of a lesson, plus there is an actual model to follow to insure that you are answering all these questions.
Multimedia. (2011). Merriam-webster dictionary. Retrieved April 29, 2011, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/multimedia?show=1&t=1304165598
Nets for teachers 2008. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx
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