Saturday, October 14, 2006

Lesson Plans for Special Education using Technology

You Are the Producer in Your Life
A Transition Project using Muvee autoProducer

Created by Maggie Kate Moran

Grade Level: Special Education Middle School or High School

Subject Area: Resource/Transition/Careers

Project Description: This multimedia project is part of an Individual Education Plan (IEP) Awareness Unit for students in a Special Education Resource Class. This lesson will focus on Transition which is the process students use to think about and identify desired outcomes for life beyond high school. The project is designed with the intent to inspire students to bridge the gap from childhood to adulthood and dream for lifetime career and aspirations.

Learning Goal: Students will demonstrate use of multimedia to communicate their career goals and aspirations

Learning Objectives:
Students will demonstrate competency at using an automatic photo/video editing software Students will investigate and express personal goals and interests

Technology Standards:
A8.1 g. Scan, crop and save a graphic using a scanner, digital camera or other digital equipment
A8.1 i. Capture, edit and combine video segments using a multimedia computer with editing
A8.2 g. Use a graphics program to create or modify detail to an image or picture
A12.2 d. Identify common graphic, video and sound file formats
A8.4 b. design and produce a multimedia program

Materials: Photographs from birth to present Images that represent personal interests and career aspirations Music/audio samples such as CD, MP3, WAV

Computer/Multimedia Equipment Requirements: OS: Windows XP & Windows 2000 Recommended Hardware:1GHz Pentium III, AMD Athlon, or equivalent processor with MMX support 256MB RAM 16MB Video RAM equivalent processor with MMX support 256MB RAM 16MB Video RAM

Other requirements: Screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher

Required Software: Microsoft DirectX 9.0 or higher Muvee autoProducer 4.1 or greater (free trial available at http://www.muvee.com/) MP3 Creation plugins to convert Audio-CD tracks into MP3 format in Windows Media Player (WMP) for Windows XP.MP3. Creation plugins at can be downloaded fromCyberlink MP3 PowerEncoderIntervideo MP3 XPack CD –to MP3 Software such as Winamp or RealOne Player

Prior Knowledge/Instruction:
-Students have investigated career interests on CareerWays computer program to identify career interests and aspirations -Student have completed a Sketch-a-Tree activity from the Jane Goodall “Lessons of Hope” website http://www.lessonsforhope.org/teachers/teachersGuide.asp
“The tree illustrates the root structure that supports you, i.e., the important people who give you a foundation in life. The shoots or limbs will represent the hopes and dreams that you are branching out toward in your life.” -Goodall -

-Students have been instructed to bring photos (baby to present) and to locate images that represent hopes and dreams as identified in the Sketch-A-Tree activity

-Students have completed instruction in copyright and ethical use of computers pertaining to images and audio obtained for personal use

Location: Classroom and Computer Lab

Introduction: Students are introduced to the Muvee autoProducer by group demonstration of samples provided by the software and instructed to bring photos to produce their Muvee

Conducting the Lesson:
-Students are introduced to the basic steps of scanning photos to the correct format (jpeg), editing and saving images to their student file.

-Students are introduced to the basic steps of downloading music and transferring music files from nondigital to digital formats (MP3 or wav).

-Students are introduced to the basic steps of Muvee autoProducer -Add photos and images from student file -Add music from student file -Choose a style -Click “Make Muvee”.

-Students are introduced to the advanced features of Muvee autoProducer -Change the duration of Muvees -Shuffle the sequence of shots -Weave pictures into videos -Blend the original video soundtrack with the music -Personalize title and credits -Work with Magic Moment TM and other advanced features to highlight/exclude specific shots.

-Students are instructed on how to save and burn muvees to a DVD

Extensions: Produce video to be used in Muvee autoProducer; create micromuvee (less than 45 seconds duration) in a compressed email format (ASF or WMV)



Field Biologists Research: Then and Now
Lesson Plan using Handheld Technology

Created by Maggie Kate Moran

This lesson will be part of a unit study of biology where students will research various scientists/biologists in the past who have contributed to our knowledge of insect, plant and animal life.

Grade Level: Special Education, Middle School or High School
Subject Area: Biology

Lesson Overview: Students will gather and formulate information from various sources to determine techniques biologists in the past conducted field studies and compare with techniques and resources available today.

Learning Goal: Students will develop an understanding of science as a human endeavor by studying the nature and history of science.

Learning Objectives: Students will analyze the practices of field biologists throughout history and recognize the contributions made to the study of life sciences. Students will use paper, pencil, and palm handheld technology to collect information from observations of insects, plants and animals in the field including notes, graphs, sketches, and photos. The end product will consist of hand written/drawn field observation notes, graphs and sketches which will be compared to Palm handheld word processed notes and graphs, Sketchy drawings/animation, and Veo pictures.

Technology Standards:
A.8.1 Show that technology has allowed us to further the efforts of science and, in
turn, science has enabled us to develop better technology
A.8.2 Explain the need for and application of knowledge and skills from other
disciplines when engaging in technological activities
A.12.1 Contrast the increasing complexities of technology with its ease of use

Materials: drawing pads/notebooks, pencils, Palm handhelds with VEO camera

Software:
GoKnow's Handheld Learning Environment
http://www.goknow.com/Products/
Sketchy - Creating animations FreeWrite - Word processing
Minimum System Requirements:
Palm OS 3.5 - 5 (Palm OS 4.1 - 5 recommended).Windows 98 or higher, running Palm Desktop 4.0.1 or higher
Macintosh OS 9.x or OS X running Palm Desktop 4.1.114 KB memory needed for full installation.

VEO camera for handhelds
http://www.veo.com/products_pda.asp
Minimum System Requirements:
Microsoft™ 98/ME/2000/XP with Pentium™ 300 MHz (or higher)
200 MB Available Hard Disk Space
32 MB RAM or Better
Pocket PC Handheld with ActiveSync Cradle
800 x 600 Display with 16-Bit Color

Prior Knowledge/Instruction: This lesson will follow the research portion of the unit where students have researched field biologists, completed a research paper, and presented a PowerPoint which included samples of drawings and field notes of biologists and naturalists including Mendel, Darwin, Audubon, Lewis and Clark expedition, Muir, Ansel Adams, Jane Goodall...

Students will have received instruction and have basic to proficient skills using the Palm Handheld and software: FreeWrite, Sketchy & Veo

Location: Recommend taking students to school forest, area park, zoo or botanical garden.

Introduction: Prompt students to think about how the field studies of biologist have helped us in understanding individual organisms and their part in the environment. Explain to students that they will be experiencing the practice of field study as it was before the technology of cameras, video and audio recorders and comparing it to the practice while using technology that is available today.

Conducting the Lesson: Given a predetermined time frame, students will do field studies using notebooks for hand drawings and notes/data collection
Given a predetermined time frame, students will do field studies using Palm handheld technology for notes, sketches and photos

Assessment: Develop a rubric for the unit which would include their research papers and presentation on field biologists and the student field study project. The criteria for the unit could include Research Information, Spelling/Grammar, Bibliography Citations, and use of handheld applications including Sketchy, FreeWrite and Veo camera. Assign points and expectations to each criterion to determine what students should strive for.

3 comments:

  1. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the
    video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why
    throw away your intelligence on just posting
    videos to your blog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?


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