All in all... The Overall View
In the provided lesson, the aim is for the students to gain and apply knowledge of life in their own community and compare specific aspects of it to life in other communities. The culminating activity will be a comparison of this information to the information they gathered about their own town (only one group will publish). The students will:
This is all tied in to Level 3 of VELS (Grades 3 and 4) in regards to:
While all of these things can be done without the use of Google Earth and Skype, often the information is outdated or takes a significant amount of time to gather (either by the teacher or the students). The purpose of this lesson is to reduce the materials and research required as well as engaging the students by having them lead their own investigations. The students will be able to self-correct their own work and have a professional pride in what they produce.
One thing to note is that while this lesson plan works for schools that have access to computers, there are those that don't have access to a computer. This is a sad situation for many schools and hopefully with time they will have such access to integrate into their students learning. However, as long as each student has the same access to Google Earth and/or the computers, there should be no equality issue raised.
Finally, with this lesson the roles of the teacher teaching directly to the student who listens, has dramatically changed. The students are now taking an active role in their learning while the teacher becomes more of a guide. So I hope with the lesson plan and resources I have provided, the technology - connected class will be as engaging and interactive as I intended it to be.
- Demonstrate map reading skills by being able to locate various places on Google Earth.
- Construct place marks and paths to indicate important physical features of Australia and their Skype classrooms’.
- Label place marks with factual information or photos.
- Measure distances from one country’s border to another’s; i.e. the distance from the current classroom to their overseas classroom.
This is all tied in to Level 3 of VELS (Grades 3 and 4) in regards to:
- Examining stories, artefacts and other evidence from the past and present to learn about Australian society and its origins, such as the history of national symbols, including the flat, and key commemorations and celebrations;
- Students investigate the physical characteristics of their local area;
- And they learn to use atlas maps and a globe.
While all of these things can be done without the use of Google Earth and Skype, often the information is outdated or takes a significant amount of time to gather (either by the teacher or the students). The purpose of this lesson is to reduce the materials and research required as well as engaging the students by having them lead their own investigations. The students will be able to self-correct their own work and have a professional pride in what they produce.
One thing to note is that while this lesson plan works for schools that have access to computers, there are those that don't have access to a computer. This is a sad situation for many schools and hopefully with time they will have such access to integrate into their students learning. However, as long as each student has the same access to Google Earth and/or the computers, there should be no equality issue raised.
Finally, with this lesson the roles of the teacher teaching directly to the student who listens, has dramatically changed. The students are now taking an active role in their learning while the teacher becomes more of a guide. So I hope with the lesson plan and resources I have provided, the technology - connected class will be as engaging and interactive as I intended it to be.
