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Standard V
Instruction that Incorporates Technology
Know how to plan, organize, deliver, and evaluate instruction for all students that incorporates the effective use of current technology for teaching and integrating the Technology Applications Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) into the curriculum.
I have grown immensely in using this standard through the TATC program. Because I am a teacher who has recently returned to teaching after several years off, I really did not have much experience at all with using technology to teach before this year. Having children of my own, I was aware that technology played a part in many of their assignments, and I had worked with them in using the Internet and word processing software for school projects. I used desktop publishing tools, Internet searches, and spreadsheets in some of my other activities, but I had not had the opportunity to use them as a teacher myself. After working with PowerPoint in the Multimedia course, I prepared and used a simple PowerPoint show with my 4th and 5th grade music classes. Through preparing full lessons/units in the desktop publishing and digital graphics courses online, I gained a better understanding and appreciation of the various elements that must be included. I had the opportunity to prepare lessons applicable to the technology applications courses and, through our online discussions and postings, I had access to the lessons created by my classmates. What an awesome resource!
I will continue to use the ideas I've learned to bring more technology into my teaching in the future! The tools of technology and the skills for using these tools correctly are truly essential knowledge for today's students. As a teacher, it is imperative that I learn to use technology to my advantage. I must continue to learn and embrace new technologies in order to teach these skills to my students. This fact is one of the things that led me to participate in the TATC program. By using and teaching new technologies, I am not just showing students a particular software program or skill, I am helping to teach students that learning is an ongoing process that continues throughout our lives.
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Caption 5
Indicators: Standards I, II, III, IV, and V (including 5.3s, 5.7s, 5.9s, 5.14s), and TA TEKS 7.19s, 7.20s, 7.21s, 8.15s, 8.21s, 8.22s, 8.30s, 8.31s, 8.33s, 8.34s, 8.35s, 8.45s, 8.47s, 9.20s, 9.40s, 11.20s, 11.25s, 11.26s, 11.27s, 11.28s, 11.35s
Artifact #5
Descriptors: Digital graphics/animation terms and techniques, Web Page, rich text format lesson documents, Internet, photo editing, file optimization of graphics
Title: Digital Graphics Unit Lesson/"Dream Vehicle"
Course:101-1 Digital Animation
Date Created: November 6, 2002
Source: Individual TATC Project
Media: Photoshop 7 for photo editing and file optimization, Adobe GoLive 6.0 for web pages, Microsoft Word for rich text file printable teaching documents, Internet, Swish 2.0 for animated text effects
Description: The assignment was to create a lesson unit that would be appropriate for a digital graphics classroom. We were to include lecture notes/handouts, step-by-step instructions, vocabulary, and samples of finished products. Our completed lessons were to be posted to the proper classroom discussion area so that we could give and receive input from our TATC classmates. The first step was to come up with a creative topic that we could plan a lesson around. I decided to use students' interest in personal transportation to make the assignment fun. Students were to search for a picture of their dream vehicle to use in their project. As an alternative, students could use digital cameras to take a picture of their dream vehicle. The second step was to take a picture of themselves and then use photo editing techniques to add their image to their dream vehicle picture for a composite picture. The final "created" picture would show them and the "vehicle of their dreams." Our presentation of the lesson was to have all the basic elements that would be needed to teach the lesson including necessary instructions and vocabulary. As usual, we were asked to provide credit for our sources within our materials. We also had to provide a sample finished product as a lesson example. An additional requirement for our presentation was to include specific variations of the digital pictures that illustrated skills we were studying related to color variations in photo editing such as grayscale, sepia, and related concepts. All of the assignment requirements were included in a web site that I created. Basically, we were asked to synthesize all the information we had learned to this point into the preparation and presentation of our individual lesson.
Rationale: I chose this artifact because it clearly represents an example of Standard V. I planned, organized, and evaluated instruction that incorporated the effective use of current technology for teaching, and I integrated quite a few of the TEKS into the unit lesson. The planned lesson included related vocabulary (and an answer sheet), a step-by-step instruction handout, an assignment summary, a credit page for citing source materials, sample lesson products, and sample variations that illustrated color editing concepts. The vocabulary and step-by-step instructions were also delivered in rich text format for universal readability and to allow for printing of the materials. All the lesson elements were presented through a web site, and the site featured animated text effects that I created using Swish 2.0 software.
Implications for future: I could use this lesson to teach the TA course of digital graphics. This unit lesson would work well after the basic editing techniques of Photoshop 7.0 had been taught through prior activities. Minor adjustments to classroom materials could be made to teach this lesson using other photo editing software packages if Photoshop is not the classroom software in use. Through the knowledge I gained in creating this lesson, I now have the ability to integrate digital graphic technology into lessons in any area I teach. I can plan lessons that are delivered as web pages, and I can animate text on those web pages to add pizazz. The opportunities are definitely there, but I will need to continue experimenting with digital graphics to become more confident in sharing this knowledge with students and fellow teachers.
Reviewer's Comments: Your lesson sounds like fun to do - I know the students in my class would love this. Your step by step directions were very detailed and easy to follow. One suggestion - when linking to an rtf file (that does not contain your navigation bar) - have it open in a separate window that keeps the user from having to use the back button and prevents them from getting “lost” in your site. Overall - a good unit lesson and great idea. I think the overall development is almost there - I know how hard it was jumping from computer to computer -and you did a great job with that.
**During this project I was having Internet access problems at home on my primary computer. I was having to bounce back and forth with another computer and my school computer and post through web access rather than First Class. It was a major hassle, but I learned it could be done!
Reviewer's Name: Rachel Newman
Title: TATC Instructor
Date Reviewed: November 2002
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