Educational Technology In The Conceptual Age

Educational Technology In the Conceptual Age by Michael King Part I: Designing Digital Lessons Digital tools that allow teachers to create and design digital lessons. The Conceptual Age Pink has created a reference for us to consider right brain activities. Design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. He says we should be more in tune with understanding Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (survival, security, belonging, ego, spirit). According to Pink, “Artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big-picture thinkers – will reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys”. Pink claims that we are in a “conceptual age." About this Project This project will include the following topics: Digital Tools that allow students and teachers to; 1. Design Digital Lessons; 2. Articulate Stories that support concepts; 3. Be a Symphony in synthesizing and comparing strands of ideas to create new elements of thought; 4. Understanding Meaning and opportunities to learn collaboratively through social networks; 5. Play through creativity; 6. and understand the importance of ethics and empathy when learning in a literacy 2.0 environment. Introducing The Digital Native Marc Prensky Digital Natives Digital Immigrants ©2001 

Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

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They represent the first generations to grow up with technology.

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Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games. Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives.

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Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.

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Digital Immigrant teachers assume that learners are the same as they have always been, and that the same methods that worked for the teachers when they were students will work for their students now.

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But that assumption is no longer valid.

Design – Teachers should ask how the following concepts apply to managing and designing lessons. For example, what does the design of your daily lesson plans look like? Is it ugly back and white with multiple handouts? What story does that tell? Can all students relate to such the teachers presentation of content? In this presentation you will the concept of design and how design is applied to integrating technology into a digital lesson. Design starts at the beginning not at the end; it's not an afterthought. Introducing the Digital World: Ways to Design Digital Lessons 

As educators, we need to be thinking about how to teach in the language of the Digital Natives.

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The first involves a major translation and change of methodology.

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The second involves new content and thinking.

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So we have to invent; adapting materials to the language of Digital Natives

Designing Digital Lessons As a lesson designer I will demonstrate how the stimulation of sensory memory system increases retention rate by adding a short media section at the introduction of the interactive lesson on the “Red Badge of Courage.” By stimulating both auditory and visual images into sensory memory at the onset of the lesson I can provide higher stores of information when transferred into short-term memory. The results will be that less information will be forgotten from the introduction of the lesson. Influencing Sensory Memory In the case of teaching the “Red Badge of Courage” I introduce the lesson with a short film on the attack on Fort Sumter; which is the first battle of the Civil War. In the film students are introduced to the idea of bravery and how one Sergeant Hart risked his life climbing a pole in the heat of battle by permanently nailing the flag to a post. 

Play Introduction Video: Sergeant Harts Courage

The idea of bravery or courage is then reinforced to the student’s sensory memory system by playing a short seventy-six second film clip of the battle of Fort Sumter. At this point in the lesson students are receiving both auditory and visual stimulation to their sensory memory system. A short three to five minute discussion of the seventy seconds of film would follow by expanding the definition of bravery and Sergeant Harts courage in the face of battle. The student’s definition of bravery would then be transferred to short-term memory by the working definition of bravery. The purpose in lesson design is to transfer information to short term memory with less amounts of information being lost through the transfer process. In the lesson design all three elements of the sensory memory was initiated as the learner experienced auditory, visual and working memory stimuli as it was transferred to the short-term memory system. The next point in the lesson is to create the same scenario

by compacting sensory memory but with a different concept. The concept of fear and how fear relates to becoming a coward will be introduced to the lesson. Compacting Sensory Memory In slide two of the lesson on Red Badge of Courage an overview of the idea of the main topic of the book is introduced in the realization of fear and being a coward. A short two-minute film clip is shown to students asking the questions of; 

“What is it like to face death?”

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“What would you die for?” and “What would you kill for?”

The book is about bravery, fear and failure. And what it is really like to be in combat. What the book is not about are heroes. 

Play Video: Red Badge of Courage

Through lesson design the sensory memory is exposed to both audio and visual stimuli as well as a second and important variable brought about in the Information Processing Model article on how emotion can enhance intellectual development. That is human intellectual development plays a role in emotion and becomes a part of the emotional experience when transferring information to short-term memory. In part two of the lesson a three to five minute discussion would follow the film clip asking students to define fear and being a coward. It should be noted here that impacting sensory memory as it is transferred to short term memory can be done in a variety of ways, including graphic organizers, curiosity-arousing questions, movies, etc. In the design of this lesson I chose to influence the sensory memory by the review of short film clips. It also should be noted that short clips were selected rather than showing the entire film.

Retention through Schema Development In the third part of the lesson students will transfer short term to long-term memory by using higher order thinking skills by comparing and contrasting information to build schemas of knowledge or conceptual maps. Again using the Information Processing Model we will explore methods of transferring information from short-term to long-term memory by influencing the brain to activities that require complex thinking. The design of the complex task will be to ask students to compare and contrast their short-term memory definitions of being courageous and being a coward. In the activity design students are exposed to a Venn diagram to develop schemas of understanding through the comparative process. In order to compare

information students must first identify similarities and differences between the two ideas of courage and fear or the human characteristics of being courageous or being a coward. The idea behind the comparison activity is to deepen the student’s knowledge using what is stored in short-term memory to create schemas of understanding.

Using a graphic organizer like a Venn diagram helps students organize their short-term memory into more meaningful context. Note that there may be a short slowdown in the learning curve as students approach the conjunction of the two circles as students are asked “What is similar?” between the two concepts. Again the idea behind the lesson design is to systematically influence short-term memory to merge longterm ideas and concepts as schemas of understanding.

In the fourth slide students are asked to use their schemas of understanding by writing three paragraphs of expressed thoughts using a story starter which is the first paragraph of the book “The Red Badge of Courage.”

Students are asked to use their definitions of courageous and courage in the first two paragraphs as it relates to the first paragraph of the book. The third paragraph requires comparative thoughts of being faced with the students expressed emotions of courage and fear. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------LESSON PLAN “The Red Badge of Courage” Objectives 1. To improve student’s understanding of both the romantic and realistic nature of war. 2. To improve student’s understanding of the issues of aggression, stereotyping, courage, heroism, perception, and conflict. 3. To improve student’s understanding of an author’s use of irony. 4. To improve student’s vocabulary skills and writing ability. “The Red Badge of Courage” is a story of a young man who joins the army to fight in the Civil War. His reasons for joining are based on his dreams of adventure, glory, heroism and romantic images of himself in battle. Through the course of the story, the young boy comes to experience war as it really is, brutal and very unromantic. Crane’s story is often referred to as the first anti-war novel ever written.

Video One: The Red Badge of Courage Lesson Fort Sumter The Red Badge of courage lesson starts out with an introduction to the first battle of the civil war. By clicking on the civil war battle gif image or Sergeant Heart picture a video appears telling the story of Sergeant Heart and his bravery. Music has been added to provide for a more dramatic scene.

Video Two: The Red Badge of Courage Lesson Fort Sumter II Standing next to the cannon gif is a union solder or the civil war that is hyperlinked to a PhtoStrory3 production showing the After Effects of The Bombardment of Fort Sumter. Digital Tool: Photo Story 3 Photo Story 3 for Windows: Create slideshows using your digital photos. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures. It’s that easy! Add stunning special effects, soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Then, personalize them with titles and captions. Photo Story 3 is an almost perfect tool for digital photography enthusiasts, digital story telling and a must-have utility for anyone who enjoys their own digital photographs. The effects generated by this application are both stunning and compelling, and very similar to the photo slideshow capabilities that Media Center users enjoy. However, by making Photo Story 3 available for free to all users of Windows XP, Microsoft has both elevated the status of the XP platform and given all XP users a wonderful simple way to create digital stories . If you're an XP user, you can download Photo Story 3 and get busy having your students creating their own digital stories. If you're not an XP user, then what are you waiting for? Photo Story 3 is just one of many excellent reasons to try the art of digital story telling. Video Three: Red Badge of Courage “Introduction to Fear” This production is a mix of photostory3 Discovery Education photos and Movie Maker Discovery Education edible media clips to introduce the ideas of fear. When clicking on the union soldier a video clip of Stephen Crane appears along with other Civil War photos. The introduction leads into the heart of the meaning of being a coward and ends with an open-ended question that ties directly to the VEN activity. Digital Tool: Widows Movie Maker Windows Movie Maker 2 lets you create, edit, and share your movies right on your PC. It's easy to use, yet it provides powerful capabilities that rival those of expensive computer editing packages. You can download the software FREE from Microsoft. It works with both Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional Edition. You can also store your video and create links to your Wiki or embed HTML codes to play right off your web site. Students are asked Write an essay comparing and contrasting the issues of courage, heroism and aggression in “The Red Badge of Courage” Notes: Fleming survives battle by running away and we are led through his emotional journey, as he tries to make sense of the reality of battle and his own role within it, often reaching rather selfserving and egocentric conclusions. He runs away into the forest and meets up with a group of injured men. They ask him where he is wounded and he is embarrassed that he does not have one. Henry wanders through the forest and decides that running was the best thing, and that he is a small part of the army responsible for saving himself. Henry feels incredibly guilty when he learns that his battalion has won and that it wasn't a suicide mission after all. Henry returns to his battalion and is injured by another fleeing soldier. When he returns to camp, the other soldiers see his wound and thought that he was harmed by a bullet in battle. Afterwards, Henry goes in to battle for the third time the next morning. While looking for a stream, he finds that his regiment has a horrible reputation from the commanding officer. With no regiments to spare, the general

orders the regiment forward. In the final battle Henry goes along with the story and becomes one of the best fighters in his battalion, and the flag bearer. Many readers have felt that by mastering his fear and eventually leading a charge, young Henry has become a man. Red Badge of Courage VEN Activity Sheet The VEN activity sheet is designed to help students identify what is similar and different in the characteristics of being a hero verses being a coward.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------VENN DIAGRAM ACTIVITY Using the Venn diagram below identify at least one characteristic in each circle and then identify what is similar in the center of the diagram. After completing the Venn diagram you should use the story starter to write one paragraph describing solders thought of being courageous and in the second paragraph you should write about a soldier’s thought about being a coward. In your third paragraph identify the similarities of both characteristics as a soldier is faced with going to war.

Characteristics of Being Courageous

Characteristics of Being a Coward

Story Starter: Opening Scene “The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors. It cast its eyes upon the roads, which were growing from long troughs of liquid mud to proper thoroughfares. A river, amber-tinted in the shadow of its banks, purled at the army's feet; and at night, when the stream had become of a sorrowful blackness, one could see across it the red, eyelike gleam of hostile camp-fires set in the low brows of distant hills.” Paragraph One: Using the described characteristics from your Venn diagram write a paragraph on soldiers’ thoughts about being courageous at the start of a battle. Paragraph Two: Using the described characteristics from your Venn diagram write a paragraph on soldiers’ thoughts about being a coward at the start of a battle. Paragraph Three: Using the described characteristics from your Venn diagram write a paragraph on soldiers’ conclusive thoughts as he enters into the battle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Red Badge of Courage “General Lee” After completing the Venn diagram students are asked to listen to General Lee read the introduction to Red Badge of courage. General Lee is captured from a picture and then imported into Crazy Talk. The story starter can be displayed on the screen while the General Lee avatar reads the script to the students. Digital Tool: Avatars In Education Avatars can be used by classroom teachers when designing digital stories or delivering content. Avatars can represent a tour guide explaining travels along the Silk Road, or represent real life characters like Mark Twain giving a lecture on his home or Einstein introducing the solar system. Most avatars are known as “bots” and are powered by Natural Language Processing. Some avatars like Crazy Talk allows users to record natural voiceovers along with secondary sound recording like music. Avatars like MASH (Microsoft Agent Scripting Helper) allows the user to program several characters within a single lesson narrative. When incorporating avatars into a lesson they can be used to define terms, give directions to an activities or reinforced content. Avatars can also be integrated into a PowerPoint presentation as they are incorporated into an interactive whiteboard lesson.

Writing activities: 1. Write an essay comparing and contrasting the issues of perception, scapegoating, rationalization and morality in “The Red Badge of Courage” to those issues in “The Ox-Bow Incident” or “The Lord of the Flies”. 2. Write an essay comparing and contrasting the issues of courage, heroism and aggression in “The Red Badge of Courage” to those issues in “The Bedford Incident”. 3. Write a three-to-four paragraph essay examining and critiquing Henry Fleming’s behavior. Discussion questions: 1. What are some of the central themes of this story? 2. How are the issues of aggression, conflict, perception and displacement depicted in this story? 3. How does Crane portray the issues of cowardice, courage, heroism and bravery in his characters? 4. How does Crane depict Henry’s romantic ideas of war? Contrast his ideas in the beginning and at the end of the story. 5. How does Crane’s use of romantic language and image enter into the pattern of irony throughout the story? 6. What is the role of stereotyping in this story? Discuss this issue particularly in relation to the story’s initial lack of detail and description concerning the enemy confederate soldiers, then the detailed description of the four captured confederate soldiers. Activity Conduct a group discussion. Discuss the nature of heroism generally and in relation to the characters in “The Red Badge of Courage” and the three films. Draft a position paper outlining and defining what constitutes a hero.