Rants from the Land of the Rising Sun!!!

Design

What do you want users to be able to do:

I am envisioning a wiki design mixed with a blog that allows the user to share information, interact with and evaluate one another’s ideas.  The students will utilize a wiki to make for an online environment that allows multiple users and input to answer key questions related to the ancient civilization curriculum.  The students will also respond to blogs placed by the instructor and other students regarding topics related to ancient civilization.  Ideas will be shared back and forth and students will have the opportunity to discuss their views on the questions while also reading and responding to the input put forth by classmates. 

The design will be organized similar to our blog, wiki, podcast, and web2.0 forum where students are able to add their ideas to answer several questions related to the topic.  In the case of the final project wiki that will be related to common themes behind ancient civilization formations and the common elements that help comprise the rise of a civilization.  Included will also be an area where students can voice their opinions as to whether or not the elements that led to these great civilizations are still necessary in our world today. 

Is this a recurring effort or one-time deal?:

This is definitely ongoing.  I want to begin this within the first quarter of our school year with students using the blogs to respond to questions put forth as we review our first ancient civilization.  The students will also use the wiki to start listing and categorizing the elements that helped the civilization arise.  As we move forward through the year, the students will add more details as they encounter more of the great empires.  Eventually enough civilizations will have been discussed such that students can begin it identify the similarities between them.  This analysis will allow them to really identify common elements as well as themes that have driven humans into this large scale empires. 

Analysis

Users/Audience:

 The primary users of the final project will be sixth grade students  located in Iwakuni, Japan.  They are ages 11-12 with English as their primary language although numerous students are bilingual.  The makeup of the class has yet to be finalized but will include special needs students including a student with severe autism.  Likewise the class will include at least twp students that are designated ESL but currently operate at level iv categorization. 

Environment: 

The environment is a Department of defense school located in the Pacific theater.  The schools holds roughly 500 students and is blessed with a plethora of available educational technology including access to computer labs, mobile labs, printers, scanners, cameras and smart boards.  The environment is conducive to technology integration into the curriculum as part of DODEA’s ongoing CSP goals framework. 

What should they do?: 

The goal for use of the final project  is to have students begin to examine the larger driving questions behind the study of ancient civilizations.  The students will be able to interact via blogs and a wiki to examine the larger components that drive the creation of large ancient civilization such as Egypt, China, Mesopotamia and Greece.  The students will identify what common factors exists between the civilizations and their formation. 

Similar projects available:

The idea actually came to me after reviewing some of the ideas posted for the AP history classes by some COMET students.  I liked the idea of finding the larger scale themes behind AP world history and so I thought the idea could be simplified and instituted among a young student body base.  Those websites created by the COMET std7uenst could be something to review for further help and ideas.    

Performance drivers:

I think at this age group a common driver performance that may impede success will be motivation and incentive.  The students need to be motivated to learn although we all dream of intrinsic motivation in every student.  This, unfortunately, is not always the case.  Yet, the more I think about it, the fact that we will be utilizing technology they are familiar with and excited about will definitely help spur motivation.  The idea behind creating the site is to get students familiar with concepts they may already use and to institute in a manner that will aid their learning.  The incentive is to use technology and to create their own sites similar to those they already see on the web.    

Hola folks,

My name is Rich Dysinger. I’m a 6th grade teacher in Iwakuni, Japan at MC Perry Elementary. We’re located on a Marine Corps Air Station, but I live economy with my beautiful wife Billie.  We have truly been blessed by the opportunity to live in this wonderful country and we love everything Japan and its people have to offer. I also enjoy reading, writing, running, basketball, weightlifting and playing bass guitar in a band of wannabe rockers. 

My familiarity with blogs is way more extensive than anything I’ve ever done with wikis or podcasting, of which I have zero experience.  I ran a blog through our online gaggle.net program here in Japan and my kids loved it.  Likewise, I created a blog for another class in the COMET cohort.  I look forward to the opportunity to use cutting edge technology to deliver lessons to my kids because I have found that they respond well to tech in the classroom. 

As for my final project, I’m not sure as to what I want to do quite yet.  I’m thinking of utilizing the wiki and podcasting to expand our online JASON project we do with our sixth grade science students.  I want to make it more interactive and tech heavy.  As of now we only really have one portion that is electronic and everything is very simplistic.  My kids are beyond this.  I’m not but they are.  J   Perhaps this course can help me bring forth ideas that are new and invigorating and update the curriculum a bit for this next generation.  It’s just an idea.

Rich

Welcome to your brand new blog at Edublogs.

To get started, simply log in, edit or delete this post and check out all the other options available to you.

There’s stacks of great supporting material too! Take time to view our some helpful introductory videos, read through our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or stop by The Edublogs Forums to chat with other edubloggers.

You can also subscribe to our brilliant free publication, The Edublogger, which is jammed with helpful tips, ideas and more.

And finally, if you like Edublogs but want to be able to simply create, administer, control and manage hundreds of student and teacher blogs at your school or college, check out Edublogs Campus… it’s like Edublogs in a box, all for you.

Thanks again for signing up with Edublogs!