Teaching and Learning

Technology Applications

The Technology Applications Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) found in 19 TAC Chapter 126 describe what students should know and be able to do using technology. As a part of the enrichment curriculum, these TEKS are to be used as guidelines for providing instruction. The goal of the Technology Applications TEKS is for students to gain technology-based knowledge and skills and to apply them to all curriculum areas at all grade levels. There are benchmark years at Grades 2, 5, and 8 with courses specified at the high school level. The TEKS are organized with four common strands for Grades K-12: Foundations, Information Acquisition, Solving Problems, Communication.

Student Products
  • Grades K-5
    • Brothers and Sisters Research Lesson Plan.
      The kindergarten teachers at Henry T. Brauchle Elementary are doing some very advanced technology projects with their students. This unit integrates math, language arts, social studies and technology. The counting and graphing involves math, learning the letters B and S incorporate language arts, the connection to families brings in social studies and the use of KidPix to graphically represent the findings of the research is technology. Wow! It was written by Melanie Adams, the Campus Instructional Technologist and implemented by all the kinder teachers in September, 2002.
    • Matter Concept Map Assessment.
      In October, 2002, Mrs. Blanton's third grade students at Murray Boone Elementary School studied a unit on Matter. As a culminating assessment activity, they created a graphic illustration using Inspiration software. This project serves to demonstrate what the students have learned about the three states of matter: solid, liquid and gas.
    • Ancient Civilizations.
      This web site was designed by Third, Fourth and Fifth Grade students in Mrs. Thompson's G/T class at Carlos Coon Elementary as part of their study of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome. Students used print and electronic sources to gain historical knowledge of this time period. They then used their acquired knowledge to create a web page on their chosen topic using Netscape Composer. This site was designed to provide educational information to other third, fourth and fifth grade students.
  • Grades 6-8
    • 7th-grade English-Poetry PowerPoint
      Three students in Kathryn Dotzel-Arnold's Computer Literacy class at Hobby M.S. collaborated to create an interactive poetry test, with responses for correct and incorrect answers.
    • 7th-grade Desktop Publishing
      Three Hobby students' work is displayed in completing a desktop publishing assignment in Debbie Galler's Computer Literacy, in which they were asked to create promotional brochures for destinations in the great state of Texas
    • 8th-grade Video Editing
      Students in Julie Turner's Advanced Computer Technologies class at Connally M.S. collaborated to produce a post 9-11 tribute in the form of a moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance complete with musical background and sequenced digital images with many special effects added
  • Grades 9-12
    • Beckett Website.
      This is a Web Mastering student's biographical web site about author, critic and playwright Samuel Barclay Beckett. It contains numerous digitally enhanced images, an animated sequence, edited music, original artwork and text information.
    • Animation for Breast Cancer Awareness.
      This animation was created by a Multimedia student for her website about breast cancer awareness. The student was 15 years old when her mother died of breast cancer, two years after being diagnosed with the disease.
    • Are Your Ready? , a Multimedia student's 30-second public service announcement video.
    • High School Technology Applications Course Descriptions

TIFTech

During the TIFTech training that took place this summer, one of the components that participants learned was how to create web pages. This knowledge later got folded into how online resources can be used for instructional purposes. Participants were then put into groups where they developed web pages that coincided with activities that are used in their classrooms throughout the year. This enduring knowledge is a stepping-stone for them to create more products for their students to use. Please click on the outstanding samples below. Other similar projects may be found at http://odin/index1.htm.

TIP (Technology Integration Projects)

Research has solidly established the importance of conceptual understanding in becoming proficient in a subject. When students are proficient, they combine factual knowledge, procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding flexibly and powerfully. Direct references to the use of technology to meet content area expectations are found throughout the Texas foundations and enrichment curricula (TEKS). There are also numerous ways to make meaningful connections between content area student expectations and technology. Content TIP is one means of making these connections for Northside teachers and students. Meaningful learning as promoted by the TEKS will be measured by TAKS. Campus Instructional Technologists are eager to assist content area teachers in successfully integrating technology into their curriculum.

Student Products

Grades K-5

  • Texas Regions.
    In conjunctions with their Social Studies unit on the regions of Texas, all fourth grade students at Lewis Elementary School produced this project. It is a graphic representation of their attained knowledge using the Inspiration software program. This is one of the original projects from the elementary TIP binders that were written in 1998.
  • Nouns.
    The first grade students study nouns in Language Arts. This project helps students cement their knowledge of nouns by using visual representations. The multiple intelligence of visual/spatial is utilized to improve student understanding. In this activity students construct knowledge independently.
Grades 6-8
  • Two Voice Poetry.
    Sample a lovely product written and recorded by Mrs. Van Nest's students at Stinson. Click on "Listen to the Poem" to get the full audio/visual effect of this poem.
  • Slope PowerPoint.
    View a great presentation created by a student in Erica Kauphusman's math models class at Neff. The inclusion of real-world visual examples really drives home this concept!
  • Great Buildings Presentations.
    Connally teacher Sue Richards did a great job of using technology as a creative tool with her gifted and talented students. Following Internet research, students created wonderful displays reflective of various types of architecture.
  • How Does Density Matter?
    Online curriculum project constructed by Stinson science teachers and CIT. Included are links to many interactive experiments where students can grasp the relationship between mass, volume, and density, and how these concepts apply to their daily lives.
  • John B. Connally Welcome Presentation.
    Jann Fractor, a Connally Middle School ESOL teacher, has created a multilingual PowerPoint presentation in collaboration with her students by integrating ESOL and technology standards. Her students used digital photos and scanned graphics to create a newcomer presentation for parents and students.

Grades 9-12

 

Campus Webmasters

Many Campus Webmasters excel at using the campus website as an instructional tool for students and teachers, with curricula related links and components that enhance courses and subject areas. This is a natural progression, especially, for webmasters who are also CITs and working with teachers in that role. Check out these examples of teacher-created and student-created web pages that have been published on the campus sites by the webmasters:

Masters Online

Masters Online participants recently completed a graduate class EDUC 6308 -Distance Learning. This is just one of the classes that required participants to create an educational product, in this case an online instructional unit. Working in collaboration with a design team, MOL participants created online instructional units that could be used for Professional Development, Secondary, and Elementary school programs. Explore each Online Instructional Unit:

Online Courses
  • Web Mastering Online
    In August 2000, Northside ISD launched the first-ever Web Mastering Online course for high school students based on the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills. Now in its third year, the course is available at no cost to any NISD high school student who meets the prerequisite course requirement of Business Computer Information Systems I or Computer Science I. The course has garnered statewide acclaim and more than 20 Texas school districts have purchased the online curriculum from Northside. The Web Mastering Online course relies on both thoughtful interface design and sound instructional design principles. Students who complete the 35-week course earn one Technology Applications credit towards graduation. Learn more about student, instructor and district perspectives by watching these video clips:

Intel

The goal of the Intel Teach to the Future program is to train classroom teachers on how to promote project-based learning and effectively integrate the use of computers into their existing curriculum to support student achievement. The training consists of 40 hours of hands-on instruction in 10 curricular modules. One major component in the Teach to the Future units is a foundation in "Essential Questions," which are similar to overarching concepts. This provides a focus for research and a framework for relating findings to prior knowledge. As participant teachers progress through the modules, they create a unit portfolio complete with student samples relating to their curriculum. Shown below are participant teacher PowerPoint samples from the training cohorts of Dave Newman at Neff M.S. and Richard Montgomery at Warren H.S. Teachers also produce student sample brochures and web pages.

  • Story Structures - by Laura Robison, Neff M.S. This presentation focuses on the meaning of setting, characters, plot, conflict, and summary. It includes links to definitions of these elements, to a mind map on characters, and to Internet resources.
  • How do Computers Count - by Daniel Kupchyk, Neff M.S. This presentation compares and contrasts the Base 2 system and the Base 10 system and explains computers' use of the binary system.
  • Information Superhighway - by Jackie Aguiar, a Warren H.S. Computer Science teacher navigates the viewer through a quick tour of terminology and protocol relating to cyberspace, including a breakdown of a URL's components.
  • Trigonometry and Temperature - by Charles Northup, a Warren H.S. Trigonometry teacher applies trigonometric functions to weather patterns and cycles, incorporating data from the U.S. National Weather Service.
Library Integration Seminars

When the teams submitted applications for Library Integration Seminars they frequently checked these reasons from the list of possible reasons as what they wanted out of the project:

  • Engaged students
  • Exciting research projects for their students
  • Meaningful experiences to build the habit of lifelong learning for their students

After completing the units, two of which can be seen below, evaluation comments included:

  • The children were so excited about the project! The enthusiasm carried through to the end.
  • The students loved the research we did in the library (book and especially Internet research.) They loved scanning their homemade artwork to include in their slideshows. Creating the slide shows was a hit!
  • Thank you for offering this project to be so exciting. I can't wait to start and share this with my class for next year. I think that this is the start to something great.
  • I would use this process again in a heartbeat because the students were so in to it!

Student Products:

Texas Cowboys.
The 4th grade team from Braun Station Elementary School put together a wonderful unit of study on cowboy lore. The team consisted of Adrianna Alvarez, Patricia Baumgartner, Dinorah Casias, Lynn Lowery, Doris Franke and Laura Lara. It was implemented using a center approach in the library. It took 3 weeks to complete and was highly successful. The kids loved the hands-on chuck wagon cook out culminating event!

Colonization of America.
The 5th grade team from Locke Hill Elementary School developed this great unit on the colonization of America. Students learn when, where and why Europeans colonized the New World in this unit.

 


Student Technology Assistants on Campus (STAC)

Each high school Campus Instructional Technologist receives funding to employ one technology student assistant. The STAC initiative represents a relatively inexpensive method of increasing the technology support systems on the high school campuses. CIT mentoring and constructive feedback play a very important part in the success of the individual STAC. Benefits to the STAC include:

  • Compensation at $6.15 per hour, for 20-30 hours per week
  • Opportunities for personal growth while working with the latest technologies
  • Improvement of interpersonal communication skills with adults
  • Meaningful and relevant job experience for the future
  • Rewarding part-time position that fosters responsibility and self-esteem

 

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