Part of being an Instructional Technology Teacher is to provide model lessons that teachers can replicate in their classrooms. As a result we come up with a series of lessons that are practiced and refined. Below are several examples of lessons that I have modeled for teachers.
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Lesson 1: 3d Modeling and Printing
This lesson utilized Google Sketch-up and an Afinia Printer to help students learn to create CAD designs. Their end goal was to create a block print that would then be used as a mold to create a silicone rubber-like stamp. The lesson begins with practicing using Google Sketch-up tools and moves the students slowly into designing the block. Because they have to work with specific parameters for the printer, they were asked to be careful about measuring and adjusting the design to prevent printing issues. In general, students had a very high success rate and were very interested in following through with the entire process. The day that we began printing, several students asked to go back to their design to edit and fix them before printing, indicating high student motivation for a quality product. Because this was a 3-day lesson, I was also able to do several formative assessments to measure impact on learning. Not only did students gain knowledge of how to use CAD software, but they also learned a bit about the history of 3d Printing meeting STEM standards for FNSBSD. The teacher also gained skills in using CAD software to better support her students, as well as being able to use the Afinia 3d Printer. |
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Lesson 2: Chinese Writing and Speaking with Google Apps and Quicktime
This lesson was a true mash-up of Quicktime and Google Apps. One of the requirements of learning a world language, such as Chinese, is to be able to demonstrate your ability to speak and write the language. So the Chinese teacher and I put together a lesson in which students used Google Docs to write in Chinese and Quicktime to record their audio, speaking what they wrote. Then students were asked to embed the Quicktime audio file in their Google Docs. This was then shared with their teacher for assessing and correcting common errors. After showing students how to type in Chinese using the language input for Google Docs, they became very excited. In fact, I had one student say to me, “ Why didn’t we learn this sooner, it makes everything so much easier.” Many students choose the option to use the auto symbols, but some used the option to draw their symbols. Regardless, all students felt it was beneficial to know how to use the language input as a tool. The students also enjoyed being able to record their speaking using Quicktime, and the teacher found this beneficial to be able to listen individually to all of her students practice their conversational vocabulary. |
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Lesson 3: Photoshop Cartoon Yourself
This lesson focused on helping middle school Computer Application students gain more skills in using Photoshop. The goal of the lesson was to take a photo of the student and convert it into a cartoon picture. Students were to use filters and pen tools to refine the image and then the paint tool to paint in their faces. Students also learned about layers and channels. Like most lessons, we learned in the beginning that photos needed to be resized to a small working size, because the filters struggled to work effectively with the high- resolution photos, a lesson for both myself and the partner teacher. However, in the end the students learned to use all of the required tools and also learned more about the power of shortcut keys and zooming in and out of the work area to work more efficiently in Photoshop. In addition, the students gained problem solving skills as they each had an opportunity to work through Adobe’s quirks. I believe this lesson will be one that I will want to repeat to continue to fine tune the lesson. |