Immerse Your Student In History
The author explains how stories and books created a path way into having an interest in history in the classroom. He learned about the story of Anne Frank but what fascinated him was the book of her diary, that he read in his class. The author explains how by reading the book, it was like he interacted with her and it brought him into the world. Now going on to why he wrote the the article; he created a virtual world of the time Anne frank lived and place. He thought by having avatars that students control would help them learn and be interested in the subject a lot more. for teachers he made the program so that it would follow school standards and also implement other subjects such as math and science. For math, there is a part of the program where you would measure the Anne's room then you would measure your room and compare the sizes of it. Then for the science the program would have you do different types of experiments of studies virtually.
Seeing that I want to become a history teacher i would definitely would implement this type of virtual program into my lecture and class time. I believe that by having the students engage in the subject and not just listening to a lecture that they will understand the material a lot more. What's great about the program is that it gives the students an insight into that time period and what was going on in the era that is being studied, in this case the Holocaust. I would have the students go on this interactive program and due the activities that are set forth, while I give them background of the content in the program.
He concludes that it became such a huge hit in the school he was using it that they began to expand it and make it available to others school. By having teachers take a 2 hour training session on how to use the program. It is great that they train the teachers that it is available to because it allows the teachers the opportunity to know the in and outs of the whole program. They are also on the work on producing two new virtual programs one on the medieval period and the other one would be students from across the nation helping to rebuild and educate others on the famous ship the Titanic.
The way it relates to the net-s is by communication and collaboration because the program allows them to communicate with there peers and also with experts that have created the program. also they get an understand of different global issues that have happen in the past (i.e the holocaust) and have them understand the problems and difficulties of the era. By having them interact they get to evaluate and analyze any of the main concepts that are brought up by the standards that are set, which the program sets forth.
wheelock, Andrew (May 2012). Immerse Your Students In History.
retrieved September 12 2012, from Learning and Leading with Technology
Web Site:
http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201205#pg28
I accidentally read the same article as you but I enjoyed getting a different perspective on it. I think one of the biggest things that I got from the article was the idea of engaging students by using a different method. You wrote about that as well and how it allows them to understand the material in a different way.
ReplyDeleteI would love to be able to use a program like this to get an idea of how it works. It's also exciting because I see a lot of potential with it in different subject areas from social studies to language and science even.
How do you think you would use a program in your classroom? Would you assign homework or projects through something like this or just have students play around with it?
Great post, I enjoyed reading your opinion on the article!
Comment by: Jessica Roldan