Classroom Use
My adaptation of the Plant Growth and Development lesson plan
Overall, I really like the lesson. I feel it does a great job of utilizing Flickr to achieve learning objectives. Flickr is integrated into the lesson to achieve authentic learning. Flickr is used to help facilitate and enhance their learning process. Technology is not an added burden for technology sake. I really like how the students will be gathering scientific evidence through photographic documentation. This scientific evidence will be incorporated into the class content and assessments. I like how the lesson uses Flickr’s commenting features to allow the students to provide information which is connected to the photographs easily.
Procedural additions
I would like to see this lesson done as a group project instead of an individual project. By breaking the class into small groups of three or four students, you will add the additional benefits of collaboration. Group work also allows the students to construct knowledge socially. The students can discuss the photographs and content forming stronger ties with the data. The students can act as support and feedback for each other in the group. It would be beneficial if the teacher could select students of different achievement levels to be grouped together. Research supports the idea of having students of different achievement level grouped together. The students that need help are helped within the group and learn from the other students. The higher achieving students actual benefit by developing a stronger understanding of the content and process by tutoring and helping the other students.
Specific roles and tasks would need to be assigned to the students within each group. For example, take the photograph, upload image to Flickr, type caption in Flickr, and add graphics. I would have the students rotate tasks each week. This way all the students serve in all the roles for the lesson. They will receive the benefit of watching the other students perform the tasks a few times as well as performing the tasks.
Each group would be given two or three flowers to grow and document. This will account for the chance that a flower or two does not grow and disrupt the whole project. Also, this provides an opportunity to teach about reliability in testing. The group can document all three plants and compare the results within the group.
I would also have the students take 2 pictures of each plant during each photo session. A wide shot of the entire plant and closer shot focused on a point that the students feel needs to be highlighted. I feel this will add value to the students’ critical thinking, decision making, and overall learning. It will also give the teacher added information pertaining to the decision making process of the students. The teacher will be able to see which features the students of each group focused on: what caught their eye; what went unnoticed; and so on.
I would also teach the students how to make annotated notes in Flickr. Making captions and notes in the comment box below the image is a great way to discuss the overall image and life cycle of the plant, but creating a marquee and adding specific notes to a specific area of the image will better serve discussing details like “flower buds began to appear”.
Scaffolding
The lesson plan scheduled a lab period (before the 6 week period) in which the teacher will teach the students to set up a Yahoo account and a Flickr account. The students will take their photographs during science class twice a week, and then load, comment on, and share the photographs in a Friday lab period. The teacher will model the use of Flickr in front of the class for the first three labs periods.
For this project to work, I feel the 3rd grade students need to be in a computer lab setting. Each group (3 or 4 students) can be located at a computer. The teacher can use a projection of a computer to model and instruct the groups in the step by step procedures.
There is no mention of printed instructions or diagrams. I would definitely provide a printed tutorial to be given to each group. This tutorial will serve as a reference if the group gets confused or lost on a step. The teacher needs to spend a lab period instructing the students on how to use the digital camera, how to hook it up to the computer, uploading the images into Flickr, and commenting on the images.
I feel scaffolding can occur in a few different ways. First, in the group project setting, the students’ interactions and discussions will help to support each other. I feel that the students would gain support not only in the technical steps of the lesson, but also in the content. This support would be given throughout the whole lesson.
Second, the teacher needs to support the students. The first week of lab time the process of connecting the camera, and uploading, sharing, and commenting on the images should be demonstrated multiple times as a class. This way the whole class can benefit from seeing the process done multiple times. The teacher should have a project completed with all the images and comments added to show to the class. This will help the students. They can see what the finished product could be.
During the second and third week, the teacher needs to spend time with each individual group assisting the students. The students will be at the computers. The teacher corrects and aids in the process. I would also like to add that I feel that the teacher needs to scaffold the students by helping them synthesize the class content and associate it with the images. The 3rd grade students would need help with the content as well as the procedures.
The teacher would provide less and less help individually. He/she could then concentrate on instructing the class on how the process can help them learn the content.
Plan B
The following are extra procedural steps I would add to this lesson to assure minimal loss due to technical difficulties. I would have the students save all their images to a project folder on their computer (or server). The instructor or assistant could quickly backup the images on a flash drive. I would also have the students create all their discussions and comments about the images in Word first. Word may be easier for the students to create, review, and edit than the Flickr dialogue box. When the students feel they have a good caption, they can copy it from the Word document and paste it into the Flickr dialogue box. The student could then save their comments to their project folder. This will give redundancy of the work that the students have put into the project.
One of the great features of Flickr is that the images and comments created for their images in this lesson are stored on the internet website. Any computer can be used to access the information. So, if a computer that a student has been using in the computer lab breaks the student group can move to another computer and access their work from that computer. If need be, the group could share time with another group.
In case of a loss of internet connection for the day, the students could upload the images and comments to their project folder in the group’s computer. The images and comments could be added to Flickr when internet access is restored.
If Flickr crashes and all their work disappeared, then the students can continue to work from the project folders they have created. Software like PowerPoint could display their images and comments.
You could even print everything out on paper and go “old-school”.
Procedural additions
I would like to see this lesson done as a group project instead of an individual project. By breaking the class into small groups of three or four students, you will add the additional benefits of collaboration. Group work also allows the students to construct knowledge socially. The students can discuss the photographs and content forming stronger ties with the data. The students can act as support and feedback for each other in the group. It would be beneficial if the teacher could select students of different achievement levels to be grouped together. Research supports the idea of having students of different achievement level grouped together. The students that need help are helped within the group and learn from the other students. The higher achieving students actual benefit by developing a stronger understanding of the content and process by tutoring and helping the other students.
Specific roles and tasks would need to be assigned to the students within each group. For example, take the photograph, upload image to Flickr, type caption in Flickr, and add graphics. I would have the students rotate tasks each week. This way all the students serve in all the roles for the lesson. They will receive the benefit of watching the other students perform the tasks a few times as well as performing the tasks.
Each group would be given two or three flowers to grow and document. This will account for the chance that a flower or two does not grow and disrupt the whole project. Also, this provides an opportunity to teach about reliability in testing. The group can document all three plants and compare the results within the group.
I would also have the students take 2 pictures of each plant during each photo session. A wide shot of the entire plant and closer shot focused on a point that the students feel needs to be highlighted. I feel this will add value to the students’ critical thinking, decision making, and overall learning. It will also give the teacher added information pertaining to the decision making process of the students. The teacher will be able to see which features the students of each group focused on: what caught their eye; what went unnoticed; and so on.
I would also teach the students how to make annotated notes in Flickr. Making captions and notes in the comment box below the image is a great way to discuss the overall image and life cycle of the plant, but creating a marquee and adding specific notes to a specific area of the image will better serve discussing details like “flower buds began to appear”.
Scaffolding
The lesson plan scheduled a lab period (before the 6 week period) in which the teacher will teach the students to set up a Yahoo account and a Flickr account. The students will take their photographs during science class twice a week, and then load, comment on, and share the photographs in a Friday lab period. The teacher will model the use of Flickr in front of the class for the first three labs periods.
For this project to work, I feel the 3rd grade students need to be in a computer lab setting. Each group (3 or 4 students) can be located at a computer. The teacher can use a projection of a computer to model and instruct the groups in the step by step procedures.
There is no mention of printed instructions or diagrams. I would definitely provide a printed tutorial to be given to each group. This tutorial will serve as a reference if the group gets confused or lost on a step. The teacher needs to spend a lab period instructing the students on how to use the digital camera, how to hook it up to the computer, uploading the images into Flickr, and commenting on the images.
I feel scaffolding can occur in a few different ways. First, in the group project setting, the students’ interactions and discussions will help to support each other. I feel that the students would gain support not only in the technical steps of the lesson, but also in the content. This support would be given throughout the whole lesson.
Second, the teacher needs to support the students. The first week of lab time the process of connecting the camera, and uploading, sharing, and commenting on the images should be demonstrated multiple times as a class. This way the whole class can benefit from seeing the process done multiple times. The teacher should have a project completed with all the images and comments added to show to the class. This will help the students. They can see what the finished product could be.
During the second and third week, the teacher needs to spend time with each individual group assisting the students. The students will be at the computers. The teacher corrects and aids in the process. I would also like to add that I feel that the teacher needs to scaffold the students by helping them synthesize the class content and associate it with the images. The 3rd grade students would need help with the content as well as the procedures.
The teacher would provide less and less help individually. He/she could then concentrate on instructing the class on how the process can help them learn the content.
Plan B
The following are extra procedural steps I would add to this lesson to assure minimal loss due to technical difficulties. I would have the students save all their images to a project folder on their computer (or server). The instructor or assistant could quickly backup the images on a flash drive. I would also have the students create all their discussions and comments about the images in Word first. Word may be easier for the students to create, review, and edit than the Flickr dialogue box. When the students feel they have a good caption, they can copy it from the Word document and paste it into the Flickr dialogue box. The student could then save their comments to their project folder. This will give redundancy of the work that the students have put into the project.
One of the great features of Flickr is that the images and comments created for their images in this lesson are stored on the internet website. Any computer can be used to access the information. So, if a computer that a student has been using in the computer lab breaks the student group can move to another computer and access their work from that computer. If need be, the group could share time with another group.
In case of a loss of internet connection for the day, the students could upload the images and comments to their project folder in the group’s computer. The images and comments could be added to Flickr when internet access is restored.
If Flickr crashes and all their work disappeared, then the students can continue to work from the project folders they have created. Software like PowerPoint could display their images and comments.
You could even print everything out on paper and go “old-school”.