W6A2

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION LESSON PLAN THINK GLOBALLY. ACT LOCALLY! Conducting Social Studies Research on the Internet

Grade(s)	Middle School/High School
Subject(s)	History/Social Studies and English/Language Arts
Key Goal/Enduring Understanding	Social problems are issues affecting everyone in society, not just a few individuals. An effective society depends on citizens being aware of social problems and acting together in response to them.
Essential Question	How might middle and high school students identify, investigate, and respond to world social problems?
Learning Standards	National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)—Expectations for Excellence: Curriculum Standards for the Social Studies Theme III: People, Places, and Environment Theme X: Civic Ideals and Practices Theme XI: Global Connections National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)—Standards for the English Language Arts Standard 8: Students use a variety of technological resources . . . to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)—NETS-S, 2007 Standard 2: Communication and Collaboration. Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Standard 3: Research and Information Fluency. Students use digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Standard 5: Digital Citizenship. Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Standard 6: Technology Operations and Concepts. Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
Learning Objectives	Student will know and be able to • Demonstrate the value and application of essential questions to guide research about social problems. • Apply an organized note-taking system for gathering information from diverse sources and of information. • Analyze the differences among facts, opinions, and inferences in written and online sources using properly formatted bibliographic references • Use computers, video equipment, and other technology to produce informative public service announcements (PSAs) about selected issues.
Technology Uses	The lesson utilizes classroom computers, the Internet as a research librarian, and video recording devices and editing software for the filming and viewing of students’ public service announcements.
Minimal Technology	Infusion of Technology
Identifying Consult a librarian and/or card catalog	Identifying Use computer search engines and databases
Archiving Store information on note cards in a bibliographic file	Archiving Use computer bookmarking and electronic note-taking tools
Contacting Mail letters and postcards or send telephone messages	Contacting Send email
Recording Video recorder with tripod Video tape	Recording Digital video recorder with tripod Mini DV tape
Editing Two VCRs Extra video tapes A/V cables (VCR to VCR) Television	Editing Digital video recorder Computer Windows Media Player Pinnacle video editor
Viewing Television VCR	Viewing Computer Windows media player CD/DVD burner or computer projector

Evaluation

• Ten journal entries by students covering the research and PSA production process
• Digital archived list of governmental agencies, scientific organizations, and public interest
• and issue advocacy groups related to an issue of concernIndividual and group participation in writing, performing, and recording
• Audience response sheets for each completed PSA
• Student performance rubrics completed at the level of excellent or good

LESSON PLAN DESCRIPTION

Introduction

“Think Globally. Act Locally!” uses websites and video and audio recording technology to enable students to research, write, and perform public service announcements (PSAs) about social problems that affect the local community, the nation, and the world. This lesson is intended as an activity that can be taught in middle school or high school as part of the history/social studies or language arts curriculum.

Lesson Focus

“Think Globally. Act Locally!” features active student involvement and engagement, both intellectually and technologically. By connecting large-scale global issues to local community problems, students see the immediate relevance of their investigations. By using multiple technologies (Internet, word processing, video cameras, and editing software), students are using technology through the lesson. By having opportunities to share the PSAs with wider audiences beyond the class, students see the relevance of reviewing and revising their research, writing, and performances in anticipation of viewing by community members.