Teacher's Net

Lesson 3: Instructional Design, Part One

This week, we start digging into the meat of Teacher's Net - learning to locate and assess online (read FREE) sources of integrated technology and project-based lesson plans, how to adapt them, and how to put them into use.

Integrated Technology and Project-Based Learning

The question to ask when attempting to integrate technology in the classroom is not, "What software do I lack?", but rather, "Given that I have this software, what can I make it do that it wasn't necessarily designed to do?" A very important distinction, when most schools have still not received the support they need to implement a full computer lab with great programs.

The idea of integrated technology is also an important one. By "Integrated", we are saying that technology can be used across the curriculum, adaptive to every grade level. In the same way, "Project-Based Learning" is meant to be integrated with all curriculum, focusing on outcomes rather than lessons.

These are concepts that are often second-nature to most teachers already; instead of teaching about the weather patterns of snow on a chalkboard, take the students out into the snow, let them "catch" snowflakes, then create snowflakes using mathematical patterns on a computer paint program. What they end with is a series of outcomes, they can see that they did something, rather than look back and try to remember notes taken from the board.

This week, we start digging into the meat of Teacher's Net - learning to locate and assess online (read FREE) sources of integrated technology and project-based lesson plans, how to adapt them, and how to put them into use.