Sim City and Local Government
Grade Six social studies
ReferencesGovernment of Alberta. (2007) Social Studies Grade Six. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from http://ednet.edc.gov.ab.ca/k_12/curriculum/bySubject/social/elemsoc.pdf
Government of Alberta. (2007) General Outcome C6. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from
http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/ict/outcomes/
Sim City. (2007) Sim City instructions. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from http://simcity.ea.com/play/classic_instructions.php
Brief description of activity.
Students will do a search on what is Sim City. They will take that information and simulate a sim city where the students make decisions in a group of three or four, as to how the community will be run on the Sim city program I will provide. The students will have a week to run their simulations and record their findings. After the week, the students will prepare a power point presentation answering the following questions.
a) What is the Sims or Sim City?
b) How there city developed (overall stable growth)?
c) What were the major setbacks and how did you react to these situations?
d) What were the major roles of the citizens in the community in how well it functioned?
e) What level of government was used in the first two days of the week? four days? final seven?
f) How did u feel controlling the city and how does that relate to local government agencies and the decisions they make on a daily basis?
g) What did u learn the most from this activity, comments etc?
General learner Objectives
· Students gain appreciation and tolerance for government decisions
· Students understand the role, rights, and responsibilities of a citizen
in a global community
· Participate constructively in the democratic process by making rational decisions
· Respect the dignity and worth of self and others.
· Students will have a positive attitudes about democracy, including an appreciation of the rights, privileges and responsibilities of citizenship
Specific Learner Objectives
· analyze how government action can affect the people, both positively and negatively; e.g., saves public money, reduces service to some people
· Analyze examples of how well local government is meeting needs
· draw conclusions about rights and responsibilities of citizens
· take notes on an oral presentation; e.g., interview, speech, film
· summarize information from a variety of sources
· use prepared notes in presenting an oral report;
ICT learner objectives
C1 1.1 - access and retrieve appropriate information from electronic sources for specific inquiry
3.5 analyze and synthesize information to create a product
3.6 communicate in a persuasive and engaging manner, through appropriate forms, such as speeches, letters, reports and multimedia presentations, applying information technologies for content, audience and purpose.
This assignment is very much dependent on technology. I think that Sim City is a great way for students to learn how to react in situations and see how their actions cause reactions and the way the game is set up allows students to react to technology and problem solve. Sim City is a program that will unbiasly challenge the students to deal with natural disasters that a teacher may not be able to do. The program has a lot of variables as well (economics, health, natural disasters) that are also made easier by the program simulations. The power point allows students to organize their information on slides in an organized manner. This allows students to communicate in a fashion that will allow for the important information to be shown as well as incorporate images of their sim city on their slides that otherwise may not be shown.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Is technology as an enabler or a hinderance?
Technological advances is happening whether we want them to or not. When technology is used effectively it can be a great learning tool and resource of information. The great things about technology and the Internet is that it can connect people from around the world. People can collect data of our ever changing world and make it readily available for the rest to see. This makes our world seem smaller and smaller. When technology is used effectively in our education system, it can better prepare students for the real world outside of school. To not incorporate it in the classroom so that students can get their one hour or hundred hours to ten thousand hours etc, of practice working with technology to learn its problems and how to solve them, would be detrimental to the students ability to cope with technology when it is needed. Effective integration of technology that was described in the classroom where the teacher got their students to solve the problem as to why the tulips were not blooming when they should. Using of the vast array of information stored by the Internet and user friendly weather forecasts and past records, students were able to understand the weather was cooler than before, thus the students thought to document their findings and continue to monitor their findings in the future to find patterns of change. This went above and beyond what the teacher expected of his students because in the past the information and resources were not available in the past and technology can help propel students into higher levels of application, synthesis, evaluation and creativity of curriculum.
Though there are many advantages to technology, it may have its disadvantages in the classroom if it is not enabling. Technology may not be enabling in the fact that teachers have to learn the proper way to implement it before presenting it to their students. In an every changing technological world, it may seem very daunting to constantly play catch up and take courses to familiarize themselves with technology. This can also lead to other problems such as who can afford to constantly bring in new technology and/or update it? Having students use PowerPoint's in their presentations may turn into them standing there reading off of the slides verbatim, like they read information off a piece of paper will not be improving students use of technology. Another problem that may arise from technological integration is that there are Internet predators out there. This may be very detrimental to students learning and not accessing factual information for their studies. Teachers, students and the community need to be properly educated in this to prevent anyone from harm. In the article where they discuss how technology will advance human abilities by 2045, this is a very strong likelihood and what then will this do to jobs in education and people being able to do things on their own. Will humans become too dependent on technology? Overall I think that the way the world is changing, we have no choice but to incorporate technology into the classroom. There may be times in the present future where technology is not always enabling, but with constant change and upgrades, there might come a day where technology maximizes students abilities to learn.
Though there are many advantages to technology, it may have its disadvantages in the classroom if it is not enabling. Technology may not be enabling in the fact that teachers have to learn the proper way to implement it before presenting it to their students. In an every changing technological world, it may seem very daunting to constantly play catch up and take courses to familiarize themselves with technology. This can also lead to other problems such as who can afford to constantly bring in new technology and/or update it? Having students use PowerPoint's in their presentations may turn into them standing there reading off of the slides verbatim, like they read information off a piece of paper will not be improving students use of technology. Another problem that may arise from technological integration is that there are Internet predators out there. This may be very detrimental to students learning and not accessing factual information for their studies. Teachers, students and the community need to be properly educated in this to prevent anyone from harm. In the article where they discuss how technology will advance human abilities by 2045, this is a very strong likelihood and what then will this do to jobs in education and people being able to do things on their own. Will humans become too dependent on technology? Overall I think that the way the world is changing, we have no choice but to incorporate technology into the classroom. There may be times in the present future where technology is not always enabling, but with constant change and upgrades, there might come a day where technology maximizes students abilities to learn.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Advantages and disadvantages of blogging
What are the advantages and disadvantages of blogging?
The advantages of blogging is that it creates another method for students and teachers to communicate with one another. For students who do not typically like learning in classrooms can access their information needed from blogs set up by their teachers and post their work online for teachers to evaluate ones progress. If a student has questions, classmates and teachers can respond and this may be a more efficient way of getting answers out to everyone because the answers are saved in chronoligical order and teachers are not answering the same question over and over. This also creates the opportunity for students to explain answers, thus showing how well they understand the concept because they are able to break the information down in a language that students understand if something is not always clear. This also keeps track of students participation in collaborative work. When students post their views on their blogs, teachers and fellow classmates can see how much work each group member contributes. Also, when students are doing their responses, they know that others will be able to view their work, thus they will want their writing and responses to be as accurate and fluent as possible as the blog is open to suggestions/criticisms. Thus it also forces students to be creative so that everyone doesn’t always have the same responces. This also allowes parents to monitor what and how well their children are doing. This also allowes parents to have opportunities to get in touch with teachers if any concerns or questions arise.
The advantages of blogging is that it creates another method for students and teachers to communicate with one another. For students who do not typically like learning in classrooms can access their information needed from blogs set up by their teachers and post their work online for teachers to evaluate ones progress. If a student has questions, classmates and teachers can respond and this may be a more efficient way of getting answers out to everyone because the answers are saved in chronoligical order and teachers are not answering the same question over and over. This also creates the opportunity for students to explain answers, thus showing how well they understand the concept because they are able to break the information down in a language that students understand if something is not always clear. This also keeps track of students participation in collaborative work. When students post their views on their blogs, teachers and fellow classmates can see how much work each group member contributes. Also, when students are doing their responses, they know that others will be able to view their work, thus they will want their writing and responses to be as accurate and fluent as possible as the blog is open to suggestions/criticisms. Thus it also forces students to be creative so that everyone doesn’t always have the same responces. This also allowes parents to monitor what and how well their children are doing. This also allowes parents to have opportunities to get in touch with teachers if any concerns or questions arise.
The disadvantages of blogging is that if students are getting info from blogs they need to realize that opinions expressed and info on blogs may not be right. There isn’t a review board out there on everything that everyone blogs so students need to develop strategies for identifying which information is accurate. Blogging is also something that is used for diaries or journals so once again, information may be an opinion, not fact.This also creates concerns of protecting students from predators on the internet. Students need to be aware of this and know how to make sure that they are not giving out private information that someone can use to hurt or find them. Students may read blogs that are liable etc and they need to be aware of how to screen their opinions that they will blog so that it does not offend others and could cause liable action or possible jobs in their futures.
Overall, I think that blogging in the classroom, when used properly and students and teachers are aware of the pitfalls of blogging, it can be a very effective method used for teaching, learning, collaboration, and communication in education.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Assignment 1
Here's to my first blog!
My name is Lindsay Walker and I am currently in my fourth year at post secondary studying French/Ed. I have been at the U of L for three and a half years and I did a stint in Quebec at their University Laval's ecole de langues programme. I enjoyed every minute of it and suggest that everyone challenge themselves to a wonderful experience learning another culture and language. I come from a small town called Foremost that is about an hour south east of Lethbridge. I am very close to my parents and older brother. I enjoy outdoor sports such as swimming, volleyball, basketball and frisbee (ultimate). During the summer I work as a lifeguard and really enjoy teaching swimming lessons and interacting with kids. I also enjoy reading and watching movies and hanging out with my friends. I am very excited to be in the education program and hope that I become more technologically advanced, as I only use computers for email and facebook, I am shamed to say.
My name is Lindsay Walker and I am currently in my fourth year at post secondary studying French/Ed. I have been at the U of L for three and a half years and I did a stint in Quebec at their University Laval's ecole de langues programme. I enjoyed every minute of it and suggest that everyone challenge themselves to a wonderful experience learning another culture and language. I come from a small town called Foremost that is about an hour south east of Lethbridge. I am very close to my parents and older brother. I enjoy outdoor sports such as swimming, volleyball, basketball and frisbee (ultimate). During the summer I work as a lifeguard and really enjoy teaching swimming lessons and interacting with kids. I also enjoy reading and watching movies and hanging out with my friends. I am very excited to be in the education program and hope that I become more technologically advanced, as I only use computers for email and facebook, I am shamed to say.
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