Lesson 9 - Evaluating Educational Technology,

Software, and Integration Strategies

Assignments in this section are worth 90 points and should be completed by

November 28, 2007

Objectives:

• Demonstrate continual growth in technology knowledge and skills to stay

abreast of current and emerging technologies.
• Manage student learning activities in a technology-enhanced environment
• Identify and locate technology resources and evaluate them for accuracy and suitability
• Design developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced
instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of learners
• Use technology resources to collect and analyze data, interpret results and communicate findings to
improve instructional practice and maximize student learning
• Apply technology to increase productivity

• Apply technology resources to enable and empower learners with diverse backgrounds,
characteristics, and abilities

Part 1 -Evaluating educational software (40 points)

Teachers are often called upon to evaluate the appropriateness and effectiveness of
educational software. In class we will be identifying and discussing the criteria that
all software evaluation rubrics should contain. Candidates will be asked to search the
Internet for a software rubric and bring it to class. We will be evaluating software in
and out of class and using the the education 300 software evaluation form.
Candidates may not use Microsoft Office Products; however they can use either
Inspiration or Kidspiration for one of the evaluations.

Grading scale ___/40

___ Evaluation form attached to the class form (4)

___ Likes and dislikes were clearly stated (8)
___ Two ways for using the software were stated clearly and described in full
sentences (24)
___ Legible hand writing or typed (4)
___ Minus points for misspelling or grammatical errors

Part 2 - Creating an Internet Treasure Hunt or a Curriculum Page (30

points)

For this assignment candidates may choose to create either an Internet

Treasure Hunt or a Curriculum Page.
Internet Treasure Hunt
A fun and easy way to integrate the Internet into a lesson is by creating an
Internet treasure hunt. Your textbook has an example of an Internet treasure hunt
on page 427. This hunt involves only one Internet site but includes many different
types of questions. Using one or more of the subjects in your Intel unit plan, create
an Internet treasure hunt that visits at least two sites and contains at least ten
questions. Your questions should be appropriate for your age group. Remember
Bloom’s Taxonomy and create a variety of questions for your students. You may
want to refer to your Intel CD on words to use for higher-order thinking skills. You
should add at least one graphic to add to the appearance of your hunt.

Grading rubric: Internet Treasure Hunt ___/30

___ Spaces for students to write their answers

___ At least one image
___ At least two web sites
___ At least three different types of questions
___ At least ten questions

Curriculum Page
Curriculum pages are teacher created documents that contains hyperlinks to
teacher-selected Web sites that assist in teaching content-specific curriculum
objectives. Using the theme of your Intel Unit create a curriculum page that contains
hyperlinks, and provides activities for students to complete at the selected Websites.
You need to have at least three completely different Web sites. For example, do
not use different parts of the same Website more than twice.

A very good resource for you is the Awesome Library Web site which has over
22,000 reviewed resources to help you.
http://www.awesomelibrary.org

Grading scale: Curriculum Page ___/30

___ At least one image
___ Five different types of activities
___ Five different Web sites – three completely different ones

Part 3 - Strategies for supporting the diverse needs of learners (20 points)

Assistive/adaptive technology for either physical, cognitive, or sensory disability

According to our textbook assistive/adaptive technology when applied to computers
refers to any equipment, modification, or accommodation that can improve a
person’s capacity to learn, to communicate, to solve a problem, or to complete a task
through the use of a computer.

Why learn? IDEA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

IEP – Individualized Educational Program

Windows XP has built-in features check out the accessibility wizard

Start  Programs->Accessories  Accessibility  Accessibility Wizard
 The wizard will guide you through accessibility features for persons with visual
difficulties, hearing problems, and special physical needs.

Questions for class discussion:

How will assistive technology help in you in teaching and what are some ways to use
assistive technology to help students learn?
How can teachers integrate technology in the special needs curriculum? (see pages
375 and 456)

Looking at Assistive Technologies

Candidates will be divided into groups to find and discuss the following:

http://www.scsite.com/tdc4/index.cfm?action=assistive&chapter=8

Visually impaired - Read page 111 look up Window eyes, JAWS for Windows, and
Web page accessibility at
http://www.scsite.com/tdc4/index.cfm?action=assistive&chapter=2

Mentally Impaired - Read page 319 and look up screen readers, clicker software,
and video software at
http://www.scsite.com/tdc4/index.cfm?action=assistive&chapter=5

Physically Impaired - Read page 257 and look up: Pigment software, keyguard,
screen displayed keyboard, touch screen, head-mounted pointer, switchers at
http://www.scsite.com/tdc4/index.cfm?action=assistive&chapter=4

http://www.intellitools.com
Products  All Products  Access

Grading: 10 points for in class assignment and 10 points for posting to WebQuest

Looking at WebQuests
Check out the following site: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/
There are over 2,500 WebQuest at this site. Find a WebQuest that you would like to
teach.
Post the WebQuest name and site address and how you would integrate the quest
into your class under WebQuest in the discussion tool.

Assignment Summary

1. December 3, 2007 Internet Treasure Hunt or Curriculum page due

2. November 26, 2007 Posting to Strategies (for supporting the diverse needs of
learners) on the discussion board
3. December 3, 2007 Software evaluations due
4. November 28, 2007 Posting to WebQuest on the discussion board

Contact me if you have questions. Please use sorr@wvstateu.edu for your questions.

Last updated on November 22, 2007