Internet Training

EXPLORING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Experience the wonders of the World Wide Web through this hands-on Internet workshop. Discover an amazing array of Web sites and Internet resources to support you and your students in specified research. the Internet can provide alternative curriculum resources.
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Sandra Budreau	Bernard DiNatale	Martha Eaton	Laurie Keating
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An on CUE Article from 1997

Weaving Technology and Thinking Skills into Lesson Plans: Have Some Fun and Cover the Territory
by Mike Trusiewicz

Developing thinking skills and integrating technology into the curriculum ... is there a teacher who hasn't heard the request for these elements in the lesson structure? Why not combine them and have some great fun at the same time?

With some adjustments, this can be done using any of your favorite software systems. My favorite classroom software is Fantavision (IBM, Apple II, Power Mac w/DOS card, Mac LC w/IIe emulation card, but no native Macintosh version). Fantavision is an animation and special effects generator with an easy-to-use set of tools. Within minutes you can draw anything in one frame, then bring it to life or transform it into anything else in the next frame. It automatically takes over the tedious part of every animation by generating all thein-between stages of motion. Once a class sees it, they immediately want to learn how to create animations of their own.

This, of course, is the hook. With a highly motivated class, we can accomplish some daily miracles, like integrating technology and teaching thinking skills, for instance. One powerful and entertaining way to integrate technology, is to find a place where animated illustrations can serve the needs of your curriculum. Perhaps in Language Arts, a writing project illustrated with animation will serve your purpose. In Math, grouping, fractional parts, and geometric relationships are good targets for animated illustrations. In Geography, maps can be drawn with key local items animated. In Science, cell division, volcanoes, bending of light, and evolution are all great candidates for animation. In Physics, harmonic motion and momentum lend themselves readily to Fantavision. In Art, backgrounds can be created with animation occurring in the foreground. I could go on and on ... your imagination is your guide.

Once you have your class doing animation, you will find that its a lot of fun for you as well as for them. The class will be fresh with new ideas each day, creativity will be in abundance, students will intrinsically motivated, and they will be using those elusive high level thinking skills as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Let's not forget, however, the second objective for integrating technology. As we enhance the curriculum, we also need to develop computer literacy in our students. The computer literacy we impart to our students is meant to serve them in instances throughout their lives, using computers and software that haven't been invented yet. This makes it important to teach the underlying principles and processes which are universally used to control computers of all types, regardless of the brand name, software system, or platform. In many ways, this gives us freedom as educators. Controlling an animation program requires the use of filing commands, editing commands, viewing commands, iconized tools, status bars, scrolling arrows, dialog boxes, option settings, operating systems, desktop elements, etc., etc. The same principles and processes are used to control desktop publishing, Web browsers, word processing, or any other software application. Because of this, we can choose our favorite software system, concentrate on the universal principles, and play to our strengths. Begin with the basic principles and processes, then build on them. I recommend that schools identify the key universal principles and coordinate a plan for grades K-5, 6-9, and 10-12. If you do not have such a plan, you might like to take a look at the lesson sequence I developed for my class as an example of how it can be done (see the editor's note at the end of this article).

How can you weave thinking skills into the lesson plan? This is best explained by an example. In the fourth lesson of the Graphics Animation series I use, students learn to make an animation from scratch. First, they are guided through the processes and principles involved in making a sliding square which is a square moving to each of the corners of the screen. When they have completed this guided activity, they are asked to use the same principles and processes to make an original animation of a bouncing ball whereby a solid circle bounces up, down, sideways, or any other way they wish. The original animation is thought out and accomplished independently or in collaboration with other students. Even when my class is animating text flipping in space, boats sailing across the screen, figures jumping on trampolines, and lightning/thunder storms, the strategy is the same. Students do a guided activity followed by an assignment which requires original work based on the principles of that lesson. This can be done with any software system. Watch how this sets the stage for developing thinking skills.

THINKING SKILLS STAGE 1: The Sliding Square Guided Activity Level 1: Knowledge - Identifying the tool which can be used to draw the square. Level 2: Comprehension - Understanding the procedure for using the tool to draw a square. Level 3: Application - Actually using the tool to draw and animate a square.

THINKING SKILLS STAGE 2: The Bouncing Ball Original Animation Level 4: Analysis - Figuring out what techniques, tools, and processes will be useful in animating a ball. Level 5: Synthesis - Forming a plan of action for animating the ball. Level 6: Evaluation - Judging whether the bouncing ball animation worked as planned.

THINKING SKILLS STAGE 2 SUSTAINED: Troubleshooting an Animation And, what happens if the animation doesn't work? The student is vaulted back into the higher levels of thinking again....

Level 4: Analysis - Why doesn't this animation work the way I wanted it to? Level 5: Synthesis - I think Ive got a way to fix it. Level 6: Evaluation - Lets see, did it work this time?

As students use real-life problem solving skills in creating and troubleshooting animations they create, the classroom functions at the upper levels of ability in a very natural way. As each successive lesson offers additional opportunities for creating original animations, the classroom becomes alive, students are interested in the animations of others, and day to day teaching is filled with new experiences. So, you can have some fun and cover the territory of integrating technology and teaching thinking skills. Just break out your favorite software system or try Fantavision. You're in for some great days.

[Editors note: For those interested in using Fantavision in the classroom or seeing an example of how to identify and sequence computer literacy principles, Mike's Computer Literacy: A Graphics Animation Approach tutorial/textbook and the Fantavision course package (IBM or Apple II) are available from Textbook/Software Publishing, 470 Wooster Road, Middlebury, CT 06762. (no longer valid) ]

About Mike Trusiewicz: Author of Connecticut State Dept. of Education Computer Concepts Curriculum for the Division of Vocational/Technical Schools Former educational software writer for Queue, Inc., Waterbury Public Schools, and the Conn. State Dept. of Education Author of Computer Literacy: A Graphics Animation Approach tutorial/textbook w/activities disk (Textbook/Software Publishing: 1996) Board of Directors for the Connecticut Educators Computer Association Conn. State Dept. of Education CEU provider and program administrator Twenty year veteran inner city teacher, W.F. Kaynor Regional Vocational/Technical School, Waterbury, CT