Assignment 1 - Media, Technology and Learning
Jenny Ferguson
fergie13@vt.edu
7/8/2011

Integration Activities: Complete the two Integration Activities presented below. After you have completed the activities, save them in separate html files as "activity1-1" or "activity1-2" and place them in your filebox. Remember, each activity should be a separate webpage (that is, a separate htm or html file).

1-2. Describe an actual use of instructional media in an education or training setting based on your experiences. Describe what you or the instructor learned as a result of using this media and include a description of the change or improvement of instruction.

I have used an ActivBoard for several years now as a 6^th grade Science teacher. Our county has provided each classroom with an ActivBoard and I like using it because it has so many different functions and the technology stays up to date. The first time I used it, I had little instruction on how to operate the board. I knew how to turn it on and that the pen acted as a “mouse” on a computer, but that is all I knew about it. The first lesson I taught was one created by someone else. It was about weather and was very interactive. Students could come up to the board and play games, manipulate pictures and videos, and I could even have two students writing information on the board at the same time with two different pens. However, there were so many problems that I faced the first time I used it that the instruction was ineffective and I had to re-teach the lesson the next day. The person that created the flipcharts (or slides like in Powerpoint) did not provide correct information on the flipchart. As I was going through each slide, I had to correct the facts as I went along. Also, some of the links inside of the pages did not work and there were missing pictures, videos, and links. As students came to the board and tried to manipulate the items in the flipcharts, they had trouble since there were so many “bugs” in the slides. I should have checked to make sure the flipchart worked before I used it in the classroom, but I assumed that with this great technology that it was fine. I never made that mistake again! I corrected all of the mistakes on the flipchart. I made the containers work so items could click and drag to the appropriate place. I also fixed the broken links to the correct websites. The pictures that were incorrect were replaced with new, better pictures and the information was corrected that was wrong. The next day, I re-taught the material. When the students came to the board, they were excited and enthusiastic about the manipulation of the material and that they could interact with the lesson for the day. As I taught, I made sure to correct the information and the students took notes on each slide as we went along to ensure their understanding of the topic.