I created an interactive Flash Media project intended to be used by students in 3rd-5th grade who are studying the official census identified regions of the United States. In the project, the regions are separated and students can access information about each by clicking on the buttons. Each region has pictures, videos and written information including the individual state names abbreviations and capitals. It could be used as an introduction to the topic; or as a supplemental learning program for students who are studying the locations of states, the geographical land features and the influences of those features on how the areas were populated and settled over time.
Regions of the USA Movie
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Course Artifacts
Professionally, being able to learn and use a new program is very useful. I was able to create a partially usable project that my students enjoyed and learned from. It was only partially usable because of the file sizes that were reached due to my attempts to include videos, music and many images into the one project. In retrospect, I would have divided the project into 4 parts so that it could be used more easily and with fewer problems due to file sizes. The students were only able to access 2 regional areas from the project due to the file size difficulties of the Flash Media Player. Learning this was an invaluable lesson for me as a teacher and technology professional. By the need for extensive troubleshooting with the creation of this project, I was able to learn how better to produce other multi-media Flash projects for future use. I learned how to use many features of Flash that will help me use this medium as a curriculum enhancing technology tool in the future, as well.
ISTE-TF.1 STANDARD: Technology Operations and Concepts -- Educational technology facilitators demonstrate an in-depth understanding of technology operations and concepts.
The completion of this project demonstrates my understanding of how to create a multi-media project using Macromedia Flash. I included digital audio, digital video and digital images, as well as, writing text to be included. I was able to manage this technology so as to include multiple modes of knowledge access for the students who would use this project.
ISTE-TF.2.A INDICATOR: Design developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of learners. This project demonstrated the use of a multi-media curricular enhancement to learning about the regions of the United States, and the individual states. Students were given information in multiple formats, thereby allowing greater access for the diverse learner in this area of knowledge. The students could listen to and watch the video, view the scrolling images, and read the information added to the images. They could also stop, repeat or skip over information in some places, to better individualize to their needs in learning about the regions.
ISTE-TF.3 STANDARD: Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum -- Educational technology facilitators apply and implement curriculum plans that include methods and strategies for utilizing technology to maximize student learning.
The plan to use this project as an introduction to the regions of the United States; or as a supplemental learning program while studying the locations of states, the geographical land features or how the areas were populated and settled over time demonstrates application of technology for the purpose of making the most of learning opportunities for the students. Providing a multi-media presentation of information is one strategy used by teachers to help students better understand new areas of study and also interest them in going further with the topic. The basic overview videos and scrolling images help students to create the picture of the regions of the United States. From this base, they can move towards better understanding of the whole topic of study.
