eLearning Design: Year 10 Geography
This is an eLearning design aimed at Year 10 Geography. The design focuses on who the learners are, what they may or may not already know, and how the learners best learn. The design focuses on a particular unit of work that I wrote, and provides a brief overview for each lesson within the learning sequence. During the creation of the learning design, a range of factors were considered. How do I incorporate ICTs into the learning process? How do I make the ICTs use more interesting and creative? What do I need to consider (what students were present in the previous lesson, who needs catching up, who does not understand etc) when planning a lesson? I also had to consider my approach to teaching the content. Was I going to be taking a teacher centred, individual learning approach? Or would I approach the situation with a more constructivist outlook?
Based on my own understanding and beliefs, a constructivist approach to teaching and learning is more appropriate in our classrooms today. This is what I have gone with in this instance. I have approached the students learning and my teaching in a way that I don't teach the students much in the way of facts and concepts. Instead I am providing the students with the necessary information to assist with their learning.
Profile of Learners: Year 10 Geography
LMQ1: What do my learners already know?
- I performed a learning styles and multiple intelligences/smarts test on my students to determine the ways in which the students best learn.
Results for Year 10 Geography | ||
Student | Learning Style | Smarts |
E.D. | Visual | Group |
J.D. | Visual | Picture |
J.D. | Auditory | Word |
K.E. | Kinesthetic | Group |
K.F. | Kinesthetic | Group |
T.G. | Auditory | Nature |
C.G. | Visual | Picture |
E.H. | Kinesthetic | Group |
J.H. | Kinesthetic | Nature |
J.J. | Kinesthetic | Nature |
J.M. | Visual | Group |
K.P. | Auditory | Nature |
C.R. | Visual | Picture |
D.R. | Visual | Body |
A.S. | Kinesthetic | Group |
- From these results, I can see that the group of students I have are spread relatively widely across all learning styles, and most of the students enjoy group work or working outside.
- The year ten students have already looked at climate change and natural disasters and have some idea of things like storm surges.
- For me to gauge what my learners already know, I will be getting the students to create a concept map on the board telling me everything they know about waves and wave formation - getting them to think about activities involving waves, types of waves and locations of good waves.
- Students will be answering a range of questions about beaches and waves to get them thinking about the topic and what the unit is all about.
- By the end of the unit of work, students should be able to successfully identify a range of different types of waves and coastal landforms and features. Students should be able to explain and describe the process of how waves are formed, and link this to the different types of waves. Students should also be able to present a range of coastal management strategies for preventing damage to the coastline when students create their report based on a minimising the environmental impacts on coastal environments during a surfing competition.
- During the course of this unit of work, I will need to ensure students have plenty of opportunities to work in small groups or with other students, have plenty of visual stimulus, and opportunities to learn with a more 'hands on' approach.
- Based on the results drawn from the learning styles and learning smarts test, clearly my students need a good mix of visual, auditory and tactile learning experiences. As well as a range of group experiences.
- Based on the outcomes and findings from Assessment task 1 for ICTs for Learning Design, students in this class would definitely benefit from a constructivist approach to teaching.
- As mentioned in my first assignment for ICTs for Learning Design, we all need to be aware that there are a range of students within our classroom, and every student is unique (CQU 2011, para. 2). "One of the key elements to designing successful learning, whether it is face to face, or mediated by ICT (Information Communications Technology), is to know your learners and recognise their needs" (CQU 2011, para. 1). I believe that this is important to consider when planning learning experiences.
- Based on this and the results from the learning styles test, it is important that not only do I incorporate technology into each lesson, but also have a range of other experiences and options for the students who learn differently and who may not enjoy the over use of technology.
Plan of Action: Year 10 Geography
Unit of Work: "Geography of Surfing: Waves"
1. What your learners will be learning and demonstrating at the end?
Waves are an important feature of Geography as there are many factors and concepts that relate to the overall study of Geography. Students investigate a range of geography concepts as they learn about waves and the surrounding features of beaches on their way to developing a coastal management plan to present to a surfing competition body. Students will present their plan in the form of a report that outlines their gained understanding of waves, coastal features and possible coastal management solutions to prevent destruction to beaches and coastal environments. The report will show the students' ability to provide recommendations from coastal protection and management. From the report, it should be made clear to the hypothetical surfing competition body that the students' know and understand the topics and information that is being presented.
Ways of Working (from Year 10 Geography Guidelines)
- respond to local and global issues by taking action in planned and enterprising ways
- understand geographical facts, concepts and procedures
- make connections between spatial knowledge and geographical examples
- understand how systems influence the changes in places and the distribution and movement of people, resources and information
- identify and explain patterns, trends and relationships in geographical data and information
- analyse the characteristics of geographical features and processes
- respond to geographical investigations across a range of scales
- provide and evaluate alternatives in response to geographical investigations across a range of scales
- present geographical information and data in formats appropriate to audience and purpose
- use appropriate geographical and language conventions and terminology when manipulating data and creating maps and plans
2. What the learners will be doing?
Students will be studying all features of waves and coastlines, learning as much as they can about how waves and coastlines are formed and the factors that influence the creation of the coastline. Students will be actively participating in a range of activities where they will be comparing and contrasting waves and beaches both nationally and globally, critically deciding what waves and beaches are most appropriate for surfing and surfing competitions, and justifying all of their responses. Students will be participating in a number of case studies that will assist them in creating a report at the end of the unit.
3. How will they be doing it?
Students will participate in activities where they will be required to use higher order thinking skills (compare and contrast, concept mapping) to develop and enrich their knowledge and understanding of the topics discussed each lesson. PowerPoint presentations, videos, individual and classroom activities will be provided to assist the students with their learning journey.
4. How is ICT embedded into the unit/learning sequence and what is it used for?
ICTs will be embedded into this unit and learning sequence to assist students in gaining understanding of the unit topic. As there is no set textbook for Year 10 Geography, the material being taught to students will be presented to them from a laptop and data projector (unfortunately there is no interactive whiteboard in the classroom), or on the whiteboard. PowerPoint presentations will be used to teach the students, there will be a range of diagrams, images and video clips embedded into these PowerPoints for students to remain engaged and so they will understand the concepts being delivered to them. Students will also be taken on an around the world trip of beaches and waves, to do this, Google Maps and Google Earth will be utilised to get students virtually involved and the the beaches. Students will also be taught how and where to search for the most appropriate data and information when it comes to writing their assessment. Students will be shown how to use appropriate search terms, and how to use appropriate data bases or search engines. In relation to the students' assessment, they will also be taught how to best utilise Microsoft Word. As their assessment is a report, students will be shown how to format and set up their documents to reach the assessable requirements. To fill out gaps in some lessons, I will be providing activities for the students to do that incorporate both the laptop and data projector, but also my Telstra T-Touch Tab in hopes that students will be more interested and engaged while completing tasks.
This PowerPoint presentation is from one of the lessons that I did with the students. As you can see it is very basic, but to my students, it was a very helpful and powerful visual aid. The following YouTube clip was also used during this particular lesson, students 'loved' this clip and it also assisted in explaining some of the points in the lesson.
This YouTube clip and the following PowerPoint presentation were used in another lesson. The video clip was really helpful and it assisted the students in understanding some of the processes that I was trying to explain to them. The PowerPoint presentation is again, very simple, but it was effective in its ability to provide the students with the real life examples of the coastal management solutions that we were looking at.
5. What will the final product be and who will it be for?
The final product that students will hand in at the end of this unit of work is a report outlining a surfing competition. The report will be aimed at 'Surfing Australia' who have approached the students to do a report on a particular beach either locally, nationally or globally. In their report, students will provide insight into the most appropriate 'beach' for a competition and discuss, explain, justify and reflect on why the beach is the most appropriate. Students will also need to consider, explain and identify coastal management strategies so that the coastline and the environment that is being investigated remains unharmed and protected. In doing this, students will also allude to the knowledge and their understandings developed through the course of study. The student reports should demonstrate that students understand how waves are formed, how beaches are formed and a range of preventative measures that should be taken to protect coastal ecosystems from being damaged.
6. How will you align your unit with Bloom's Taxonomy to support a focus on higher order thinking?
As higher order thinking is becoming increasingly important in schools, this unit supports Bloom's Taxonomy by requiring students to compare and contrast, critique, analyse, demonstrate, describe, design, identify and justify (just to name a few). Concept maps, SWOT analysis and other thinking activities will also be incorporated into this unit of work.
Using the Four Resources Model as a Framework for this unit of work, Bloom's Taxonomy will be utilised in the following ways:
Code Breaker How do I crack this code?
| Meaning Maker What does this mean to me?
|
Text User What do I do with this text?
| Text Analyst What does this text do to me?
|
Overview of Learning Experiences (Unit of Work overview)
Wk | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
1 | Anzac Day Public Holiday | Why are we studying waves? Introduces and start looking at types of waves. Activities 1,2 & 3 | Looking at waves again, bit more in depth. Look at the different sorts of waves – Definitions, diagrams and pictures. Activity, students look at a range of waves rating them from best to worst and justify why. | What makes a wave good for ‘surfing’? Get students to look at a range of waves, get them to identify what sort of wave they are, get them to justify why they think surfers would choose that sort of wave. |
2 | Start to look at the coast. Look at a diagram that shows the land/coast and possible features that are formed from waves. Look at high and low intensity waves, recap on constructive and destructive waves. | Erosion: Corrosion & corrosion & coastal ecosystems. Look at a range of images that show what waves have done to the coast line. See if students can point this out. Introduce some preventative measures we have taken to stopping erosion etc. | Show students ‘table’ that has what the preventative measure is and a picture, the rest of the table is blank with the headings ‘advantages’ and ‘disadvantages’ at the top of the columns. Have students come up with a couple of points for each measure. | Case Study: Coastal Ecosystems. Talk to students about the ecosystems that make up the coast. Pose a range of scenarios to the students and get them to come up with ways to prevent destruction of the coastline, ensuring they justify their responses. |
3 | Get students to recall what they have learnt about waves so far. See if students know where some of the good surfing spots are both locally and globally. Start to look as some of Australia’s good surfing spots. | Take students on an ‘Around the World’ study of beaches and waves. Pick a couple of beaches/countries to look at and take a look at where they are and what’s there. | Continue on with the ‘Around the World’ study of beaches and waves. Looking at 2 or so different places then the lesson before. | Recap ‘Waves around the world’. Get students to recall all the features from the different beaches. Activity: show students 10 images of waves/beaches from around the world and get them to compare and contrast the waves/beaches, rate them in order from 1-10 (best to worst) and justify why. |
4 | Look specifically at Australia’s coastline and beaches. Show a range of images of the coastlines and get students to identify the features etc. | Case Study: Australian surfing spot. Look at: what there is that would make the beach appropriate for a surfing competition, what things need to be brought in to protect the coastal environment. | Case Study: Hawaii surfing competition. Look at: what they used to make it successful, what they did to avoid damaging the beach, what was brought in for the competition. | Have a look at some surfing clips and images. Get students to recall the 2 case studies. Activity, students to compare and contrast between the 2 case studies, students need to choose which of the 2 they would prefer to surf at based on their findings and justify why. |
5 | Revision lesson, go over everything that has been covered to ensure that the students have learnt what is needed. | Introduce students to ‘Report writing’; be sure to tell them that their assessment will be in the form of a report. | Introduce students to their assessment, scaffold the whole thing out for them, and ensure they all understand what is required. | Get students to start thinking of headings and research questions for their assessment so they are prepared when they start to research. |
6 | Assessment Research | Assessment Research | Assessment Research | Assessment Research |
7 | Assessment Drafting | Show Holiday | Assessment Drafting | Assessment Drafting |
8 | Assessment editing/re-typing | Assessment editing/re-typing | Assessment editing/re-typing | Report Due |
9 | Game: Pin the name on the coastline feature. An image of a coastline is shown to the students as are a range of terms that will identify the features along the coastline. The aim is to have students put the correct term on the feature on the image. Activity: show students a range of definitions and get them to identify what the term is based on the definition. Movie: Start watching ‘Blue Crush’. | Students continue to watch movie ‘Blue Crush’. | Athletics Carnival | Athletics Carnival |
References CQUniversity. (2011). Week 1 readings: active learning, learning diversity and the theory. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/course/view.php?id=17135 |
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