Michigan Merit Curriculum Guidelines
Online Experience

In elementary, technology information classes I will help prepare my fifth grade students for the Michigan Merit 20 hour minimum online experience for 6th - 12th grades.

My fifth grade students will use Moodle to become familiar with using an online management system for class assignments.  One important online learning experience I will use with my students is developing life-long learning skills.

I will give my students experiences in conducting research using the Internet and search engines. I will provide student practice in evaluating information from various online resources. Students will learn about bias and accuracy of web sites. In Moodle students will experience threaded discussions and blogs when sharing their research findings.

Students will learn about network etiquette and practice network etiquette when given examples of different social situations. The students will post in Moodle how they would handle a specific etiquette situation. Using the discussion thread students will be required to respond to each other on how they think the situation should be handled.

In teaching research skills I will have students go to bogus sites and to official sites. I will have students post to a blog, writing about how they can tell if a site is official and what things to look for when evaluating a site for accuracy. I will have the students compare bogus to factual web sites. I will have them tell how the sites are similar. How the sites are different. After posting their answers to a blog. Each student will comment on at least two of the blog postings.

I will have a difficult time teaching my students how to use different technology tools. In the elementary technology department I have access to a lab at each school with desktop computers, access to the Internet, Microsoft Office Products and free online tools. I don't have MP3 players, camcorders, microphones, digital cameras, cell phones, video cameras or other multimedia devices.
I would like to incorporate more multimedia projects into my curriculum. Students thrive on creating their own products. I will request the equipment for next school year. This is the first year we've had a technology teacher at the elementary buildings.