Part 2
Example used in classroom
Book Creator example used in the classroom
Book Creator allows teachers to help students enjoy learning about history. They can use famous people, landmarks, and time periods to place in an ebook. Students can learn research ideas about a specific time and include different information, such as the time period when early colonists explored and traveled west to find a better life. The ebook can consist of geographical maps and other vegetation from their journeys. The ebook can be a journal explaining it from a settler's perspective, and where the settlers had settled. There are many ways Book Creator can enhance a student's learning by allowing them to write, record their voice, and add photos to promote their learning.
Part 3
California Common Core State and ITSE Standards
California Common Core State and ITSE Standards
California Common Core State Standards
5.8 Students trace the colonization, immigration, and settlement patterns of the American people from 1789 to the mid-1800s, with emphasis on the role of
economic incentives, effects of the physical and political geography, and
transportation systems.
1. Discuss the waves of immigrants from Europe between 1789 and 1850 and their modes of transportation into the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and through the Cumberland Gap (e.g., overland wagons, canals, flatboats, steamboats).
2. Name the states and territories that existed in 1850 and identify their locations and major geographical features (e.g., mountain ranges, principal rivers, dominant plant regions).
3. Demonstrate knowledge of the explorations of the trans-Mississippi West following the Louisiana Purchase (e.g., Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Zebulon Pike, John Fremont).
4. Discuss the experiences of settlers on the overland trails to the West (e.g., location of the routes; purpose of the journeys; the influence of the terrain, rivers, vegetation, and climate; life in the territories at the end of these trails).
5. Describe the continued migration of Mexican settlers into Mexican territories of the West and Southwest.
6. Relate how and when California, Texas, Oregon, and other western lands became part of the United States, including the significance of the Texas War for Independence and The Mexican-American War.
History–Social Science A R O Content Standards for California Public Schools Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve. https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf. (2000, May 18). https://www.cde.ca.gov/BE/ST/SS/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf
The ITSE Standards
2.5 Designer
2.5.a Accommodate Learner Differences
Educators use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs.
2.5.c Innovative Learning Environments
Educators apply evidence-based instructional design principles to create innovative and equitable digital learning environments that support learning.
2.6 Facilitator
2.6.c Teach Computational and Design Thinking
Educators create learning opportunities that challenge students to use a design process and computational thinking to innovate and solve problems.
educators.
ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards/educators
History–Social Science A R O Content Standards for California Public Schools Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve. https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf. (2000, May 18). https://www.cde.ca.gov/BE/ST/SS/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf
ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards/educators
Part 4
PIC and PICRAT
PIC and PICRAT
Book Creator is an excellent application that students of all ages can use. Book Creator replaces a typical notebook with a digital interactive notebook. Students are typing instead of writing about stories and building a digital book that highlights images and videos. Students are used to making posters and posting images cut out or drawn, and now can use a digital book to express what they want. Students can also use Book Creator to record their voices, create an ebook to explain the information, and allow other students to view their creation instead of giving a one-dimensional presentation.
Book Creator amplifies a traditional method by having students write stories with images and audio narration, helping students who have issues with hearing, sitting, or listening. Book Creator allows students to revisit the ebook numerous times to understand the information. When students write, they use words but do not really express themselves in a writing assignment. Sometimes students become confused and lose track, whereas in Book Creator, they can follow along by listening, watching, and interacting with the information as it is created digitally. Students who are making the ebook can insert pictures and videos, embed maps, and label them.
So when I gave the example of using maps in Book Creator in history, I can imagine students exploring maps, vegetation, and rivers from the explorations of earlier settlers. This allows students to be part of a new exploration, but digitally, learning along the way.
Students will listen to Book Creator to consume the information. The level of thinking is not very high for the students to imagine. When students are listening to Book Creator, they are actively listening to the book being read to them. Still, they are also actively asking questions and are unable to respond to some of the content they might have questions about.
Students today are interacting with technology at a lower cognitive level, as they only remember and understand some of the information they hear while listening and watching in Book Creator. Students who are doing this are on the lowest level in Bloom’s Taxonomy. The interaction is very minimal because it doesn’t require complex thinking. Students are not interacting with Book Creator because they are not involved in analyzing or evaluating at a surface level. Overall, Book Creator's comprehension shows a lower level of thinking when other students are observing their work.
Students are creating with technology through planning, organizing ideas, researching, and deciding on how to communicate the information through Book Creator. When students use Book Creator, they are manipulating the information they use to interpret the data. At this time, students can make creative decisions and express their ideas using AI, and the program can then organize the information. Students can then revise or improve their work by manipulating the information they had researched.