Explorer Needed! – 4250

Summary

King Caratachea plans to venture a new voyage. He is looking for the best explorer to hire for this expedition. Using the idea of another famous explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton, he posted this ad: “Explorer wanted: For hazardous journey. Long months at sea, must be able to lead crew, large reward upon return, Honor and recognition in case of success.”- King Matthew Caratachea
You are to send your video application to King Caratachea. All successful applicants will be summoned for a personal interview with the King. Your videos will be posted online for the King’s subjects to review and vote.
Students worked in self-selected collaborative groups to address the authentic task posed by the teacher. They were given choice in topic and tool to communicate their work, Go Animate!, Pixie, or a combination of programs to create a video (Pixie/Photo Booth/Keynote). Their submissions were posted to the teacher’s blog where others could vote on which explorer King Caratachea should use. The teacher employed his blog as well as email, Twitter, and the Edomodo community to get other classes to vote. Students used this feedback to self reflect upon their work. The video below shows the students working on this lesson.

TIPC Ratings

The lesson is lower Developing for Research Information and Fluency. The teacher provided limited resources for the students to use to find information for their products. However, the students devised their own questions and areas to research to make their applications for the king.

This lesson is Target/Ideal in Communication and Collaboration. The students worked in self-selected groups to collaborate on a product. The students had to work together to make decisions on which explorer to choose, what technology tool to utilize, and assign roles to accomplish the authentic task. The teacher employed his blog as well as email, Twitter, and the Edomodo community to get other classes to vote. Students used this feedback to self reflect upon their work.

The lesson is Target/Ideal as the authentic task allowed students to develop and create a video application for the job of explorer. The students had to justify their reasoning for using certain tools and the explorer they chose to be as they worked to complete their product. The students reflected upon their work after viewing the feedback from the blog posting and thought of ways of how to improve upon their product.

The lesson is Target/Ideal as the students were given many options to create their video application. The process allowed student choice with both tool (Go Animate!, Pixie, or a combination of programs to create a video – Pixie/Photo Booth/Keynote) and topic (Christopher Columbus, Juan Ponce deLeon, Jacques Cartier, Christopher Newport). The students reflected upon their work after viewing each other’s video applications the feedback from the blog posting and thought of ways of how to improve upon their project.