I used a rubric to assess student work
on the project. The best projects showed
creativity and included information that
showed the monarchs as real people.
Each group presented their CD case and
video (MovieMaker or PhotoStory) to
the class. This helped students see the
monarchs in a variety of ways, and it
served as a review before the test.
At the end of the unit, the students
completed a traditional multiple-choice and short-answer assessment.
The classes that completed the movie
project outperformed my previous
classes that did this lesson the original
way by an average of eight percentage
points. That shows me that students
learn at least as much from this new
way of teaching the project. But most
important, many have repeatedly told
me that the remade project was the
highlight of the course for them.
Lessons Learned
Like the majority of the faculty, I came
to Warhill to take advantage of the
technology. Some of my colleagues
were overwhelmed with the prospect
of effective tech integration and did
not pursue more than we had to. Others maximized the opportunity and
continued to find ways to incorporate
more technology into their lessons,
either by retrofitting or creating new
lessons that use tools in pedagogically
appropriate ways.
The learning-by-design process has
been challenging for me at times too.
At first I was concerned that the tools
would become the lesson rather than
enhance the lesson. Then I was worried
that if I gave the students too much
creative license, they would not pro-
duce the desired results, and the proj-
ect would not end up enriching their
understanding. But I discovered that the
benefits to our students are well worth
the effort and apprehension on our part.
We did have some technical difficulties, but they were easily solved. For
example, when students failed to save
their progress in secure folders, other
students unfortunately were able to
tamper with them. We rectified this by
reminding the students to save their
work in the proper place. We also
had initial problems with uncharged
laptop batteries, which I addressed by
bringing in power strips so students
could plug in their machines before
they lost any work.
I also found that being conscientious and choosing the right technology to enhance a lesson is critical to
success. Allowing the students—who,
as digital natives, thrive on technology—to be creative within the parameters I gave them resulted in a memorable learning experience and some
well-rounded finished projects. I was
surprised at how amazingly creative
they are and how they were able to
take their projects in directions I had
not imagined while still meeting their
instructional objectives.
Candace Schafer-Southard is a
social studies teacher and de-
partment curriculum leader at
Warhill High School in Wil-
liamsburg, Virginia. Prior to
transitioning to the classroom,
she presented museum educa-
tion programs at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foun-
dation and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Mark Hofer is an associate
professor of educational tech-
nology at the College of Wil-
liam & Mary. A former high
school history teacher, he now
focuses his research and devel-
opment on curriculum-based
technology integration.
K- 12 Internet
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Allowing the students—who, as digital natives,
thrive on technology—to be creative within the
parameters I gave them resulted in a memorable
learning experience and some well-rounded
finished projects.
