Intel Thinking Tools

Intel Thinking Tools is a set of free applications made by the Intel company for teachers to use to help them incorporate technology into their classrooms. There are three tools: Seeing Reasoning tool, Visual Ranking tool, and Showing Evidence tool- all of which include project ideas and lesson plans to inspire teachers to use the pre-existing plans and also allows them to easily make changes to the projects to better suit their own needs. The Seeing Reasoning Tool is an application that uses an interactive diagram, or "casual map", that helps students to lay out their ideas and make connections with a comment feature that allows for other group members or the teacher to make notes. The Visual Ranking Tool is an application that utilizes an easy-to-use list feature where students can list, rank, change, comment, and compare their projects. The Showing Evidence Tool is more complex. Here, the students state a claim, add and rate evidence and sources to support their claim, and interact with other members of the group and the teacher.

Using the Showing Evidence Tool, I selected a lesson plan for 5-8 grade students about the National Debt. The goal of the project is to support (and dispute) the claim that the National Debt is a major problem. Then, after learning about the debt and using the Showing Evidence Tool to see evidence of the problem, students are instructed to create a media message about the problem. This lesson incorporates the TPCK approach to learning because it incorporates technology with the use of the Intel tools, as well as a well-thought out lesson plan (Pedagogy, and reinforces the content of what the students are learning, while inspiring the students to research and make use of their research. Below are some screen captures that document the project process.

(Project Description)

(Teams)

(Example) This activity relates to the ISTE NETS T Standard 4b: 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. b. Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources This goal was accomplished by showing us the Intel Thinking Tools that incorporate a number of different learning styles with their digital tools and then providing lesson plans to help us to achieve these techniques in our own classrooms.

Google Earth

Before doing this assignment, I didn't even know Google Earth existed. I had heard people talking about it before but mistook i for Google Maps. So, naturally, first thing I did was to see if I could find myself. My addressed pulled up a 2D birds-eye-view map that zoomed in uncomfortably close to my home. Then, as I continued searching different areas, I found that there are amazing street-level views and 3D maps that place the viewer right down in the middle of a virtual replication of certain areas of my hometown. Crazy cool. Next, I ventured to the Taj Mahal and Washington DC and got some amazing views, views that I could control, outside and inside of famous monuments and buildings, as well as a collection of photographs of the places from other people around the world. Amazing.

The next part of the assignment was to upload a KML file of the Google Map that I created a few days ago in the last assignment (see picture below). KML stands for Keyhole Markup Language and is a language that can express geological areas including 2D and 3D references. It is interchangeable between Google Maps and Google Earth and other Earth viewing programs. One reason that you would want to do this sort of exchange between programs is because Google Earth has 3D capabilities along with a neat little trick I found while playing with the Google Earth program- you can create and record virtual tours. Meaning, that you can create a site list in Google Maps, transfer your map to Google Earth and run through a virtual 3D tour of the actual places your marked-- you can create your own personalized virtual field trips for you classroom. Not only that but you have the opportunity to choose historical dates for your map and view the world from the past. This would be a great aid in many classrooms, and with this generation of students, the more technological aides for your lessons, the better!

Teaching with free Google products is starting to become more applicable all the time. Google in Education is a website dedicated to incorporating Google applications into academia. From this website, I found Google Earth for Educators. From there, I learned about Google SketchUp which is a program that runs in conjunction with Google Earth. The students can replicate buildings such as their home or school into 3D models and add them to Google Earth. Incorporating this application with Google Earth would benefit a secondary class in computer science because not only does it teach students to learn about Google Earth and it's capabilities, but also challenges them a step farther and helps them to contribute to the program. SketchUp in the Classroom provides lesson plans for using SketchUp in elementary, middle, and secondary classrooms.

This activity relates to the 3d: d. Model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning This goal was achieved by giving us a project that required us to use digital tools to locate our information, then collaborate our findings to analyze, evaluate, and use our research in a real-world experience.

BatchGeo

BatchGeo is an amazing online tool where you can import location (address) information from a spreadsheet with a few simple clicks or button presses and viola!- a map is created pinpointing all of the addresses!


With the ease and availability of technology like this I can incorporate it into my different business classes. For example, it would be beneficial to have a map with customers' locations for a business who makes frequent delivery, or if you are trying to see what area your business draws the most customers from.

Peer Locations, displayed below, is a map I created using this program to map out the home addresses of the other students in my class... and yes, I am the dot that's ridiculously far away from campus and the drive to class does suck royally.

View Peer Locations in a full screen map

This interesting activity relates to the ISTE NETS T Standard 4d: 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. d. Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools This goal is accomplished by incorporating digital tools to collect and present a physical view of where our peers are located via a virtual map.

Google Maps

Using Google Docs and Google Maps I created an itinerary with an embedded map (see below) for a field trip for a high school entrepreneurship class that takes the class on a day-long trip to the downtown area of Elkins, WV. There they will briefly meet with executives, managers, and other business men and women to get a real-life look at how the concepts they have been studying in class apply in the business world.

I think that if possible teachers should encourage field trips in their class to really help bring the classroom to life. These tools (Google Maps and Google Docs) are excellent resources that help simplify the task of arranging such an outing.


View Downtown Elkins, WV in a larger map This activity relates to the 3d: d. Model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning This goal was achieved by giving us a project that required us to use digital tools to locate our information, then collaborate our findings to analyze, evaluate, and use our research in a real-world experience.