Planning the Technology Integrated Lesson

For this assignment, I have chosen to use the wiki as my web tool for my high school history class. While a vital part of the research experience is going to a library and immersing yourself among the texts, not everything can be found on a bookshelf, and some research must be down outside the classroom, and on the computer. The following Core Content Standard is what I have chosen for my class to use.

Section 8.1, Strand F. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision-Making

CPI: By the end of grade 12: information accessed through the use of digital tools assists in generating solutions and making decisions.

- Select and use specialized databases for advanced research to solve real-world problems.

- Analyze the capabilities and limitations of current and emerging technology resources and assess their potential to address educational, career, personal, and social needs.

In more basic language, this is the process of using databases to answer a personal historical question, in addition to this learning the how to use their historical knowledge in the real-world, bringing the history to life and beginning the practice of "doing history."

For this project, each student will pick a historical question, something that interests them about a certain period, whether in the social, political, or economic field, and research the event itself, it's prelude and aftermath, and additionally the lasting consequences of said event. In a separate lesson, the students can keep a blog as a research journal, saving sources and conclusions they have drawn about the topic. By using databases such as EBSCO, JSTOR, and even the National Archives and the New York Public Library online content, the students will research and become experts in their historical question, and as a result be able to form their own answer based on in-depth review of primary source documents. This is only one half of the project, and where the wiki component begins.

The historical question the student has selected of their own accord should relate to a historical event or trend, but at the same time should in some way be dominating the current social or political conversation. It was famously said that "facts are empty sacks unless you fill them with meaning" and here we are going to give our facts the meaning they need. The Wiki will be established on the given topic and historical question, giving the background information and major research cited, along with the author's major conclusions about the historical event. A final sub-section will be added called "The Present Connection," in which the student will discuss how his conclusion and his research can relate to a dominant social issue and possible ways to learn from or prevent a decision as we have made in the past. Students whose topics overlap or who just have interest in the topics can add information to the page, citing new sources, data, etc. to reach new depth of understanding. They will also edit the Present COnnection page, a vital part of the assignment. Much as Wikipedia has talk pages for highly debated topics, the students will engage in pragmatic and intellectual discussions, bringing the knowledge from their own topics into this current issue, and eventually reach a consensus on a solution to the issue, or at the very least a list of possible ideas to present.