INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY The Pacific Arts Festival, which took
place in the Republic of Palau this summer, is a major regional The goal of this project is to engage teachers and students from all over our region in educational technology with the help of a website containing technology integration information, lesson plans, and practical examples. Following a constructivist approach, Palauan teachers took on the role of student and spent May and June learning digital imaging skills such as how to use digital video and still cameras, as well as online video editing and basic videography and photography. They also learned basic ethnography skills. At the festival, teachers were placed in groups of 2-3 people, each group equipped with a computer, a digital video camera and plenty of digital video tape, and a digital still camera. The assignment was to videotape a country’s event, interview the participants, take still pictures, research the country on the Internet, and then write a one-page description of what took place. Each group later edited a 2-3 minute video, selected supporting pictures, and uploaded the finished product to websites made available by the MOE and Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL). The teachers will use the same format this year to teach their own students social studies lessons while integrating technology skills. During the ten days of the Arts Festival, the Palauan teachers dedicated long hours to the project. The day started before 8:00 am and often lasted into the evening, as late as 11:00 pm. With so many activities going on there were plenty of opportunities to get video footage and pictures. The MOE provided the teachers and project staff with space in their Teacher Training Center that served as dining room, editing room, and a place to cool off from the day’s heat. The entire process taught the teachers not only the basic skills and proper principles of creating good instructional video, but also how an integrated lesson for English language learners (ELLs) could be conducted. As Palau has both English and Palauan as its languages of instruction, and the goal was to create a website to be used throughout the region, the project had to be ELL sensitive. The use of pictures, graphics, sounds, and music accompanying the text is an appropriate way to teach ELLs. The project accomplished two major things: integrating social studies (culture/ethnography) and technology in one project-based unit, and teaching the teachers how to replicate the lesson in the classroom. The Pacific Regional Technology in Education Consortium (PR*TEC) at PREL was enlisted to help realize the project, as were Palau Community College (PCC) and Pacific Learning Services, Inc. (PLS). The result of the hard work from the Palauan teachers is a website that not only showcases what happened during the Pacific Arts Festival, but is also a resource for teaching technology integration and aligning lessons to standards. For more information on this project, please contact Andrew Kerr at kerra@prel.org or Javier Elizondo at jelizondo@pacificls.com. |