Techno Thursday: The Last Hurrah

Last night I went to my last class of the spring semester.  For the past three weeks I have had a magnificent stress-induced eye twitch and a good case of the "I can't brain, I has the dumbs."  I think that I have just enough brain power left to write and reflect on my last project for my #LIS724 Integrating Technology into Programming, Services, and Instruction course. 

I really enjoyed having the opportunity to try different platforms and sharing what I loved, learned, and (sometimes) loathed about them (I'm looking at you, Prezi).  I hope that I can continue to set aside some time to learn and experiment with new technological platforms and integrate them into my programming and reference services at my library.

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Final Project

Our final project tasked my group members and me with developing an inquiry based lesson to teach to our classmates.  After four years of not wearing my "teacher hat", I had to dust it off and put it back on.

Choosing a Topic

At first, I thought that it would be great fun for us to use some of the robotics that my library owns.  I looked at our Ozobots and Makey Makey, but due to special programming my group would not have been able to get enough materials for our classmates to use the robotic equipment effectively.

One of my group members suggested using GeoGuessr.  GeoGuessr is an online platform that utilizes Google Maps Street View.  Users select a region of the world and GeoGuessr places them in an unknown location within that region.   Users must use physical clues (mountains, trees, water, etc.) and human clues (signs, cars, people, clothes, etc.) to figure out where they are.  The user will make a guess about where they are and GeoGuessr will tell them how close or far away they are from their guess.

Designing a Lesson

I had to reach into The Archives (a.k.a my 2009 Toshiba Satellite Laptop that is still alive) to dig out my lesson plan outline.  It has been a while since I have had to wear my "Teacher Hat" but I feel like it is a bit like riding a bicycle - you remember what to do once you start going. 

I wanted to think of an activity that would get everyone interested in what we were about to do so I created the"Where in the United States" activity.  I downloaded pictures from Pixabay of four landmarks in the United States.  I wanted my classmates to guess the function of the landmark and where it is located.  

After the "Where in the United States Activity", my group decided that it would be a good idea to show our classmates how to use GeoGuessr and to try guessing a location together.  We also thought it would be helpful to provide Chicago Guidebooks to our classmates so that they could utilize a paper map and the index to help them pin-point their location.

My group and I met before class to talk through our lesson plan.  We also wanted to figure out how much time we wanted to spend on each component of our lesson. We were allotted twenty minutes to present our inquiry based lesson and we wanted to stick to the time frame.

Presenting our GeoGuessr Adventure

Our lesson was developed for seventh grade students.  I had some classmates that decided to act like they were in seventh grade.  I must admit, that while it was done in jest, I found it to be slightly distracting. 

Do distractions happen in the classroom?  Absolutely.  Distractions happen in library programming too, but when I am presenting a program or lesson to children I am mentally prepared for the possibility of a distraction to occur.  Was I mentally prepared for it in that very moment?  Nope.  

I thought that this was an engaging activity for everyone. It was interesting to see how each group used different strategies to figure out where they were on GeoGuessr.  Some people scrolled until they found a street sign or address, other people used familiar buildings or landmarks, and some used the guidebooks and maps. 

Some of the landmarks for the "Where in the US" activity were a bit difficult.  I would have liked to tie the physical and human factors to the introductory activity, but I was worried about the time and did not include that part.

Overall, I enjoyed putting together this lesson with my group.  I felt that the tools we used for this lesson were effective at making inquiry based learning hands-on and engaging.

Lesson Plan * Presentation Slides *  Where in the US Handout * GeoGuessr Handout

And Now...I Celebrate

Now that I am officially finished with my spring semester, I can celebrate that I have reached the half-way point of attaining my MLIS.  One year from now, I will be an official librarian!

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And Now...I Remember Summer Classes Start Monday

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