Jeni Conklin CI 2300 101 Professor Henson 23 March 2014 Final Reflections on the Designing and Constructing Media

for Instruction Project When this project was first announced, and groups were chosen, my group arrived out of a lack of other fitting groups for our subjects. We were a hodgepodge of teaching students, a history education major, a music education major, an English education major, and I, the art education major. We planned this lesson surrounding the 1960s counter culture, as we felt we could combine all the topics we were passionate about in our lesson, art and music, as it defines the history of the 1960s. We decided to create a smart board activity based around the idea of a game of Truth or Myth, where students are presented with myths and truths about the 1960s and they will have do decide if they are in fact a true historical fact from that time period. We included some myths that were culturally related to the students of today, for example, references to current pop culture stars, to help relate the historical lesson to todays students. Our project also incorporated the Mobile Learning activity that utilizes an Ipad app, called Draw for Free for Ipad, and a website called Padlet to help incorporate technology into the lesson. The students will create protest posters of their own on the drawing app on the ipad, then share and discuss them on a website called Padlet.com that allows for collaboration and discussion that is viewable by everyone on multiple devices, this device will not only help students connect with each other socially, but will help them make connections to the historical aspects of the art and the culture as they discuss their ideas with each other. Additionally, the lesson is designed with the diversity of learners in mind. The Smartboard activity is tailored for students who enjoy history, facts,

Jeni Conklin CI 2300 101 Professor Henson 23 March 2014 and literature, also, it incorporates movement, as the students will each have to approach the Smartboard to move their chosen myth or fact to the appropriate side of the Smartboard. The mobile learning activity helps engage students in the culture of the 1960s by utilizing photo-literacy by having the students view the protest posters of the time period, and then express what these protest posters meant to them personally as well as the 1960s counter culture in a visual way with the drawing app on the ipad. They also will have an opportunity to discuss the historical aspects of the posters and protests with each other according to the Higher Order Thinking Questions on Padlet.com, thus allowing them to engage in collaborative learning as well as making new connections to ideas the may not have learned had they just studied the 1960s in a dry lecture hall. They developed critical thinking skills by pondering the affects of the protests and the affects of the Vietnam War on the lives of those in the 1960s and relating them to their lives today. Students will develop 21st century skills by interacting with the technology of today, including ipads, personal computers, and Smartboards, but also the skills needed for collaboration, empathy, social communication and understanding supported by the social aspects of the mobile learning activity. The group of the four of us split the work very evenly in my opinion. Each one of us picked an aspect of the project we felt most passionate about and worked on that topic, and we each helped each other on our parts when we needed help, collaborated, and shared each aspect evenly. For example, being the art educator of the group, I discovered the apps for the mobile learning activity and

Jeni Conklin CI 2300 101 Professor Henson 23 March 2014 planned the majority of that lesson, as it revolves highly around art, while Geoffrey, being the history major, helped plan and discover facts for the Smartboard Activity. Jesse and Travis, the music and English majors of the group collaborated on the higher order thinking questions, and headed up the video as hook project, as that relates the most to English and music. I feel like this was the most successful group I have ever worked with in my three years of group projects at Appalachian State University. In conclusion, our group successfully created an interactive lesson that applied media as best it could to the subjects of art and history. In our lesson, Bombs, Activism, Art & Music: A Lesson on How Art & Music Culturally Shaped an Atomic Age United States at War in Vietnam, we created a Smart Board activity, Truth or Myth focusing on facts from the 1960s, this activity engages learners who learn primarily in a visual, auditory way, while incorporating movement and social interaction among students to choose the correct truth or myth. We also create a Mobile Learning activity that exposed students to the affects of history on artistic culture, and the effects of artistic culture on history, in regards to the 1960s. Utilizing concepts of photo-literacy, students discover anti-war protest art from American in the 1960s and then are given the opportunity to use new media to create their own poster in reaction to what they have seen. This will help students understand the ability art has to represent the human experience and create connections with other students about the 1960s and current social issues. In regards to improvement, I would have liked to see more of a fleshed out lesson plan, along with an opportunity to actually practice the full lesson on students. I feel that the ability to

Jeni Conklin CI 2300 101 Professor Henson 23 March 2014 practice the lesson, perhaps with our class before hand would help give us an opportunity to reflect on our media choices and give us a better understanding of how to improve.