Donner Online Teaching Tips

Rationale | Curricular Linkages | Classroom Strategies | Technology & Software


Rationale

The main reason for having students create a multimedia Scrapbook is to engage students in a topic from your curriculum while giving them a chance to discover their own interests and information. This should be used as an introductory or enrichment activity, not the heart of your "Westward Expansion" unit. Also notice that it's a good chance to integrate use of the Internet and the World Wide Web into your classroom activities. When you use the HyperStudio stacks or really leverage the essential questions in the conclusion, Donner online becomes a WebQuest. Choose the activity that suits your learners, curriculum and timeframe.



Curricular Links & Uses

How can you use Donner Online to support your curriculum? The most obvious links are to a study of Westward expansion, the Oregon Trail, or California history. These topics appear in the California Social Science Framework as:

Other possible uses are for Donner Online could surface to support the Language Arts Framework:



Classroom Strategies

Please use this activity as a springboard. You know your students, your curriculum and your facilities, so see how Donner Online can work for you.

Here are some suggestions and tips that might be useful:



Technology Issues

Donner Online has been designed to support as many users as possible. If you don't use Macintoshes & HyperStudio, you can still use the HTML Template to create your mutlimedia Scrapbooks. Even if you do have Macs, you might want to create your Scrapbooks in HTML so you can post them to the world! If you are somewhat new to HTML, look at the Template through a word processor and you'll see there are suggestions and how-to's built into the Template. This way beginners can get an introduction to creating Web pages in a supported environment.


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Last revised November 19, 2003
Created by Tom March, tom at ozline dot com
Applications Design Team/Wired Learning