Artifact 1

Artifact One: This artifact is a printout of the North Carolina Computer Skills Curriculum for grades Kindergarten through Six. This artifact also includes an Internet based writing lesson. It involves viewing a set of pictures, which are in random order. The students are to put the pictures in a sequential order, and write a story to accompany this arrangement.

Context
Artifact One was retrieved and printed from the North Carolina Department of Instruction’s home page, www.ncdpi.org. I created Artifact Two for a technology assignment during my Elementary Education Block at ASU. I used Netscape Composer to construct the website which contains the lesson, entitled Story Pictures. I used a digital camera to take the pictures, and Adobe Photoshop to edit the pictures. The students will use Microsoft Word to compose and edit their story.

Impact
The printout of the Computer Skills Curriculum demonstrates how to access this information. This, or any, Curriculum can be accessed at any time via the World Wide Web. The Story Pictures assignment was created to meet a goal from this curriculum. Specifically, grades 3-5 require that students “Identify the technology tools used to collect, analyze and display data”. The Story Pictures lesson provides my students with the ability to complete this goal. I will use this format for other lessons during my teaching, as it is an interesting and exciting way for students to learn and utilize technology.

Alignment
Artifact One involves locating the NC Computer Skills Curriculum, and forming a lesson to complete a particular goal(s). This lesson involves students following directions, and learning how to arrange digital pictures on a web page. Students then wrote captions to create a story for the pictures. They composed their stories, and inserted the pictures into a Microsoft Word document. This meets the NC Computer Goal 2.1 for grades 3-5. This, in turn, would assist students in preparing for the NC Computer Skills Assessment (NC Technology Competency 10.5). The process in creating this lesson meets the North Carolina Technology Competencies 10.1 and 10.4. This lesson is an excellent way to incorporate technology into a Language Arts lesson. Students learn how to navigate and compose by accessing Web sources (NC Technology Competency 11.1). It is important to remember that every student learns “best” in a different way. Lessons should be presented in diverse formats. That way, there is a better chance of reaching, and teaching all learners. Variety is key, but strategies should only be used if students will benefit from the experience. The story pictures lesson incorporates many skills, including thinking critically to sequence the pictures (INTASC Principle 4).