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Taylor Falkowski
Regent University
Introduction
This competency details the use of technology in the classroom and how I was able to
understand and utilize it in order to engage students in productive, technology centered active
learning. The Character Snapstory project was dynamic in its use of student centered learning
through a technology based medium. Throughout the lesson, the students used their smartphones
to access the Snapchat app, their chromebooks to access Google Drive, Google Classroom, and
For this competency, I chose my lesson plan and a student product as my artifacts. The
lesson plan was selected so as to provide a clear description of the lesson, how it was
implemented, and the expectations for the activity. This lesson plan also detailed the beginning
of a student project. For this project, the students were expected to use social media (Snapchat)
to make a characters Snap Story. Through this project, the students used technology to detail a
characters thoughts and experiences in the first four chapters of the novel Lord of the Flies. The
students were expected to follow directions and links provided through the lesson plan.
The second artifact is a student product, which was chosen because of how it shows
student learning and growth. The students embraced the project and had some very creative and
impressive results. The product I choose as an artifact received one of the highest grades in the
class for its creativity, accuracy, and overall quality. With my guidance as instructor and
facilitator, the students were able to use technology to the fullest extent to connect to the
literature and bring it to life. Both the lesson plan and the student product reveal how the students
used smartphones, chromebooks, social media, Google Drive, Google Classroom, and other
Running Head: Integration of Technology and Media Resources Falkowski 3
It is well established in each class that student-centered learning provides the best
possible outcome in terms of student involvement, engagement, and long term learning. The
Character Snapstory lesson and project was dynamic in its use of student-centered learning
One part of making a lesson or material engaging to the students is to put the ball in their
court. This means the teacher should provide the students with the information, gives them
instructions, and allow the students work towards a product which exemplifies their knowledge.
(Silberman, 2006, pg. 120). This held true in my lesson plan as the students were required to use
their own devices and choose their themes and graphics in their final product.
Additionally, a popular social media platform (Snapchat) was used to draw the students
into the project to perform their character analysis. By choosing a popular app, one that most of
the students already had on their smartphone, the activity fully engaged the students. Student
engagement is defined as active student involvement in learning tasks that are meaningful,
relevant, and motivating to the student (Burden and Byrd, 2016, pg. 191). Technology was used
to obtain the students attention, connect to the characters, and become involved in the novel.
As this was the first time I had ever completed the project, it was natural for there to be
some bumps in the road. Before I brought the technology into the classroom, I worked with one
of the schools Technical Instructional Specialists, Mrs. Howell. During my meetings with her,
we walked through the proper use of technology and developed a plan for implementing it in the
Running Head: Integration of Technology and Media Resources Falkowski 4
classroom. Having this introduction to the technology was great because throughout the duration
of the project, the technology would falter. Due to my diligence in learning how to use the
technology though, more often than not, I was able surmount these issues. However, Mrs.
Howell was almost always on standby should the need for more professional help arise (and it
did). Overall, this project was a success. The students were engaged with the technology, and in
References
Burden, P. R., & Byrd, D. M. (2016). Methods for effective teaching: meeting the needs of all
Silberman, M. L. (2006). Teaching actively: eight steps and 32 strategies to spark learning in
any