TEL 311 Signature Assignment

Classroom Technology Integration

Prof. Derrick Platt
Phyoe Thaung

Tablet Integration at American Leadership Academy Schools

Project Introduction

American Leadership Academy is an excellent place for students to foster their learning
experience, but the school overall lacks most technology that can be found in most schools
today. As a history teacher, I find it particularly frustrating myself when I am limited on the type
of outside resources that I can integrate within my classroom. The students have also become
“tech savvy” as they reach the secondary grade levels and it would be a shame to not take
advantage of their strengths and interests. One of the most benefitial and cost-effective way for
them to utilize both outside sources and develop inquiry research skills is by providing computer
tablets such as the Nexus 9.
In this project, students will learn how to incorporate outside sources within their assignments.
Students will not be limited to just one textbook within the classroom but will be taught how to
gather information from educational libraries that offer free research journals and papers.
Students can incorporate this information within their own research papers and class projects.
Furthermore, as a history teacher, I find it my duty to teach students the importance of keeping
up with current events. Having these tablets will allow students to do activities such as current
event write ups that can be searched on a device that is both monitored and restricted by the
school.
The classroom technology integration project will start off small, with it impacting the current 7th
grade social studies team of roughly 375 students, with the potential of impacting incoming
students the next year. The project will start off with 25 computer tablets, which is enough for a
classroom set and will be shared amongst the 7th grade social studies team on various days. They
will be available in a cart that each teacher can check out. If this proves to be successful, then
hopefully the tablet cart can be extended towards various grades and subject areas.
This project will require students to utilize online sources through various news articles and
academic resources to incorporate within their own projects and papers.

Applicant Bio

Phyoe Thaung has been a teacher for two years and is entering his third-year teaching 7th grade
social studies at American Leadership Academy at their Ironwood branch. He earned his
Bachelor of Arts in Education from Arizona State University in Secondary Education (History)
and a minor Political Science. Phyoe finds it his civic duty as an educator to not only teach his
students history and the importance of learning from past errors, but also learning within the
present and how they can work together to move forward and to forge a more positive future.

School Environment Narrative

American Leadership Academy schools are public charter schools throughout Arizona. ALA
schools promotes a traditional school environment to empower their students, which means there
is minimal use of technology. Students are expected to take notes by pen and paper, organize
assignments and events through physical calendars, and has a zero technology in the classroom
policy that they highly enforce. While this rigorous policy eliminates most distractions within the
classroom, it also stiffens the possibility of incorporating technology that has the potential to
connect better with students.
I am a social studies teacher at the Ironwood branch of ALA and the faculty here has been
amazing. I am more than humbled to be a part of a team that not only collaborates with one
another but is also so supportive of one another. The student population at the Ironwood branch
is a marvel variety that ranges from various ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds with
one common factor: all students interact heavily with their phones outside of the classroom.
Rather than eliminating technology completely from classroom, students should be able to be
hands-on with their devices to complement the lesson.
This project will directly impact students because they will be taught how to use technology
within the classroom in a way that will enhance their use of technology by modeling to them
both the proper use of technology and how to research and pull information from academic
sources. In my classroom, students can utilize the tablets to look up academic research papers
and journals from various online college libraries to incorporate into their own paper or projects.
This way students are not limited to the only textbook available within the classroom, but rather
have various research papers to choose from and are specific to what they are writing about.
One interesting project idea would be to use a program on the tablet called MyHistro where
students can create their own virtual timelines. Throughout the school year, students can log onto
MyHistro and plot in events that are happening within the country or globally and write what
their thoughts are on the events. Outside of the classroom, students can use MyHistro to also plot
events that are happening within their own personal life as a portfolio. Another way the tablets
can be utilized are incorporating Google accounts for each student so that students can share
documents and projects with one another on group projects, or if they want to share an
interesting source with their fellow classmates. The Nexus tablets will encourage our students to
not only be creative thinkers and critical researchers, but also collaborators.
As a teacher, this project can be used to help engage my students in a more “hands-on” manner.
When I show students a resource or a website on the projector, my students can be following
along with their tablets. Since I am limited to my SMART board as the only technology within
the classroom, this project will help my students feel more immersed when I am teaching and
can open the possibilities to different types of lessons. This will also make most lessons
involving technology easier as well, since I would not have to take all of my students down to
the computer lab (which can be tedious and time consuming) and can now utilize what I need
with the tablets.
As a history teacher, I want my students to be aware of the world that surrounds them. The
tablets will allow me to incorporate current events within my lesson plans. Throughout the week,
students will be able to research current events and write about them. This will not only teach
students the importance of civics, but also provide as a practice for them to be more aware of the
events around them.
The project will initially start off small, with a cart of 25 tablets (enough for a class set) for the
7th grade social studies department. The tablet cart can be shared throughout the different social
studies classes. If the project proves to be successful, then there should be an expansion of the
tablet carts to all departments and grad levels that can utilize the tablets within their lessons.

Project Narrative

Need for the Project

I can understand the emphasis ALA schools put on the zero tolerance of technology within the
classroom in their schools, but as an educator in an age where technology have become
commonplace within society, I believe it is time to move forward and embrace today’s
technology and incorporate them within the classroom to help our students. This project will
serve as a safe way for students to practice researching skills and utilizing various academic
sources. The values that our students will take away from this project will go far beyond their
academic career, as the skills of a critical researcher will follow them for the rest of their lives.

Project Impact
This project will start off small with one department but have the possibility to grow exponential
if the project proves to be successful with the students. There are 100 students who will initially
be exposed and will be using tools that is not only relevant within the 21st century classroom, but
skills that will be applicable in their daily lives. Students will be transformed into critical
researchers and collaborators that will utilize technology and their applicable features. This
project will also be a learning curb for me, as well as many other teachers, because it will force
us as educators to step out of our comfort zones for the benefit of our students.

Learning Goals and Outcomes

The primary goal of this project is to model and reinforce positive use of technology within the
classroom. Students will be exposed to various resources and methods to use the tablets in a
classroom setting and how technology can be used as a learning tool.
Students will be able to:
 Research and analyze different source materials and find specific details that they are
looking for by using various university libraries through their tablets.
 Review various current event articles and write the main points of each, as well as giving
their own perspective on the topic.
 Collaborate with one another through various class projects. Students will be exposed to
file sharing and how this can make student collaboration easier.

Standards covered includes:

Common Core
6-8.RH.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide
an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
6-8.RH.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.
6-8.WHST.2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events,
scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.
6-8.WHST.4 . Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and
style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
6-8.WHST.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present
the relationships between information and ideas clearly and efficiently.

Arizona State Standards

Strand One – Concept 1
PO 3. Construct timelines of the historical era being studies (e.g., presidents/world leaders, key
events, people)
PO 6. Determine the credibility of primary and secondary sources
Strand One – Concept 10
PO 1. Describe current events using information from class discussions and various resources
(e.g., newspapers, magazines, television, Internet, books, maps)
PO 2. Identify the connection between current and historical events and issues studied at this
grade level using information from class discussions and various resources (e.g., newspapers,
magazines, television, Internet, books, maps).
Strand Two – Concept 1
PO 3. Construct timelines of the historical era being studies (e.g., presidents/world leaders, key
events, people)
PO 4. Formulate questions that can be answered by historical study and research.

ISTE
1. Creativity and Innovation
b. Create original works as a means of personal or group expression
2. Communication and Collaboration
a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital
environments and media

d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems

3. Research and Information Fluency
b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of
sources and media

5. Digital Citizenship
a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology

b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration,

learning, and productivity
6. Technology Operations and Concepts
a. understand and use technology systems

Activities
Students will engage in the following activities
 Research current events and write down main points, relate them to previous historical
events, and give their own perspective on the topic.
 Interpret primary sources such as pictures, documents, and maps from various historical
and university archives.
 Research and incorporate findings from various scholarly sources such as academic
papers and journals.
 Create presentation projects in collaborate groups using Google software such as Google
Drive, Documents, and PowerPoint.
Assessment
Throughout the unit, students will be evaluated in various forms such as their written work on
current events and project presentations. These evaluations will be both formative and
observational. At the end of the first semester, student will be given a formative assessment in
the form of a group project titled, “how to research like a historian” in which they will pick one
historical topic to research and present how they went about researching and utilizing what they
learned that first semester.

Technology Support
American Leadership Academy schools has a dedicated technology support team in each branch
that can monitor each tablet and their activities. The tech team can trouble shoot software
problems on site as well.
Sustaining the Project After the Proposal Period
This project will be continued after the first year, if the project proves to be successful. The
process of knowing how to conduct historical research and analyzing current events is an
Arizona state standard, and the tablets can only help enhance the learning process. When the
tablet carts are expanded to other departments and grade levels, the teachers who were involved
within the first run of the project can teach the other members of the staff on how to utilize the
tablets in their classrooms.
Innovation
The project is truly innovative because rather than completely banning the use of technology
within the classroom, students are now able to be hands on within the learning process with tools
that they know how to use best. The tablets will also help students be more engaged in the
classroom because it captures their focus in that they are also doing something when the teacher
is in front of the class, which means their minds are always being stimulated.
Students will develop not only the necessarily skills to be critical researchers like the state
standards lay out, but also being able to apply these skills outside of the classroom. This project
will teach students that technology, when used properly, can be a learning tool than a distraction.

Budget Table and Narrative

Item and Quantity Individual Item Cost Item Cost

(25) Nexus 4 Tablets $190 $4750
(25) Tablet Armor Case $10 $250

Total Cost = $5,000

The use of the above items are as follows:

The Nexus 4 tablets are the primary items being used. This device is where students will utilize
different research assignments, as well as various class projects. Students will also use the Nexus
4 tablets as a collaborative tool, such as file sharing with their peers. The tablets are incredibly
inexpensive that each student will be able to have their own tablet when they are in the
classroom. There will be a cart that holds all the tablets that a teacher can check out for use that
day. The cart will be shared among one department of one grade.
There will also be a Tablet Armor Case that is purchased for each tablet that will subdue any
physical damage that might be inflicted on the tablets. The tablet cases are made of soft rubber
material and has a cover for the front of the tablet that will protect the screen. Any software
issues will be consulted with the on-site technology team. If there is damage done that is not
repairable by the tech team will be consulted through the free two-year warranty provided by
Google that covers most damages. If nothing else works, and since the tablets are already
inexpensive, if there is irreparable damage done to the tablet then the tablet could be replaced.