tech7

Standard Seven | Research, Problem Solving, and Product Development

**Integrative Model** In my Curriculum and Instruction class, we did a group project on the various wars that the United States was involved in, beginning with the Spanish-American War. For each of the five wars profiled, one of our group members had to look through various high school textbook pages and apply a model of //cause and effect// for his/her assigned war. When each group member completed his/her model, they e-mailed me the information. It was my job to compile the information in a an //integrative model// to highlight important information and demonstrate any similarities between the wars.

The //integrative model// is an example of synthesizing information from a collaborative effort. While we did not have a detailed cause and effect analysis of each war, using the //integrative model// was a great way to have key information about all of the wars in one place. It always allowed me to draw a conclusion from our efforts. While I chose to use a chart to organize the information, there are many different ways to outline the same information. In creating the model, I ran into some formatting problems in //Microsoft Excel//, but I used my knowledge and trail and error to solve those issues.

Technology is a great way to stay organized when integrating students' work, ideas, and grades. By combining the information together, students can easily see what the most significant aspect of the lesson was and allows for easy visual comparisons. Basic spreadsheets and word documents are relatively easy to generate and can easily transmitted through e-mail and included on a class website. As a teacher, I hope to have a class website where I can include handouts and other homework assignments for students as well as useful links for students to explore themselves. Additionally, I want my students to learn effective ways to integrate information for themselves to make studying and writing easier and efficient.  || ||