Title: New Agriculture Curriculum Incorporates eBooks and Talking Text
Abstract: As teachers are forced to compete with televisions, cell phones, Nintendos, and other electronic gizmos for a student's attention, Oklahoma agricultural educators may have a leg up, thanks to some innovative applications of technology to curriculum products. Agricultural Education I, a newly revised edition of the best-selling curriculum produced by the Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center at the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, incorporates several new key features that can help make teaching-and learning-easier. For starters, the new book is deliberately more engaging. In contrast to the outline format of previous editions, the 2005 edition of Agricultural Education I more closely resembles a textbook. Each unit in the curriculum includes a feature story about a person in an unusual profession that ties in with the subject at hand. Hundreds of photos and neatly rendered illustrations have been added. In addition, dozens of short stories about interesting facts have been included to pique student interest. The instructor's manual includes a CD with supplemental teaching resources, such as Cooperative Extension fact sheets, video clips, livestock breed photos, and tree and plant identification guides. Multiple-choice written tests have been provided on the CD in Microsoft Word format so that teachers can easily customize them for their own classroom use. A set of PowerPoint lecture slides, which closely follow the book's content, is available as a separate companion product. Going Paperless In addition to its popular paper form, Agricultural Education I is available in eBook format and can be viewed using eReader-a software program that is easy to use and available at no cost. The eReader software allows books to be displayed on a laptop or desktop computer running on a PC, Macintosh, or Linux operating system. More importantly, eReader can be used on most PDAs (personal digital assistants, or handheld computers) and Symbian Smartphones. Some may find that reading from a small electronic screen takes some getting used to but, with a little practice, it quickly becomes second nature. When viewing the eBook version of Agricultural Education I, students can adjust the size of the font, perform word searches, add electronic bookmarks and personal notes, view photos and illustrations, and navigate through the document by clicking on built-in hypertext links. To turn pages, students simply tap on the screen. Traditional pencil/paper workbook activities have been created in Excel, which allows for lockable and editable fields so that students don't accidentally write their answers over the questions. The backlight feature built into most PDAs also allows students to read in situations where they normally couldn't read a printed textbook. Though not yet formally released to the public, the Agricultural Education I eBook curriculum is already having an impact while being piloted in a handful of classrooms across Oklahoma. The response of Broken Arrow High School agriculture students to the eBook curriculum has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, many students have said they wish more curriculum products were available in eBook format. The interactivity of the eBook seems to be the most rewarding and educational enhancing aspect of the new design. Students like being able to write notes in their eBooks. They also like tapping on links and being taken to pictures and sidebar stories, rather than being forced to look through them while scrolling. The Key to Success Successful early childhood education includes activities that are challenging as well as entertaining. These factors are the reasons for the popularity of such educational television programs as Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. Much of the learning in elementary school is also fun and engaging. However, the nature of structured learning often loses some of its luster at the high school level. …
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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