## Justification

Introduction and theme

Our main topic is the city of Zwolle and historical significant buildings in the city centre. We chose this, because it is important to students to know about their hometown and the history behind it. The lesson plan is also very easy to adapt to any other city. This learning environment is built for history lessons, but actually has a strong focus on presentation skills.

The target age group of our students is 12 to 13 years, or the first year of secondary school. The students are not used to giving presentations yet and therefore this is a main focus in this lessons. They will get instructions and guidelines on how to prepare material and themselves for proper presentations.

Theoretical framework

For our learning environment we chose the TPCK model, as it shows very well how content knowledge, technology and pedagogics should mesh in a good lesson.

Technological knowledge (TK) are digital competences and the use of technology to improve your learning environment. Content knowledge (CK) is the knowledge about concepts, theories and ways to develop knowledge. Pedagogical knowledge (PK) covers the knowledge of the ways students learn and general learning theories. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is the knowledge about how to make topics clear and easy to learn for students. It also covers the knowledge if a topic is easy or hard to learn. Technological content knowledge (TCK) covers the knowledge to use and implement technology to offer and teach new lesson content. Technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) is the knowledge of learning methods, that technology can offer, like working on the same document from different places. Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is the knowledge to combine TK, CP, and PK and the understanding of the relationship between teacher, students and technology used. (Mishra, Koehler, 2006)

According to the TPCK model students use different technological tools in the lessons and at home, such as cameras, mobilephones and MS Powerpoint or other presentation tools. They learn about the city of Zwolle and sites of significance. The beginning of the lesson series is teacher focused, to get them a general overview on the topic and expectations of the following lessons. In the next lessons the focus switches to a more student orientated learning by letting the students do a city tour and prepare presentations on specific sites. The topic is life related, as it is knowledge and the history of their hometown and so it is easier to learn for the students. The students use a webquest to get their instructions and guidelines on their own work. As the students have to prepare a presentation together, they improve their social skills and have to coordinate their efforts. The webquest is also a good tool to improve their independence in their working process. With webquests active learning can be promoted by leading the students through a sequence of steps and linked websites. (Billings & Kowalski, 2004, p1)

It is getting more and more important to be able to give a proper presentation and therefore it is important to prepare students as early as possible. Giving a presentation in the classroom is a good and safe environment to practice and to improve presentation skills. These skills are needed as employers look for graduates with excellent presentation skills. (Alshare, Hindi, 2004, p6)

Statement of the quality

The lesson series starts with a main introduction of the topic to know some general knowledge before extending the knowledge during the next lessons. The teacher provides this knowledge in a presentation which should be a good example for the students doing their own presentation later. Our presentation guide supports this but we think that it is also necessary to see a real example instead of only reading a guide.

In all following lessons the learning environment is student orientated, which is important to make students activated and motivated. We are learning them skills they will need for their following school life and work after that. The webquest and lesson plan are also easily adaptable to other cities. What could be improved is the use of technology during the city tour as the tour guide at the moment is a print out. We think that this could be improved by i.e. using an app to overlay videos on the buildings the students should learn about.

Conclusion

We think, with this lesson series, we created a good model for getting the students to know about their hometown and its history. It is also of importance to learn proper presentation skills. With our guidelines and the example shown by the teacher in the first lesson, the students are able to gain presentation skills right in the beginning of secondary school. The rubric shows, that we had our focus more on the presentation skills than the content, because we think, those skills are more important.

Scource list:

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/977d/8f707ca1882e093c4ab9cb7ff0515cd944f5.pdf [21.12.2017].

Alshare, K., Hindi, N. (2004). The importance of presentation skills in the classroom: students and instructors perspectives. USA: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Volume 19 issue 4.

Billings, D., Kowalski, K. (2004). Using Webquests to promote active learning. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing. Available at:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.windesheim.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=9ab46d9f-8ef5-417d-8595-bbc402a02b3b%40sessionmgr4006 [21.12.2017].