HyperStudio Activity Plan

HyperStudio enables students to construct multimedia stacks of cards (similar to a collection of 3x5 cards but arranged nonlinearly and accessed by “buttons” for moving from card to card). A card can include sound effects, animation, speech, text, graphics, video clips, and so forth.

Grade level: 8th–12th grades
Subject: geography
Length: five 40-minute class periods

Activity Steps

Step 1: Select a lesson.

In this lesson, student groups create a software program that plans a trip and gives information about a place they would like to visit.

Step 2: Make decisions.

• Group size: 2–3 students
• Group assignment: Students select groups according to places they would like to visit.
• Materials needed: HyperStudio or HyperCard and encyclopedias and other references.
• Assigning tasks: The keyboarder listens to group ideas and responds to suggestions as he or she uses the keyboard and mouse. The role of keyboarder rotates among the team members. Decision making is shared by all team members.

Step 3: Set the lesson.

• Task: The teacher introduces the topic of places in the world by asking students the place they have visited that is farthest away from where they live. The teacher explains that students will be working in teams who will visit, by way of computer, someplace in the world.
• Students think about the continent they would like to visit. They are directed to parts of the room according to the continent they have selected. When each student finds 1–2 others with an interest in the same continent, the student sits in a group with the others and helps agree on a specific destination for the group’s simulated visit.
• The entire class brainstorms some of the things that are done when planning a visit to a new country (e.g., buying tickets for travel; finding out about the country’s weather, historical sites, national heroes, monuments, animals, parks; setting an itinerary).
• The teacher directs the entire class as they create a stack of cards on the computer about their destinations. Cards, buttons, and fields are created on the computer for the stack.

Positive Interdependence

Each group member contributes ideas and helps plan and create the program. Each group member helps the group make decisions.

• Individual accountability: Each group member creates at least one card of the stack and does special research focusing on one topic of the group’s destination.

Criteria for success

• A completed stack of cards
• Specific behaviors expected: contributing ideas, listening to others’ ideas, sharing the keyboarding work, and helping the group come to consensus

Step 4: Monitor and process the student groups.

• Evidence of expected behaviors: students reading about their destinations, discussing and sharing ideas, and planning and creating their stack of cards
• Plans for processing: All groups will have a chance to use other groups’ stacks. There will be a session to reflect on what was learned about the other groups’ destinations and about the group process of listening to each others’ ideas and making decisions.

Step 5: Evaluate outcomes.

• Task achievement: The teacher evaluates each group’s effectiveness in completing its task.
• Group functioning: The teacher evaluates how well each group functioned as a team.
• Notes on individuals: The teacher evaluates and makes notes on the task achievement of individual group members.
• Suggestions for next time: After evaluations for all of the groups have been completed, the teacher makes a list of suggestions that could help improve the project next time it is conducted in the class.

Computer Laboratory

The computer laboratory is the ideal place for students to complete drafts of a composition, edit earlier work, and print final copies. However, some computer labs may not be set up for small groups to share their work or for a teacher to conduct discussions with his or her entire class about discoveries, challenges, or strategies that are or are not working. For teachers fortunate enough to have support from a computer specialist, they will want to share their cooperatively structured lesson plan and solicit participation in all aspects of the lesson (e.g., observing the groups, contributing precise feedback about performance).