Title of Activity: Researching Canada’s First Nations Peoples

Reference Section:

Access History Web Company Inc. (2008). Canada history. Retrieved October 13, 2009,
from http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/Eras/prehistory/prehistory.htm.

Grade Level: 5

Subject: Social Studies

Brief Description of Activity:

Students will visit the website above and research one group of First Nations people of their choice.


General Learner Outcome:
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the people and the stories of Canada and their ways of life over time, and appreciate the diversity of Canada’s heritage.

Specific Learner Outcomes:
Students will appreciate the complexity of identity in the Canadian context

ICT Outcomes:
C.1.1.1 access and retrieve appropriate information from electronic sources for a specific inquiry
C.1.2.1 access and retrieve appropriate information from the Internet by using a specific search path or from given uniform resource locations (URLs)
F.1.2.4 recognize the potential for human error when using technology
F.3.1.1 demonstrate courtesy and follow classroom procedures when making appropriate use of computer technologies
F.6.1.1 perform basic computer operations, which may vary by environment, including powering up, inserting disks, moving the cursor, clicking on an icon, using pull-down menus, executing programs, saving files, retrieving files, printing, ejecting disks and powering down
P.5.1.1 navigate within a document, compact disc or other software program that contains links
P.5.1.2 access hyperlinked sites on an intranet or the Internet


Rationale for Computer Integration:

The use of computers is not absolutely necessary for this assignment (research), but this is one way of integrating ICT outcomes into regular curriculum. Computers have been integrated into this assignment to accustom students to researching on the internet. Although the students will be directed to a specific site, they have the freedom to choose from a number of pages.

Assignment 2

This assignment involved revamping a very poor PowerPoint presentation. The five main changes I made to it are as follows:
1. I got rid of the incredibly annoying animations and simply made the text "appear" on cue.
2. I drastically reduced the amount of text per slide, and limited it to the most important points.
3. I added pictures to enhance the presentation, making sure to give credit where credit is due.
4. I enlarged the text, adjusted the colors, and added titles to enhance its readability.
5. I made the entire presentation more aesthetically pleasing by coordinating the slides by color and format.

Croswnest Fire Presentation

Assignment 2 Revised Power Point

View more presentations from University of Lethbridge.

As part of my teacher training I am taking a class on Communications Technology and our first assignment is to start a blog. I've always had a bit of an aversion to posting anything personal on the web, but this is a required course so here goes! Incidentally, one of my previous courses involved an Internet assignment, and while most of my classmates created blogs, stubborn me refused. Instead, I created a PowerPoint presentation, emailed it to myself, and when the time came to present it I opened my email account and said "As you can see, my assignment is on the web--its just password protected!" I thought that was pretty clever of me and the professor was so gracious as to accept that it did, indeed, meet the assignment requirements, and respected my wishes for privacy. But alas, for this class I can think of no way to avoid publishing my personal thoughts on the web.

We just had a show of hands as to who has a facebook account and I was one of very few who did not. Its not that I'm a Luddite or anything--don't get me wrong--I like technology! I just don't like broadcasting my personal opinions, etc. (which I may some day regret) for the whole world to see.