Let's Go!

So the project has begun and I like what's happening....

In my school we have the luxury of seeing our students once a week in a classroom with 15 eMacs, ethernet, and less than 15 students (in most cases- but never more). In the past, it has primarily served as an extra class since this luxury is at the cost of only seeing my students 4 days a week in a full-group setting. This year, though, I've harkened back to what they were designed and intended for...an extension and enrichment of full-group class.

I designed two 15 week courses within half groups so that students will not only have technology in their education but also use it for education. My goal for them is not only to have them use the tech, but create with it and own what they create entirely. A sort of discovery learning/ studio environment involving 6 different web tools:

1. Jing/ Screencast
2. Voicethread
3. Toon Doo
   
4. PBWiki
5. Blogspot
6. My Access

The idea is to spend two class periods with each class introducing each tech tool and discussing the merits and potential of each with a stress on why it's better than traditional projects and assessments. Then we vote on three that we wish to work with for 15 weeks. They will then pick one to work on with a partner and create 2 projects together. The second semester of work (or the first for some) will be spent working and practicing on 3 projects in My Access.
As students create projects, I will post them on here and our classroom Moodle page.

I am also going to include the course calendars for anyone interested.