Spice up your resaerach projects

What skills are important?

• Determining high quality online sites
• Collecting information from a variety of sources
• Learning how to “Google”  and strategic searching
• Copyright laws (creative commons); A Creator’s Rights
• Citing your sources
• Google Advanced Search
• Sharing research in creative ways
• Applying the information you’ve collected to something new; understanding remixing

Digital Literacy lessons folded into research:

• Determining high quality online sites
• Strategic searching
• Citing your sources
• Understanding remixing
• A Creator’s Rights

Research Project Documents (Thanks to Julie Presant at Springer as well)

Project	Details/Skills	Tools	Resources
Newscast, history channel episode, documentary	Create a movie detailing the historic events in the form of a documentary or interview or breaking news story Movie making skills Writing a script Copyright Laws Sound editing	iMovie Popplet iThink	iMovie Guidelines Rock Your World, guide to producing documentaries
Podcast, interview with researcher	Interviewing skills Writing a script Writing insightful questions Sound editing Voice changes	Garageband	Author Interview Project
Research Paper		Google Docs	Research paper folder
Infographic	Using graphic design to convey information, teach copyright laws, explaining information succinctly, determining what really matters	Infogr Blog post on tools to create infographics	Amazing resource on infographics. Infographic Rubric
Website	Creating a website How to convey research in a user friendly way	Google sites
Create an app	Design an app that is based upon your research
Create a company	Pitch a start-up company idea based on your research and what need you are trying to fill, create a pitch to a venture capital company, create a prototype, utilize public speaking skills
Build a model	Create a 3d or 2d model based on your research and screencast yourself discussing it Do a fly through on Minecraft or a simple discussion on Screenchomp	Minecraft Screenr, jing, screenchomp	Article on Minecraft in Edu Minecraft and student learning Civics and Minecraft
Screencast	Create a video series explaining your topic to a younger child	Explain everything Educreations Screenchomp	Resource page on screencasting
Multi touch Book	Create a digital, interactive book about your research	iBooks Author	Example research project by a third grade class on the pioneers Pinterest page on iBooks Author in School
Blog	Blog as if you are the researcher finding and discovering information for the first time	Blogger
Comic Strip	Put together an account of the historical figure’s research in a comic told as a series of events	Comic Life Go Animate 4 Schools	Historical Novel example, but could be adapted to a more research based activity.
Social Media Profiles	Create a Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus account for a historic figure	PPT Google Presentation	Blog post about templates

imovie Apple Meet Up

It is always an exciting day when I get an email from an Apple Distinguished Educator at my school inviting me to an Apple Meetup! This Friday was an incredibly exciting topic, imovie, as I have created several projects this year. I was eager to hear some ideas from other educators on the philosophy behind imovie and the impact it can have on education. Upon arriving, I found about 20 other excited educators ready to discuss imovie. As we shared movies we’d made, a little part of me was really hoping to have a deeper discussion on why we use imovie and what benefits or difficulties we see in it. 

Because I wanted more, I went online and found some interesting commentary on using imovie. But mostly I’ve realized that each educator can use technology differently and for various purposes. I think the key is the word purpose. Technology is as effective as the purpose behind using it. 

I’ve enjoyed exploring imovie with my students. Here are some of the ways I’ve utilized imovie in my grade 5 classroom: 

1. Autobiography movies—students write an autobiography essay, record an audio file with quicktime or screencastomatic, import it to imovie along with pictures and make a digital movie of their life. 


2. Book Trailers—students are in groups and together create a review of a novel they just read together discussing the importance of matching pictures to their audio recording. Great site for examples and resources. 


3. How To Videos—a fun way to let kids be the teachers is to have them construct their own how to videos. Check out a great contest to enter called Next Vista for Learning based in California. 

Ideas for the future:

1. News Shows—we’ll be doing a weather unit and I would like to have students create imovies as weather reporters


2. Math review movies—we’ll soon be trying out imovie as a way to review for our math chapter test

Tools I want to try in relation to movie making:

1. Xtranormal—create a 3D animation


2. Go Animate—create an animation


3. Sock Puppets—turn your narrative into a fun story told by sock puppets


4. imotion HD—explore the world of stop motion animation

Check out some amazing How to … videos from my 5th grade class. We used imovie, creative commons, and cameras to make short videos teaching someone something new. Our class plans to enter them in a great contest through Next Vista for learning. Scan the QR code or use this link to get to our class You Tube channel where you’ll find other great videos to learn from.