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

Check out one of my students’ author podcast interviews. Students used Garage band to create an interview with their favorite author. The project was a great success. Check out the podcast lesson assignment here. 

Using ibooks with English learners=brilliant!

Students listening to a poetry reading of “Owl Moon” on the iPad using VoiceThread. Other applications of VoiceThread: poems read and thought of rather than written, digital versions of narratives, interviews etc., quick and easy way to do a podcast. 

When January roles around, many of us find ourselves with bright new faces in our classroom, wide-eyed and a bit nervous. New students starting mid year, are to me, both the most wonderful occurrence and the most difficult. 

Catching up a student on the ins and outs of your classroom, technologies he or she might not know, as well as assessing their learning levels so that they can be placed in the appropriate reading and word study groups are all necessary, but time consuming. 

My new student is full of the most inquisitive questions and desire to understand. That being said, this wonderful student is still behind many of the other kids in my class. Therefore, I’ve needed to sit with her as we work through math, reading and writing in order to allow her the necessary explanations that will enable her to participate. 

That being said, my other students are limited in the time I can give them. So, today I tested out using my ipad as a second “teacher”. I thought of this idea while she and I were reading, then proceeded to spend 15 minutes figuring out how to find an age appropriate website or PDF that I could then convert to an ebook through a site I had googled moments before. 

By the length of that sentence, my brain and fingers were trying to move at about 100 miles per hour. So, finally we reached our destination. I changed the general settings on my iPad to allow for accessibility (ie. so that the iPad will read to you when you highlight something). Then, I showed her how to highlight sections so the iPad would read it to her as she read along. We then worked on going back and highlighting the words she still didn’t understand. 

This was helpful as I was then able to walk to other reading groups and listen in on their discussion or chime in with additional questions. 

My next phase of implementation is to 1) be ready with the PDF prior to handing over the iPad 2) look into installing an epub plug-in on my browser (testing out Chrome plug-in here) 3) figure out how to enable highlighting words and researching their definitions 4) asking myself how can I take this to another level with her? (As of now I am thinking of having her voice record a summary using voicethread.) 

Podcast author interview

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutterhacks/4474421855/sizes/z/in/photostream/

"Really, I can choose my author?" Kids love choice. Teachers want kids to read and to be engaged with projects. Currently, I have taken on an author project. My fifth grade students choose a favorit author, research him or her, write a persuasive book review on one of the author’s books and then create a podcast interview with their author using Garageband. Here is a great video on podcasting. 

I am excited about gaining the experience with using Garageband as it is a tool I have limited knowledge of. My edtech department did a wonderful pd on using this software, see here. While my students know iMovie well, I am choosing to use Garageband for this project because it is much better at sound recording and editing whereas iMovie is better for video and movies with photos. 

My students have some experience, but overall it will be a new technology for most of them. Generally when I introduce a new piece of technology, we walk through the process step by step so that no one falls behind. It is great to give students a print out of where you are going with the lesson, as I have found they are more able to stay on track and on task if they have a generally idea of what they are going to be learning. 

Additionally, a tip sheet is a nice item to have as well. That being said, I have found it a bit hard to find kid-friendly tip sheets for technologies as usually this type of thing is directed more at adults seeking out information. 

I’ve linked my podcast lesson handout here for your to open as a Googledoc. The general time line is as follows: 

• 2 one hour blocks to research the author (I folded in the book review work at this stage of time. Students were introduced to persuasive writing at this point as well.)


• 2 one hour blocks (or less depending on age of students) to write script


• 1 one hour block for Garageband introduction/start of podcast work


• 2 one hour blocs to work on and to submit podcast

Enjoy!