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

My students each have their own blog. Sometimes issues come up at home or in class that I don’t have time to explain. By making a screencast or a “How to…” video on a topic such as inserting an image, copying a Google doc over to the blog etc. I limit the in class time spent on a task students can do at home. Some of the videos are softer in volume than I’d like, but that all comes with practice. Check out my YouTube playlist on Blogger how tos here. 

Screencasting essays with Educreations

Link: Screencasting essays with Educreations

Do you feel like your students fail to fully engage and build upon the red lines, scribbles and notes that you jot down on their essays? In this session, Use video to provide active feedback on writing by combining visual and auditory learning with video essay feedback. This session will consist of two parts. 1) How to .. 2) The purpose behind the technique.

Participants will view digitized videos of feedback on writing and compare them to hand written comments or even to electronic feedback, assessing the pros and the cons of each. 

Experiment with technologies like EduCreations and Quicktime screencasts as tools to creating real time video feedback. This will be a hands-on workshop and all participants are encouraged to bring computers and/or iPads and stylus. By the conclusion of the session participants will have the basic skills to create their own video feedback sessions for their students and will understand the fundamental benefits that can be derived from this process. See here for an example using educreations, and here using quicktime.