December

Peninsula School has contracted with RWP to provide inservice for the year. I am serving as the "coordinator" of the series. Linda Stewart, the 5th-8th grade teacher, is interested in helping her students create digital reports of information related to an exploration of plants in the dune environment. This study is being done in conjunction with Friends of the Dunes, a conservation/education nonprofit organization devoted to preserving dune habitat. Linda would like to post these digital reports on a blog that would be featured on the Friends of the Dunes website.

I will help Linda and her students accomplish this goal for my 2008-09 Modest Tech Project. This course alters from my original MTP plan which was to use Google Apps for Educators to help students set up e-mail accounts and Google Docs accounts to encourage digital exchange and response to writing. Linda was concerned about internet security and safety issues using this platform, and felt she was accomplishing the goal of sharing student writing by using a Shared Network folder on each of her classroom's computers.

Linda envisions each student writing a report of information about a native plant. Students will illustrate their reports with images from the web, scientific drawings, and photographs taken on site. Then, each student will record his/her report using a digital mic and assemble the narration and images in i-Movie. Finally, the individual i-Movies will be published on a blog and linked to the Friends of the Dunes web site. In addition, Stewart would like to create a podcast of the reports that could be used as an educational tool on a nature walk that features the plants on a trail at the school.