Amy decided to let her students choose between two technologies for presenting what they learned, but she has thought through each project and given guidelines so it will be a good learning experience either way.
Joe decided to use iMovie for a persuasive writing assignment. Why is that significant? Most people think of persuasive writing as an essay, speech, or something like that. But aren't you often more persuaded by a good movie where you can SEE evidence, rather than just hear talk about it? This is a good example of picking the right technology for the project. Doing a persuasive piece with ppt just wouldn't have the same emotional punch as a movie. And writing a good script for a movie can still incorporate literary elements, as Joe shows.
Jill's going to use the Internet, digital cameras, Photoshop and either iMovie or ppt to have students make virtual museums of ecosystems near where they live.
By the way, Jill has a really cool idea for a post called "Take a penny, leave a penny" where she left some random ideas for using technologies in different lesson plans. She's left them there for anyone stuck needing a good idea. Hopefully you'll go to her blog and also "leave a penny" or leave a good idea for her as well!
Carla has a good idea for biology
"Students will each be given a small tube containing “body fluid” which has previously been prepared—most will contain nothing, but one or two will contain an antibody that represents SARS. The students will “sneeze” on each other (mix and share fluid) three different times to simulate day-to-day interactions, keeping record of who they exchange with. A short lesson on how ELISA works will follow. Students will then perform an ELISA test to see if they have “SARS.” Finally, students will use deduction to determine who started the epidemic."
The ELISA test is some kind of laboratory equipment that helps test fluids. What I like about this lesson idea is that it is up-to-date and applicable to our world and what's happening NOW. So students learn biology doing something that applies to their lives -- cool! This would also be a good idea for a Health lesson -- in fact when Carla gets out in the schools she should collaborate with a Health teacher on this one.
