Project Sketch..

Inspired by many things we have learned in this class, our grade 7 humanities team got together and began to develop a new project encompassing technology. One of the articles which motivated us to create this project was “Reinventing Project-Based Learning.” Personally, I really enjoyed this article in part due to its content, (it’s about curriculum development – one of my favorite areas) and also because of its clear examples.

At the meeting we divided the tasks and we each have been working on different project aspects. Thanks to Google documents we are able to all read and edit the project as it evolves.

During this Connected World project (thanks to Robin for the creative name idea) students will utilize technology on a regular basis as they are assigned to a particular world region and follow one of eight global issues. They will work together to create an online “hyper Text” book assembled on a wikiblog about their experiences, create a video about their issue and come up with an action plan where they are part of the solution. Throughout this process the students will write regular blog entries detailing their thoughts, feelings, reflections about the process and their experiences.

Robin did an excellent job taking the ideas from our day of planning and putting them in a project description and David did a nice job adding some personal ideas as well as comments made during our second meeting about this project.

In addition to our four main phases of focus, here are some additional ideas we are discussing or will discuss:

• During the beginning of the project, students will work with their topic groups (rich-poor gap, health, climate change, energy & natural resources, food crisis, conflict & peace, economy, and human rights) to research, discuss and better understand their topic. This might be a Google document so all topic group members can work on it at once, regardless of which class they are in. The finished document will become a page in the online textbook.
• Like the topic groups, the region groups will also complete an overview page about their regions. This may be a Google document as well and once finished, it will become a page in the online textbook.
• Current event discussions will occur from time to time. As a group we are still developing this idea. Some formats might include blog entries and/or wiki “discussions”. During the project students will regularly monitor one or two websites for current events.
  
  These three additional ideas focus the most on Standard #2: Communication and Collaboration, Standard # 3: Research and Information Fluency and Standard #5 Digital Citizenship
  
  Overall, like the other teachers, I am very excited about our project! I think the students will benefit from exploring these topics or themes regionally and then examining them globally. For social studies, I think the thematic approach is a valuable way to focus the course material. The current events aspects delights me as well, I see it as a very meaningful and practical use of current events. In addition, I hope that it instills good habits and hooks many students, making them regular readers and followers of world happenings.