Empowering+Students+on+the+Digital+Farm

Empowering Students on The Digital Farm
Susan Erickson Grade 4 Sue Howard Instructional Technology Specialist Thoreau School Concord, MA Mac environment, Activeboards, Flip Cameras

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One teacher's "Digital Farm" empowered students with many technology skills they were able to apply throughout the year on a variety of Curriculum projects. Using Activeboard Flipcharts, Keynote, videos and Podcasts.

Student groups of 3-4 were assigned roles on the "digital farm". Analogy to jobs on a farm for the technology roles in this digital farm classroom.

Storyboarded everything- Planning is the key!
 * Tutorial Designers- students made tutorials of lessons in class using Flip Cameras, i-movie and posting to school Web site as Quiktime movie


 * Book Trailer Group- Book reports as movies


 * Researchers- digital Researchers, answer questions brought up in class during day using various research resources available to students (online databases, books, encylopedias, etc.) Example "What does a classroom look like in England?" students looked up the information and eventually partnered with a grade 4 classroom in England and Skyped a few times.


 * Bloggers


 * Curriculum Review

Students sold pencils to other students in their school to raise money for Haiti, made a commercial with Flip
 * Contribution to Society- Students learned about Kiva, collected money to sponsor a person starting a business in poor area