A Better World Project

The Quest

I have spent a good part of the day restructuring what's left of the 6th grade ICT curriculum for this year. This inevitably prompted me to embark on a quest  in cyberspace, the objective of which was to hunt down inspirational ideas for our 6th grade student video work this year.  In doing so, I revisited an amazing presentation our headmaster shared with me and dug around until I found what I was looking for. Splice and dub videos really caught my attention. They can be quite novel when done well and differ from any other video work we do at the ABC.

The Creative Internet 106 Things

The Topic

Now, at  ISTE 2010, after Rischard's less than enthralling yet still poignant keynote,  I made a promise to myself and my students. I would search out ways to work global awareness into our ICT projects, and focus on the Millennium Goals whenever possible. I decided that our video work this year should revolve around student messages which convey their ideas for making the world a better place. 

Parking

Lately, when planning and teaching, I find myself  in the curious position of being wiki dependent. I can't fathom working without one, so I created yet another one, This wiki will be used to share student digital projects which focus on ideas for making the world a better place. 

The Plan

Our first project will take place in mid January. For this activity the 6th grade students will create a short spliced and dubbed video in small groups using different characters and/or objects to share their plan for making the world a better place. As soon as the videos are ready they will be embedded in the wiki. 

The Invitation
It is our hope that other schools will become interested in this work and take on an "A Better World" activity using some form of digital media, which can then be added to the wiki. If you are interested in your school taking part in this. please contact me by asking to join the wiki or via email (jennifergarcia@abc-net.edu.sv) so that I can give you access.

United Nations Projects-Millennium Goals and Awareness

The LRC Celebrated United Nations with a fantastic display of artifacts from around the world. Most of these items were loaned to the LRC by members of staff. Tours were run for students across the school and special bookmarks were made available to the community.
In ICt lessons students in KS3 worked on various cross curricular projects, with a global emphasis. Take a look at the descriptions below.

Scratch


The 8th Grade students have finished working on their Scratch projects. This year they were asked to choose a Millennium Goal to focus on and develop a project around it. Most of these projects have been uploaded to the ABCICT Scratch Gallery and there is quite a variety to browse through and enjoy. You can even download, run and check out the programming used, via the Scratch Website.

 Reaction Grid
The student Art Gallery in the ABC El Salvador Region is now up to date. Students used original art work created by KS3 Students to construct framed canvases and create 3 dimensional art for the region. If you have a Reaction Grid Account you can log in and teleport to ABC El Salvador to view the work in person. If not the picture above will give you an idea of what the gallery currently looks like.
http://learningresourcescentre.pbworks.com/

Google Maps and Earth
The 6th grade students have completed their virtual tours of France using Google Maps and Google Earth. The students included important place marks, pictures and descriptions in these tours, as well as a spoken introduction to the regions they were focusing on, using Voki avatars. These projects are viewable from the Gallery at ABCICT. You must have Google Earth installed on your computer to view them.

Related articles

• 'Millennium Development Goals Summit' Comes To A Close (Live Stream) (huffingtonpost.com)