5 Favorite Technology Integration Projects by Kelli Erwin

Part of the Cool Sites series

The end of the school year is upon us and students (not to mention teachers) are ready for a break. The only problem is that school isn’t over yet and we still have things that we need to teach our students. Take the time to find a fun and engaging technology enriched project to complete with your students. Included here are five of my favorite technology integration projects that I have used in the past.

  1. Do you need to bring a little technology into the way students study novels? Check out this link for a webquest derived from the novel “The Light in the Forest” by Conrad Richter. http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/lewis/litf/ This webquest is for students in grades 6-8. During their experience they “capture” another Native American and create a new identity for him/her so they fit into the Lenni Lenape culture. As an extension to this webquest have students create their reflections in a glog (www.edu.glogster.com) or use Xtranormal (www.xtranormal.com) to create an animated movie discussion about their experience with this webquest.
  2. Not able to take your students on fieldtrips around the world? Let National Geographic assist you at the National Geographic site for kids.
    • http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/bureau/ When you click into the travel bureau, you will begin an adventure into the past, present or future. Have students use what they learn to create a brochure describing their adventure or create a travel itinerary based on a set budget with specific required activities. Students can create a presentation using a technology tool of their choosing to create the ideal vacation to their selected location. Try finding copyright friendly pictures about their vacation location and create a movie using PhotoStory (free Microsoft tool…just Google search Photostory).
  3. Have you ever heard of the Atoms Family? The Miami Museum of Science takes an imaginative approach to matter, energy and atomic properties. (for middle school) http://www.miamisci.org/af/sln/ After exploring the Atoms Family and learning all there is to know about atoms, create a movie (using iMovie or Windows Movie Maker) to share the knowledge. Create a word cloud using Wordle (www.wordle.com) that includes important science terms related to atoms. Locate editable videos on Discovery Streaming and do a remix to make your own movie from footage available.
  4. Bring cartoons into the classroom. The largest online collection of newspaper editorial cartoons can be found at http://www.cagle.com/teacher/. It contains current cartoons from 54 newspaper editorial cartoonists with lesson plans for using the editorial cartoons as a teaching tool in Social Sciences, Art, Journalism and English at all levels. Using a cartoon from this site, relate the past to the present. In your own words describe what the cartoonist feels about the related topic. Use http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ to extend the lessons and activities digitally.
  5. Have students create book trailers to intrigue others about reading a specific book. Students can use video or digital images to represent a portion of the story and then turn it into a movie using Photo Story 3, Windows Movie Maker, iMovie or other related program. Students not only create storyboards, they write the scripts, create and produce the book trailers. When the book trailer is finished, have students create a glog to share their book trailer. Be sure to upload the video book trailer to use in the glog (www.edu.glogster.com). Be creative.

Ok, so I said only 5. But, how do you limit when there are so many great projects to create and share? One last project…I didn’t mean to leave Math out of the list.
Visit http://kerwin.edu.glogster.com/take-me-out-to-the-ballgame/ and http://kerwin.edu.glogster.com/whats-your-angle/ to find math related glogs to guide you and your students into a real world math project.


This blog post is a part of the I Heart EdTech Blog Swap brought to you by SimpleK12.com.


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