I really enjoyed class tonight. When I first read about this topic and I was researching examples, I must admit I was a little confused. However, after talking in our class and sharing some examples, I realized that I had been a part of several telecommunication based projects myself. While I have never constructed a telecommunication based project, I realized that I could and I will list it as one of my three examples that follow.
1. A group of first graders was to record/video "A Day in the Life of NAME". So personally, we video recorded our day in the life. What we did, where we went, what we hate, what we wore, what our homework was, etc. Then we were to put it on DVDs and ship it to five different people...preferably people not in our part of the country OR our country at all! So we sent ours to Nicaragua, South Africa, Moscow, Romania, and Canada...we have friends in all of those places so it worked. Then our children go DVDs back plus the stamp of where it was sent from. It was so fun to see the day in the life of others around the world. It was also VERY fun for all the kids to put the stamps on a world map and see how far the videos came from!
2. One example that we talked about tonight was having questions prepared for a certain author of a book. Since it would be very expensive to bring this author in...you could "skype" him in or face time or whatever telecommunication tool you used to interview him with. Then they could create some artifact to showcase the interview. You could also do this with movie directors or maybe TV personalities or relatives in other countries and create a family tree! Just something interactive and interesting and not the norm!
3. Finally, an idea I came up with would be to interview modern day mathematicians. Ask them who their favorite legend is, what inspires them, why they got in to math, and what was the one math that they never thought they would use in the real world that they are! I think this would open the minds of our students to see the purpose of math in the real world! And they could even interview people who use it everyday that they may not realize...like the developers of Facebook or Bill Gates!!! They wouldn't be able to go to them and certainly not pay to bring them in BUT maybe they could get a skype call.
I think the possibilities are endless and this has really gotten me excited about maybe incorporating this into some of our current development projects!
These are great ideas Twila! I wish we could have done more stuff like this when I was in school.
ReplyDeleteHaving not done a telecommunications project myself these are great ideas. Funny you mention your Skype idea. This year we had an emphasis on reading at our school. Each faculty member selected a book to read and the students choose what book they wanted to read based on the teacher or their interest. One of our LA teachers skyped the author during their discussion where the students could talk/text the author about the book. It was pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas! I love the idea of students talking with a mathematician so they can see that it's a useful skill to have! I hear students complain about math & science so much and that it's pointless...little do they know. I hadn't thought about connecting with a real scientist until I read your post, but it seems like such a good idea. Maybe connecting with professionals would inspire some students and motivate them to work harder to reach their goals? Anyhow, your ideas are very creative and seem completely reasonable and easy to carry out with a little planning.
ReplyDeleteI love the day in the life of activity! It sounds like it was lots of fun. Maybe for elementary school, students could do a day in the life of, or what our class is like type of recording then share it with students in the same grade or class in another part of the country or world. It could be integrated with social studies and culture, especially if you were to include some heritage information. Thanks for the awesome ideas!
ReplyDeleteTwila, I was fascinated by your first example! It seems such an interesting and cool project for 1st graders. I did not even know where Nicaragua is and I just learned! I strongly believe such a project like this should help young students to acknowledge or recognize that there are different cultures in the world. Thanks for sharing your ideas ad experiences!
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