Project Ideas

1)  Our team is involved in the Museum in the Classroom project this year.  Unfortunately, the state has not yet given us the list of museums involved this year.  This would be a definite area of interest to all of us - so may yet develop as the project I do.  It would be an interdisciplinary project with 7th and 8th graders as the principal targeted audience.  It would involve QuickTime VR elements, sound bites, email, C-U-SeeME conferencing.

2)  Reading Grotto
Level:  7th and 8th graders
Technology Elements:  Pictures, sound bites, absolute referencing to annotated previewed sites on the web, C-U-SeeMe conferencing, posting of reviews.
Content:  At our age level, it is a constant struggle to keep children reading.  It has been shown in the research that if we can keep children reading through 8th grade, we will have them for life, even if they don't read that much in high school or college, they will return to it.  The children need a place that they can go to in order to exchange their views on books they have read, find out about author's lives, participate in on-line discussions with other students, teachers, and writers.  

3)  North American Indians
Level:  7th and 8th graders
Technology Elements:  Pictures, sound bites, absolute referencing to annotated previewed sites on the web, C-U-SeeME conferencing
Content:  Students take on the role of either the United States Government, settlers (farmers), ranchers, or Indians during the time before the Civil War.  Indians are being crowded out of their lands, ranchers are warring with farmers, tempers and stakes are high.  The students are divided by classes with all students from one class taking on the role of farmers and then within that class they take on the role of members within the community.  Their task is the try to keep the peace and find solutions to their problems.  Each day, each group will recieve an unexpected problem from one of the other groups (i.e. an attack on an outlying farm).  Students may see what is happening in each of the other groups via the website.  The indians will have a village where they live and work and members of other groups can visit there to see how the indian people lived and how they feel about what is happening to them.  The farmers will have a section on a town.  The ranchers will have a section on a ranch.  The United States Government will have a section on a Calvary Fort.
The major problem they will all confront is how to handle the fact that the intercontinental railroad is coming through - how can everyone handle this so that everyone is satisfied.

This can also be used with distance classes as participants.  The various sections can hold pow-pows, town meetings, etc. via tele-conferencing, email, and listservs.

This is really green - need to roll this around in my head for awhile.