Creativity

__an ounce of creativity__
What will we do with this research? I'd like to suggest that we rethink what we've always done and consider using 21st Century skills and tools to complete our research project. What would you rather do? Be honest. Read your research paper aloud to the class or post it online via a Voice Thread - recording yourself as you 'tell' your research and have visitors to the site add their comments about your research? Here's another one: would you prefer to make a poster demonstrating your knowledge of the topic or publish your own book in iPhoto with illustrations, photos, and charts? There are many options!

Here are some ideas for completing the research project. Would you consider giving your students a choice? Let them choose the type of project that fits their learning style?

Podcast/Vodcast [|voice thread] [|The Newspaper Clipping Generator] - this is fun! Have your students name their newspaper, then add their report. It generates an old-looking newspaper clipping that can be printed or saved on a web page. The downside of this is that it is pretty small. This could just be a small part of the total project with an official-looking newspaper article.
 * Desktop Publishing** - Pages (Mac application) has great templates for brochures, newsletters, posters, business cards, and more. Comic Life (both Mac & PC) is another application that obviously makes comic creating simple. The speech balloons and text boxes are easy to manipulate and the comics can be very serious topics also.
 * Book Publishing** - iPhoto (Mac) books can be created right in iPhoto and either printed out or sent to Apple for publishing. [|Lulu.com]is an online publishing company that publishes anyone's work cheaply and quickly. MixBook - this site will allow you to create an online book very quickly then share it with others. Here's a cute book to enjoy: http://www.mixbook.com/books?bid=3789
 * Electronic Presentation** - Keynote (Mac) is much like PowerPoint. Students can add video clips to their presentations - either movies they've created or clips from Discovery Streaming. Music, narration, photos can all be added to create a jazzy presentation.
 * Wikis** - create a wiki. Students can easily organize their research in a wiki and include links to YouTube videos, add photos or artwork, and add audio files. It is then published to the web so others can learn from their hard work. The discussion area will be a great place for the student to pose questions regrading his/her topic so others could respond.

TimeLines: [|TImetoast Timeline] - this is a phenomenal tool. Now students can create a timeline and share it with others online. [|Capzles] - photo timeline. [|xTimeline] - another one! [|Mnemograph] - and another one!


 * Videos** - Videos can be made from almost anything now! Anyone can create an original video. iMovie (Mac) and Movie Maker (PC) are two very popular video creators. I just discovered recently that my new AverVision document camera makes movies too. Keynote presentations can be exported as movies. SnapzPro makes movies of what is on your computer screen. There are many tools readily available. Oops, I didn't even mention a video camera! HA!