IT for Every Classroom: Examples of IT Projects

In IT for Every Classroom, a weekly column on Dialogue Online, Paul Keery shares his practical tech advice for non-IT teachers.

Photo from The York School

Last week, we considered the factors involved in deciding what type of IT project to incorporate into your curriculum. This time around, let’s look at examples of projects that would be appropriate for students in junior, intermediate and senior grades.

I Remembrance Day Podcasts

Believe it or not, Remembrance Day (Nov. 11) is fast approaching. Schools have revived and restored Remembrance Day commemorations in the last decade to recognize Canadians’ service in conflicts around the world since the First World War. Students at all grades can create their own commemorative enhanced podcasts to recognize the contributions of family members (parents or grandparents) or of individual combatants. These can be played at school assemblies or in class on Nov. 11.

Here is an example of a Remembrance Day Podcast Assignment:

Remembrance Day – WW1 Podcast Assignment

Working on your own, visit the Veterans Affairs Canada website at http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/firstwar/vimy

and http://www.thememoryproject.com/digital-archive/search-index.cfm .

For the Memory Project link, select WWI under Conflict, and it will take you to a list of veterans who have provided memories of the war. Find at least one other resource online; there are several good ones.

Assignment: Imagine that you have survived the battle of Vimy Ridge, Canada’s defining battle of the First World War. Write a short, one-minute Podcast about your experiences in the battle:

in the trenches; what was life like every day as a soldier living in the trenches?
describe the actions of one of four Canadians decorated at Vimy Ridge: Provate William Milne, Lance-Sergeant Ellis Sifton, Captain Thain MacDowell, or Private John Pattison.

Your podcast will be an enhanced one; it must include photographs and images of the battle (actual images of the soldiers would be wonderful, but may be impossible to find) as well as appropriate sound effects and music.

Procedure: Submit your script for evaluation before you record your podcast.

Evaluation: The script will be worth 35 per cent of the mark; the completed podcast will be worth 65 per cent of the mark.

This assignment could easily be modified to include the Second World War, Korean War, Canadian Peacekeeping Missions from the 1950s through the 1990s, the Gulf War, and the Afghanistan conflict.

Students would be expected to write a proper script (as described in an earlier blog, Scriptwriting for Podcasts), and submit it as part of their completed assignment.

II Dramatic Radio Show

Students would be expected to write and record a radio play.

Assignment: Produce a Drama or Comedy Program.

Time: You have four classes to write and produce a five-minute drama or comedy program. This can be done in groups of three.

Procedure You may use a script you write, a script of a student-written one-act play, or a script from an Old-Time Radio show. You must have actors, sounds and sound effects you record yourself. You must have music. Choose or write a drama that requires this amount of audio and complexity (not a one person introspective show). If what you choose lasts longer than five minutes, you must edit or clearly indicate that this is the first in a serial; you do not have to complete the entire script. Each student in the group must play a role in the play.

Submit your script before recording the play.

You will have four class periods to prepare the program; one of these will be used for editing your final show.

Recording will take place in the third class period. You may have to convert sound files to mp3s at home to be sure that you are ready to upload them in class.

The final edited version will be completed and due during the fourth class period.

Evaluation: The script will be worth 35 per cent of the mark; the completed Podcast will be worth 65 per cent of the mark. Your feature will be presented in class.

This project would be suitable for language arts of English classes, as well as high school drama and media classes.

Good luck with your IT project!

Read previous IT for Every Classroom columns:

Teacher Tips for Integrating Technology

Simpler Software is Better

Getting the Necessary Hardware

Introducing Podcasting

Scriptwriting for Podcasts

Recording the Autobiographical Podcast

Enhancing the Autobiographical Podcast

Exporting the Autobiographical Podcast

Evaluating Podcasts

What to Do With Completed Podcasts

The Best Subject In Which To Use Technology Is …

Back Up Work, Avoid the ‘Spinning Wheel of Death’

To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade, That Is the Question

Preparing to Use Hardware and Software

Creating an IT Project

Selecting a Subject for an IT Project

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Do you have IT tips to share with other educators, or an academic question on integrating computer technology with curricula for Paul Keery? Tell us what you think at: editor@ourkids.net