I've heard concerns expressed that projects are great, but teaching must come first. What about learning? Do students learn as much or as well from doing projects? Are students more engaged with the curriculum when listening or when they're constructing? Please join the dialogue by sharing your thoughts as a comment for your first assignment.
Your second assignment is to create a digital project you can use in class with iPhoto. I'll begin by showing you a few things, then let you work.
There are plenty of resources to help you if you need to finish later:
Here's the link on our resources to the documents we created to help you with iPhoto '06: http://www.cobb.k12.ga.us/instructionaltechnology/mac/resource_files/iPhoto_6_manual.pdf
You have iPhoto '08? Well, http://www.cobb.k12.ga.us/instructionaltechnology/mac/resource_files/iPhoto_8_manual.pdf
From iPhoto, you can print photo books, greeting cards, and calendars, as well as create slide shows with music or other audio that can be burned to DVD.
I think that well designed projects are vital for middle school learning. However, they have to be well planned with solid rubrics. they must be relevant. Most cannot stand alone as the only means of teaching a concept. Many students are not able to make connections with hands-on to objective test questions; therefore, you have to guide them through the process with carefully leading questions. This is time consuming but worthwhile since once the connection is made, it generally sticks much longer than just memorizing facts. Furthermore, students get excited by learning through projects and become more motivated to take chances and learn on their own.
Posted by: Ethel Shockley | September 28, 2008 at 04:55 PM
OOPS! I posted my comment under the wrong section - see the one above about Apple laptop carts!
Posted by: Ethel Shockley | September 28, 2008 at 04:58 PM