The 09 Campaign

It is fun to have a new class of 6th grade IT students, and they have been exploring Emerging Technologies. Look at their posts (see their addresses at the right to see more about what they are learning in class this trimester.

A break from IT

As we are now in our final trimester, we are taking a break from the 6th grade IT course, and Mr. Woodward is enjoying the opportunity to teach 7th & 8th graders Digital Video.

We will pick up this blog once IT resumes again in a future trimester.

Reflecting on Progress & Finishing the Wiki

LESSON PLAN FOR TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2009

Today I am away at FRIM (the Forestry Reserve in Malaysia) with the 7th graders, so you have a substitute for the day. You have two tasks which you should complete. We hope to finish the wiki by this week -- so you should spend some time reflecting on where you are at -- and then work to finish your wiki.

FIRST, Log onto your BLOG and reflect on your work thus far on your wiki. Include specific contributions to your wiki which you have completed, and what you still need to do.

I should see which section (introduction, communication, business, entertainment) you think is the strongest, and which section you think is the weakest. I should also see you reflect on some (at least three) of the key requirements. You may want to look at the rubric to ensure you are on the right track.

PURPOSE: Our wiki has a clear purpose. Every part of the site enhances the purpose.

INFORMATION: Our wiki covers content that is important for the purpose. Our information is thorough, balanced, and fair.

SOURCES: We get information for our wiki from a variety of credible sources. Readers can easily find out where we found our information.

CREATIVITY: We include surprising and original insights, ideas, language, and multimedia features to support our wiki’s purpose.

COLLABORATION: We discuss our ideas and agree on the major components of our wiki. We respect each others work by offering support and constructive criticism. We agree on any changes that we make to the wiki before we make changes.

PAGE ORGANIZATION: Each page in our wiki thoroughly describes a section of our topic. We effectively use headings and subheadings to help readers find what they are looking for.

LINKS: All the links on our wiki work, are appropriate for our audience, and relate to the purpose of our site.

LANGUAGE: We use powerful, concrete, and accurate words on our wiki. We use a minimum of technical language and include definitions, when appropriate.

CONVENTIONS: We have no errors in spelling, capitalization, grammar, punctuation, or sentences.

Your blog post will be graded based on this criteria.
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THEN, when you finish your blog post, spend the rest of the class quietly improving your wiki. You should focus on making it look professional, ensuring that you have all of your sources documented, and that your ideas are creative and interesting.

Continuing Efforts on the Wiki

We are making some progress on our wiki. It was fun to see our partners work on their new blog postings. Some of their work which was posted on their blog, we copied and edited to put on the wiki -- in the hopes that we can continue progressing toward our final product.

Many groups are getting good paragraphs for each section and are beginning to insert appropriate pictures (and their sources!) We are not yet ready to insert YouTube videos, but can follow the tutorial to find out how to do it.

Progress on the Wiki

Today at ISKL, we have returned from our short break for Chinese New Year, and are enjoying a short week (3 school days!). This morning we found out where we are going for Malaysia Week -- the one week without walls when our whole middle school disperses to ocean, river, and rainforest sites around Penninsular Malaysia. There is lots of excitement as some will be river-rafting, others snorkeling, and others going on jungle walks through the rainforest.

In IT class, we are reviewing the introduction for the wiki and going over the rubric in order to focus our efforts on our content. Then we are spending time editing our wiki in preparation for content. Hopefully some students will be ready to find pictures and maybe even videos to illustrate their points.

Life in 2020

Today in IT class, we are working on updating our wiki, which we are working with on our partners from Liberty and from Ms. Narsiman's class.

To get an idea of how we will communicate, how we will conduct business, and what we will do for entertainment, we are trying to picture our lives in 2020. Today, students should write a blog titled, "My Life in 2020." This can be a creative story or a factual account, but should look not only at their own lives, but also what is going on around them.

Back from the Break

Today in IT, we worked on catching up on our blogs and preparing for the next step -- working with our partner on our wiki.

We posted a summary of our vacations and put two comments on other people's blogs, including some of our partners in Ms. Narsiman's class.

Some of our Emerging Technologies presentations will be presented next class.