scenarios

When Harlan, Kim and Larry were planning this project, Harlan created some hypothetical student proposals. There were two points he was looking to illustrate here:
 * 1) A number of possible ideas for this project
 * 2) Some of the proposals were (intentionally) weak or not enough. How would we suggest improvements to bring them in line?

The proposals are followed by some comments - please feel free to add more proposals here and/or make your own comments:

Creative Writing:
//A student decides to take some of his creative writing pieces and post them on an "aspiring authors" website (or blog them). They invite comments from various readers. Then he goes back and reflects upon the pieces, based on that feedback.//
 * A rubric would be key here. This could be terrific or weak depending. What if the student blogs and has no readers? -Larry Kahn
 * I agree; some blogs are totally mindless. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:24 AM

History:
//A student decides that she wants to do more with the paper she wrote on the underground railroad. She does more research and finds pictures and video to go along with the text resources she found earlier. Instead of writing a paper, she writes a script and makes a documentary video about the underground railroad.//
 * The video should be published, otherwise I like this. -Larry Kahn 11/18/09 9:08 AM
 * Me, too. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:33 AM
 * I did this a couple of years ago with my students. They worked in pairs and did a research documentary on a historical topic. It went really well. Angela has also done this with a more specified topic and she has a good rubric for it. Beth
 * Y'all were what I had in mind when I wrote this one, Beth!

Photography:
//A student masters the use of a tablet with Photoshop. He creates some award-winning digital photographs.//
 * Again, publishing on the web, sharing, perhaps revising some of the Photoshop work based on comments (like the first scenario) -Larry Kahn 11/18/09 9:09 AM
 * I think the issue is that the original scenario is just a single application. To meet the proficiency requirement, there has to be more than one thing, and likely something more web-based. -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 9:12 AM
 * I'm not sure award-winning should be involved. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:34 AM

Photography:
//A student finds an online pen-pal: a professional photographer. They discuss techniques, and the student takes his photo for a project and alters it with Photoshop to give it a new look. He emails the professional his picture.//
 * I don't think this is enough. Maybe a blog with more photos, comments, and and explanation of what was done in Photoshop and why. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:34 AM

Foreign Language:
//A student participates in an online video chat (a.k.a. Skype) with a student in Spain. They talk, first in English for half an hour and then in Spanish for half an hour. They do this once a week for 6 weeks.//
 * Writing this, it didn't feel like enough to me. Maybe there needs to be more of a product? -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 9:25 AM
 * HH and I just discussed the concept of having the two students write collaboratively about their experience. -Larry Kahn 11/18/09 9:26 AM
 * Should they publish this somewhere? -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:39 AM

Theater:
//A student creates an online digital portfolio, with video, pictures and links to reviews of his work, along with an online "actor's notebook" (e.g. a blog).//
 * Sounds good, but are the video and pictures and reviews his products? Is he just collecting work of others? -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:40 AM
 * My intent in writing this was that they were media about what he did as an actor. -- Harlan

Math:
//A student does an online search to find census data, about 10,000 stats. He then does a statistical analysis of the data using Excel or a statistics program, makes a graph and incorporates it into a nicely formatted report in Word.//
 * I like this, but it needs to be shared. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:41 AM
 * Yeah, it didn't feel like enough to me, though I like the idea of seeking out and managing large amounts of data. -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 9:46 AM

Science:
//A student wrote a paper theorizing that left-handed people are more likely to be able to roll their tongues. Although she got 150 people to tell her about their left/right handedness and tongue tricks, she decides to post her question online - she gets about 1500 samples, some of which she throws out because they seem to come from St. John's, and they don't seem too reputable. She analyzes the data and posts her conclusions online.//
 * What tools would she use to analyze? Excel? Graphs? Formulas? -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:42 AM

English:
//A student does an online search of recreations of "Romeo and Juliet." She downloads all the movies she can find and creates a mashup movie of all the pieces, which she posts on YouTube.//
 * Copyright issues here? I like it. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:43 AM
 * In this case, reposting is where we get in trouble. (Or is it?) This glides the edge of "Fair Use." Larry mentions the value of a conversation with the student about the limits of "Fair Use." -Harlan Howe 11/23/09 9:47 AM

Many Subjects:
//A student creates or enhances an existing entry on Wikipedia, Wicktionary, or some similar site. The work is well done.//
 * Is this more than copy & pasting a paper he or she has written? How does the tech sponsor determine that it is "well done?" Would it make sense to have an expectation of hyperlinked text? -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 9:33 AM
 * I think this could be part of another project rather than a project in itself. Maybe part of a portfolio. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:44 AM

Art:
//A student downloads 50 photographs with a creative commons "modify" permission. He forms them into a collage that looks vaguely like Mr. Lambert. (No! Really! It's an homage!) He then republishes the results on flickr, and creates a facebook survey about what people like or don't like about the picture.//
 * There is software that will do this for you. I like it. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:45 AM
 * I put this one in here because it is Web 2.0, but could require a bit more guidance! -Harlan Howe 11/23/09 9:23 AM

Community Service:
//A student volunteering at his church copies all the member's contact information from a notebook into Excel. She then creates a video to explain to the church staff how to use mail merge to create form letters.//
 * I like this one. Creating a merged directory would show some proficiency, also. -Kim Adkins 11/23/09 10:20 AM

Journalism:
//A student takes the articles & pictures in this month's Falcon and puts them on a Glogster page, and links to it from a Facebook Group he created.//
 * Copyright issues? Should there be some original content required? -Kim Adkins 11/23/09 10:21 AM

History:
//A student takes a bunch of photographs she found online about the battle of Thermopylae and makes a VoiceThread report on the battle.//
 * No point to a VoiceThread unless it is commented on -Larry Kahn 11/18/09 9:51 AM
 * What about posting them on a class wiki where the fellow classmates comment on it? Does it necessarily have to be published on the WWW? Beth
 * Beth, I think that could work, too, but wikis aren't usually as visual/aural as VoiceThread. I think it just depends on what sort of presentation/feedback the student wanted.

Clubs:
//A student in the Latin club creates a Ning for Latin speakers. She gets in touch with some other prep schools and gets their Latin clubs to join her Ning. It's popular for when they are setting up a toga party, but soon everybody's attention moves elsewhere.//
 * Doesn't seem like much effort is required for this. -Kim Adkins 11/23/09 10:44 AM

Athletics:
//A student takes game film from the last game and edits the video, adding commentary, slow mo replays, and more to highlight what went well and what didn't. He shows the game to his team as part of their preparation for the next game.//
 * This sounds ambitious. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:57 AM

Science:
//A student "does up" a lab report into an electronic document, complete with video snippets of the lab, text, and graphs.//
 * They are actually doing this now, BTW. I think this needs more - perhaps posting to the web? -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 9:08 AM
 * Collaborate? Communicate? -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:12 AM
 * How about comparing data with other students from around the world who are performing similar experiments? -Larry Kahn 11/18/09 9:34 AM

Language:
//A student scripts and films several short tutorials on how to use his scientific calculator ... in Spanish. He posts them on YouTube.//
 * I like it. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:10 AM
 * perhaps some sort of feedback/reflection aspect? Or is that more than is really necessary? -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 9:37 AM

Computer:
//A student decides to take an online course on iPod pogramming, delivered by podcast.//
 * Would need to program something and share it. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:09 AM
 * So, there needs to be some sort of product? -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 9:14 AM

Computer:
//A student comes up with an idea to enhance Moodle. She downloads and modifies the open source code and submits it to Moodle.org//
 * Sounds challenging - I think this would work, but might be an intimidating example! -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 9:20 AM
 * I like it. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:20 AM

Music:
//A student purchases and downloads two versions of the William Tell Overture. She scripts, records and publishes a podcast that compares the philharmonic version to the kazoo & nose harp orchestra version.//
 * I like it. -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:07 AM

Music:
//A student co-composes and performs a work with other artists collaboratively on the web. They publish their work on the web and revise it based on comments from listeners.//
 * Does everything need to be revised based on comments? -Kim Adkins 11/18/09 10:21 AM

English:
//Several students working on a group project create a wiki page to plan their outline and start writing sections of the project in the evenings.//
 * so long as they contribute to the wiki regularly. Creating a wiki takes about 5 minutes -Larry Kahn 11/18/09 9:39 AM
 * The thing I worry about this (and with any group work) is how to judge who gets credit for it. This hardly seems worthy of three proficiency requirements! Nevertheless, we want the students to collaborate. It is a mixed message. In this particular case, I think that we need to rely on product, publication and feedback -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 9:43 AM
 * How about this: several students working on different history papers decide to pool their resources on a wiki - they create and publish their topics and papers on pages in the wiki and provide each other feedback. As they go through their research, they put what they find into the wiki so that if student A finds a resource that will work for student B, that is easily shared. The resulting papers are richer and "pre-workshopped." -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 10:15 AM
 * I saw a wiki from a fellow AP teacher who had her kids work in groups and write an essay on a wiki. Each had to contribute a certain number of comments. When I looked at it, you could see who changed what and how they commented on each other's revisions. It looked like a good idea. Could make each of the members responsible for a section of the paper and they fix and edit as they go. Or could put up a paper on their own and have others critique it/grade it on a rubric? Beth
 * A neat idea, Beth! I think you'd have to have some rules about making //substantive// comments....

Computer:
//A student learns about twitter, and writes a program that can act as a twitter client, automatically tweeting information.//
 * Cool! A student could also create some new web 2.0 tool -Larry Kahn 11/18/09 9:38 AM

Many Classes:
//A student makes a digital portfolio of work they have done in several classes over the course of their upper school career.//
 * How extensive does this need to be? We have to have this requirement because we perceive that students aren't getting enough tech/21st century skills in their classes... -Larry Kahn 11/18/09 9:37 AM
 * So, yes, we need to have set of criteria for such a project - a diversity of skills, both application and web 2.0 skills -Harlan Howe 11/18/09 9:41 AM