Thursday, May 03, 2007

MEGA Showcase

The MEGA showcase happens every spring. It features innovative technology project from schools across the piedmont of North Carolina. It is like a free mini conference and also features an impressive keynote speaker (more on the speaker in another post).

The highlights of what I saw at yesterday's showcase:

Wikis
  • Middle school students are collecting data about blue birds using boxes on the school property and posting them to a wiki. West Lee Middle School, Lee County Schools
  • Fourth grade students using wikis to write for a large audience in language arts from W G Pearson, Durham Public Schools
Podcasting/Vodcasting
  • Middle school students podcast interviews with family members about their experience with heart disease and/or high blood pressure. The teacher, Joselyn Todd, also creates vodcasts with the students describing why they chose that particular family member. Cary Academy
Multimedia
  • 1st through fifth graders writing their own books based on a particular author's style. Then creating illustrations for their books using Scholastic Keys. Finally the illusltration s are put together using MovieMaker and the student records a narration. This is awesome and could be done easily in almost any classroom! Olive Chapel Elementary School Wake County Schools
  • EC middle school teacher video conferencing with pre-service teachers at NC State West Lee Middle School, Lee County Schools
  • Elementary math teacher and her student creating math raps. They got a grant to buy a special software to make their videos very professional with animated backgrouds, etc. Some of them are posted on TeacherTube. Deep River Elementary School, Lee County schools
  • Elementary students using a virtual environment where they create their own avatar. Quest Atlantis is the program and is tied to the Standard Course of Study. Williford Elementary School, Nash-Rocky Mount Schools
Wow! Great work going on!

2 comments:

Danita Russell said...

Great post! You saw exhibits I missed. Thanks for sharing.

Danita
Danitarussell.edublogs.org

Laura B. Fogle said...

Your work at West Lee Middle School is awesome Danita. It was good to see you at the Showcase.
Laura