Thing 11: online notetaking

I could see Awesome Highlighter having some real uses in my classroom during various research projects. It's another option for those kids who like to print off stuff from the internet and highlight it. A way to go paperless...and they won't be able to lose what they printed and hightlighted in their locker, back pack, house, bus, etc...

Earlier this school year, Travis shared a notetaking template with me that he has used . I modified it for several projects, including history day, and it worked quite well. It doesn't end plagarism, but it does force students to interact more with their sources. They need to decide WHY they are writing something down. In the case of history day, kids needed to decide if that piece of information is background information, important events, or impact that their individual made on society. I have found in the past that kids will write down anything and everything they see. These cards helped them focus on key areas.
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History Day Notes

Title of Source: _______________________________

Circle one: background actions legacies

Note(s):











Page Number:
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I still struggle with kids who plagarize. As I reflect on why this is an issue, I am worried that I haven't taught them enough about it. I certainly tell them "don't plagarize" but I haven't given them the tools.

Thing 12: Online Publishing

This afternoon finds me at school with students during a History Day work session. When not answering student questions, I have been playing around with slideshare.net

While I did not find a powerpoint presentation to use with my middle schoolers, I did find some examples of poorly executed presentations and others that were well-designed. I could see myself showing these examples before assigning the students a PPT project.

I would have liked to find some presentations directly tied to my world history content. However, what I did find was very dry and not well-suited to middle school students.

I did find an interesting presentation about web 3.0...and I'm still trying to figure out web 2.0!