Online Projects, Collaboration Sites, and Publishing Opportunities

Lesson Idea Template

Name: Amy Smith
Grade Level: 5th Grade
Content Area: Social Studies
StandardsAddressed:SS5G1 The student will locate important places in the United States. SS5G2 The
student will explain the reasons for the spatial patterns of economic activities. SS5E2 The student will
describe the functions of four major sectors in the U. S. economy. SS5E3 The student will describe
how consumers and businesses interact in the U. S. economy. SS5E4 The student will identify the
elements of a personal budget and explain why personal spending and saving decisions are important.
Title of Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity: The difference in
Cost of Life in.
URL of Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity: Graph Club, Excel,
Living Wage Calculator, Jason Expeditions, ePals Classroom Exchange,
International E-Mail Connections, and a VODCAST, AudPod, or PowerPoint will be
final presentation.
Describe how you would Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity
in your classroom: You've probably heard of projects where students around the global
communicate through traditional mail, email, chats, forums, video conferencing or other means. By
designing activities that match specific subject area standards, these projects can go beyond simple
pen pal exchanges. So I will take this idea for my online collaboration site.
Keypals involve students in discussing a range of ideas and issues from book discussions to cultural
exchanges. Try the ePALS Classroom Exchange, and International E-Mail Classroom
Connections (IECC) sites for bringing together cross-cultural learning partners and friends.
Global classrooms encourage groups of students to share their ideas and experiences through a
worldwide exchange of ideas.
Electronic Appearances often involve experts answering questions. For example, you might chat with
an astronaut online. The students will collect, analysis and share information with other people in the
places listed in the Georgia Standards. The main information that needs to be exchanged is the cost
of living.

What technologies would be required to implement this proposed learning activity

in a classroom? The data will be collected in the format that the students feel
most comfortable in. The information will be received through either ePals or
International depending of the location the group will be assigned. The students
will have a 90% or higher score on the technology they choice to use, so that
there is little instruction needed for them to complete their projects. Each group
will be assigned a location they choice and this will help determine what
technology they use.
Describe how the following features are addressed in this learning experience
(note: all of them may not be addressed in the project, but most should be if you
are reaching a high LoTi Level.):
a. Collaboration with peers, near-peers, mentors outside their classroom
and often beyond their school: Either in the State or International
students will be involved in this project. Same grade level.
b. Student-centered learning and knowledge creation (collecting original
data and or producing original products as a result of engaging in the
1

project): The excitement of getting to learn about other students their

same age and what the cost of living there is verses here will have
the students engaged. Being able to pick the place creates a larger
connection to the project and having a little bit of freedom on what
technology they choice can either help or hurt this project. For those
students who seem to need more structure I will try and encourage
them towards one technology to make sure everyone stays on path
for the time allowed for this project.
c. Higher-order thinking: This creates a higher order of thinking because
the students will be faced with real-world field trips through the online
information exchange. They will get to learn about the other location
and the cost of living somewhere else. The pooled data analysis will
help student collaborate together on social studies facts in their
assigned location.
d. Students publishing their original work to others who will use/care
about their product: These projects will be published on the class blog
and will have the other classes projects as well. Our projects will be
given to the other school we are collaborating with to create a larger
pooled data that we can analysis deeper.
Blooms Level of Critical Thinking Required (check all that apply):
See http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Bloom%27s_Taxonomy
Remembering
Understanding
Applying
Analyzing
Evaluating
Creating
What Level of Technology Implementation best describes this learning activity and
Why? This will be a LoTi level 6 since we will work with students outside our
community and publishing the final projects online.
How could you implement this proposed learning experience and still comply with
your districts Internet Safety and Student Privacy policies? These two laws are FERPA
and CIPA. FERPA is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records and it applies
to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.
CIPA imposes certain requirements on schools or libraries that receive discounts for Internet access
or internal connections through the E-rate program a program that makes certain communications
services and products more affordable for eligible schools and libraries. The protection measures
must block or filter Internet access to pictures that are: (a) obscene; (b) child pornography; or (c)
harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors). After reading about these two federal
laws, I realized that is very important to protect my class from the various dangers of the Internet. One
way to protect my students would be to filter through the websites and block inappropriate pop-ups or
ads. Another way to protect them would be to make sure that they never put their personal information
online such as their name, address, school location, or phone number.