I was looking around Youtube at different videos that came up when I typed in "social studies projects." Despite the fact that most of the videos were American examples they really were quite impressive. What really struck me though was how genuinely excited the students seemed to be to make these videos, and the pride they were taking in their work. It struck me that so often what is missing with the projects we give out to students is that they don't get an opportunity to get excited for them, and take pride in what they are doing.
I'm not saying by any means that Youtube is the answer, or you have to get your students to make videos. But it reminded me of the fact that we keep pressing the importance of using technology in the classroom as much as possible. With how advanced the Internet has become, and the ease in which you can now create a website (like Lindsay showed us) why not put your kids work up for others to see. It seems to me that it will increase their motivation and give them a chance to really get excited about whatever the topic is.
Another great advantage I see with giving your kids an outlet in order to present their work is that it can connect the classroom to the home so much easier. I think that is something that we all agree is often lacking. What easier way for a parent to see their kids work than to have an outlet online for them to check out. Also I think parents are much more likely to check out their kids work and be excited for it if the students are excited for it.
I encourage you to check out some of the videos and projects that are posted on Youtube, and I'm sure if you search around you can see other examples of online projects. You never know who may become interested in your students work or connect to what they are doing. It simply increases the network of followers and resources within your Social Studies classroom.
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I was actually checking out Youtube as well a little while ago when I was looking for lesson ideas and I found the same thing... Many of these videos were American example, but it was obvious that these students were very proud and excited about what they had created. They had put hours of work into these videos but for the majority of them you could tell that they had fun doing it, and really invested themselves in the topic. I could tell that many of these students probably got way more out of this type of activity and may have not even thought about the time that they had put into it.
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