I really like your ideas for how digital content media can be integrated in your unit.

1. PPT can be an effective way to give kids a visual as you’re teaching them something new. For 6th graders especially, its a good idea to keep the slides image- and visual-based rather than text. Of course, the content will determine what makes sense (literary devices do come in words, don’t they?!!), but it’s still important to keep a balance…not too much text per slide. Also, kids need to see/observe good models of presentations and delivery so that they can learn this skill, too.

2. I like the wiki idea. Blogs might also work, but they might be more work based on what I know about your unit. Have you checked out pbwiki? pbwiki.com/wiki.php. Well, I just took some liberty and created a wiki for you guys to test drive. I’m waiting for the e-mail confirmation, so I’ll move on to #3 and come back…OK, it’s created! I called it “bbhh” so the URL is bbhh.pbwiki.com I also had an e-mail invite sent to you. If you need the password, it’s “literarydevices”
No pressure on you guys to use the wiki – I wanted to examine them during the course, but other things took precedence. Let me know if you’d like to discuss this more. (I didn’t send the e-mail to Janet, Julie, or Nathan, fearing that the message itself would greatly confuse them. If you read your e-mail before coming here, you were likely confused, too!)

3. Teaching about symbols in different contexts would be a nice feature of your unit (but I realize how full it already is). I mention the following only because it immediately came to mind – During an MLTI workshop I facilitated on Friday, a discussion of “favicons” came up. “Favicons” are those little symbols that appear just in front of a Web address in the address field of your browser (typically its either a blue ball or the icon of the Web site you’re at). You can learn more at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon Well, you might have guessed…there’s a Web site where you can create your own favicon. Actually, there are many! I realize this goes beyond the scope of your objective (not to mention the unit!), but I couldn’t resist putting this bug in your ear. I haven’t taken the necessary time to figure out the logistics, but it has potential for engaging kids in the idea of symbolism and creating visualizations. oooh – the PBwiki Team e-mail just arrived…back to #2!

4. I’m developing some “application guides” in support of the technology that we examined over the semester. One of the guides will be annotating text using the callouts in NeoOffice. If AppleWorks is preferred, I believe that annotations can be created via hyperlinks, but I’ll check that out.

5. It’s nice to have text available in inherently digital formats!

6. WebQuests are fun and educational! You’re probably familiar with The WebQuest Page – webquest.org/index.php

Thanks, Amanda. I obviously enjoyed your post! Good stuff.

Cynthia