Grade+10

=Grade 10 Information Technology=

Qatar Academy 2007-8 toc

Flat Classroom Documentaries
As a finale to the project your task is to create 'documentary' material that can be used by future students and teachers of the project. Here are the groupings and topics:
 * 1) Wiki facility and time management: Amir and Ray will tackle how to use wiki environment effectively as well as give us all some tips and tricks on using our time wisely in order to complete the project.
 * 2) The Nings: Rawan, Anne and Sara T have great ideas for showing everyone how to best use the Ning social network for communication and sharing.
 * 3) Communication: Perola and Amira are going to introduce the project and discuss ideas for connecting and communicating.
 * 4) Elluminate: Yara, Mariam and Sara M will look at our real-time conferencing software and show teachers and students how to get the most out of this when attending meetings and summits.
 * 5) Grade 10 at Qatar Academy and the Flat Classroom Project: Tony and Abdulaziz have the challenge of documenting our class and how they survived the project.


 * Don't forget to read our [|class community blog] every week for new updates and messages and to write in your own blog!**

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Flat Classroom Project: Creating a Digital Story
This unit provides the opportunity for all students to be part of the [|Flat Classroom Project for 2007]. In 2006 the Flat Classroom Project was an award winning global collaborative project between two schools (one in Bangladesh and one in the USA). This year it will be between many schools and focus more on collaborative digital storytelling. The project uses concepts from Thomas Friedman's '[|The World is Flat]' best-selling book. media type="custom" key="205549"

Explore the Flat Classroom Project 2006 (see Virtual Communications for the Award winning wiki and videos)

Also, here are some award winning videos from the Horizon Project
 * User Created Conten****t by Sourov S** (ISD) with Arts, Entertainment and Leisure (Wiki B + C) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgDdIN8UFKc
 * Social Networking** **by Kristina T** (SAS) with Employment (Wiki B) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrQCB5SU2KY
 * Mobile Phones** **by Atif S** (ISD) with Education (Wiki A) [|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb7CXcQhqRI]
 * Virtual Worlds** **by Albert P** (VIS) with Politics and Government (Wiki B) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQgwpJqpmk
 * New Scholarship and Emerging Forms of Publication** **by Omar C** (ISD) with Education (Wiki A) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gZf5QcoNA
 * Massively Multiplayer Educational Gamin****g by Derek** from SAS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMrdI58zJjQ and runner up **David B** (VIS) with Health see MMEG D

Concept and practice of digital storytelling
Investigate using these guiding questions:
 * What is a digital story?
 * What makes a good digital story?
 * What HW and SW are needed?

Look at the Digital Storytelling website, [|Digitales], from Bernajean Porter and read [|'The Six Elements of a Good Digital Story"] Also, explore this wonderful resource on Digital Storytelling. Explore these [|social bookmarks on digital storytelling]

Audio Introduction
Use these questions as a guide to record your short audio introduction to put on the Ning.
 * Explain who you are, where you live and what school you go to
 * Tell a little about what life is like where you live
 * Tell a little about what you do at school, for a hobby etc
 * Share your ideas for the project:
 * how do you think you will cope collaborating with students in other countries?
 * what will be the advantages?
 * what will be the disadvantages?
 * what new skills will you need to learn to be able to do this project?

Here are some guidelines for recording, editing and uploading an audio file to the Flat Classroom Ning. The same tools and procedure can be used for other purposes as well.
 * 1) Record your audio using either a microphone straight into the PC using [|Audacity], or use a digital recorder eg Olympus WS300 [[image:WS300.jpg]] Note that the WS300 (into WMF format) and some others do not record into MP3 format therefore the file will need to be converted before importing into Audacity. Use [|winLame] for this.
 * 2) Edit Audacity and export as an MP3 file.
 * 3) On the [|Flat Classroom Ning], click on [|Add Music] and upload your file. Add an image if you want to as well.

Introduce Your School
Create a short video to introduce Qatar Academy to the other classes in the Flat Classroom Project. Have some fun with [|Animoto] or [|Voice Thread] Or use off the shelf software such as Win Movie Maker, Premiere or iMovie Online tutorials to learn movie making software: [|Windows Movie Maker 2] (Atomic Learning: Free series) [|iMovie 2] (Atomic Learning: Free series) [|Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5] (Atomic Learning: subscribers only)

Connect
Your mission is to connect with your team members and the other educators involved in this project. Connections will take place asynchronously as well as synchronously. Some of your partners will be on the exact opposite side of the world so real-time connections will be a challenge. However you must make the effort to connect. That first contact and then follow-up messages are so important for reassuring your partners that you are there are willing to work.

Communicate
Once connected, now use your online skills for effective communication with your team members. Don't be afraid to say you do not understand something. Ask for their opinion and their advice. Discuss problems and reach solutions together. Being in different time zones brings its own challenges for communication and understanding. Communicate often and communicate clearly and responsibly. Use the Ning, use the wiki page and use other methods that you and your team can agree on, including email and MSN.

Cooperate
Consensus and conciliation can be reached through online cooperation. This takes the first two 'Cs' to be in place (connecting and communicating) and once you are doing these you can cooperate on building a knowledge base on the wiki share resources and ideas. Do not be offended or take it personally if by mistake your work is deleted temporarily off the wiki, this happens sometimes and we are all learning how to work in a wiki-centric environment. Work together on improving your space and cooperate by being active online and on the wiki.

Contribute
If you do not contribute to the online spaces provided for this project we cannot tell what you have done. This is not a project where you can hand in the finished essay on the due date. This project means you must be communicating, cooperating and contributing on a daily basis. Contribute to the Ning by sharing your audio and video files about you and your home/country and sending messages to other students. Contribute to the wiki by posting comments to the discussion forum and adding content to the wiki page for your topic. Contribute to your team by recording short video clips for your partners to use in their videos. Do not be a non-contributor and lurk somewhere in the darkness. Come out and be part of the construction.

Collaborate
You and your team members must collaborate on the wiki to show a combined effort in developing a knowledgeable page with lots of relevant hyperlinks and references for your topic. To collaborate means to work together to solve a problem and that is what you must do. This takes communication and cooperation. You cannot sit back and rely on others to do all of the thinking for you. You need to be in there as well collaborating with your team, sharing ideas and making suggestions.

Create
This project requires you to create a wiki page as a team. It also requires you to create an individual short video based on your topic and sub-topic. This is difficult, it is challenging and there is no easy answer for content. You decide, you use your creativity and design and plan your final video. Make sure you include clips from your team members as well to show a global perspective on your topic.

Celebrate
When the hard work is done you can celebrate your achievements. Part of this celebration is providing reflection and review to your partners and reflecting yourself on the many parts of this project. You will find that the success of this project will be in the underlying achievements, not always the academic ones. You will have found new friends around the world through your online interactions. You will also have made a difference to the world by synthesizing what you have learned into a multimedia event that can be shared globally. That really is worth celebrating!

What you have to do to complete the Flat Classroom Project

 * 1) Research your topic.
 * 2) Contribute to the wiki page on your topic giving a perspective from Qatar and beyond.
 * 3) Design and plan your personal video using these guidelines:
 * Length about 4-5 minutes
 * Include at least one other video clip from a team member
 * Decide beforehand what the content will be. Use a combination of interviews, you talking, screencasting, skits, images from your world and others, drama, and more
 * 1) Make clear requests to your team members for video clips to be sent to you to be included in your personal video.
 * 2) Record short video clips to send to your team members.
 * 3) Complete your video and upload by the due date.
 * 4) Have fun! Follow the 7 'Cs' for surviving the Flat Classroom Project and you cannot go wrong!

Flat Classroom Project Ning
Go to http://flatclassroomproject.ning.com and request to join. Make sure you put in the message box that you are a student of Mrs Lindsay's. You **Must watch** this**[| Web 2.0 Workshop]**: Video series on Web 2.0 and setting up RSS in [|NetVibes]

Social Bookmarking
Watch this video to get started: **Social Bookmarking in Plain English** media type="youtube" key="x66lV7GOcNU" height="353" width="425" Set up your own account with [|delicious] and bookmark all of the good resources you find. Watch this [|YouTube video] to learn how to do this. Don't forget to use tags logically. [|Learn more about social bookmarking].

Blogging
Watch this [|introduction to blogging video]. Set up an account with [|Eduspaces.net]. Our community class blog can be found [|HERE] on Eduspaces. Make sure you request to become a member.

RSS: Really Simple Syndication
What is RSS? Watch this video: **RSS in Plain English** media type="youtube" key="0klgLsSxGsU" height="353" width="425"

Set up your own RSS feed aggregator. Use [|Bloglines], [|Protopage], [|PageFlakes], [|NetVibes] or [|iGoogle]