Interactive Community News

ApplicationSimple application with one key questionDescribe how you will implement the project. Include details regarding selecting topics for articles, identifying and/or assigning jobs for students, integration of technology, and how this project will address curriculum standards. Those selected were awarded $2500 to purchase materials to support the project

Participants4 elementary schoolsSeveral used it as part of after school programs1 middle school2 high schoolsBoth used it as part of a journalism programOrganizationCreated a wiki as the central location for information and activitiescontracostaicn.pbworks.comFor many teachers and students this was the first time using a wikiJournalist VideoconferenceThe hardest part of the projectSchools lacked the infrastructure to support itWorked with a local journalistSet expectations with students ahead of timeOne conference with middle and high school, separate one for elementaryUsed K-12 HSNResearching and Writing10 articles required5 required topicsWorld NewsLocal NewsScience TodayEditorialPeople in the News (local personality)Teachers decided how to get the articles written

Posting ArticlesCreated a wiki page for easy indexing of articlesStudents posted their articles as Word documents so other schools could manipulate the textOther schools selected articles to include in their own newspapersLink to article index page14

Posting the NewspapersFinal newspapers were posted on the wiki as PDFsHard copies were also sent to each participating class

Sticking PointsPoor school infrastructure limited videoconferenceYounger students not able to take full advantage of the videoconferenceFinding a wiki not blocked by district filtersTrusting teachers to screen content- and maybe we shouldnt

Next StepsAdd more collaboration during the writing process via a wiki and/or Google DocsBlog with a journalist and with each other about the journalistic processPublishing the newspaper can be done on paper OR on a wikiOption to publish more frequently

Questionstgabor@cccoe.k12.ca.uscontracostaicn.pbworks.comOnline Evaluation