The Elementary Shutterfly Project

Students will take a walking tour (and if needed a field trip tour) of the local community. Prior to taking the tour, students will be assigned a component of the community which they will be responsible for documenting. Students will work in groups of four on this project. As the students walk throughout the community, they will use digital cameras to document their experiences. Students will photograph the basic components of the community (i.e. Post Office, Fire Station, Town Hall, Courthouse, etc.). As the students photograph an aspect of the community, they will be responsible for taking notes regarding that particular aspect using digital voice recorders. The photographs will help students 'relive' the tour during the narration phase of the project and will be used again later in the project.

The students will then create a written document to be used for narration purposes after the class discusses what a podcast is, (Tool Factory's Simple Guide to Podcasting). Utilizing Worksheet Station the students will be able to plan their narration easily and effectively. Each group will be working with a high school mentor on this portion of the project.

Using Tool Factory Podcasting software and working with their high school mentors, students will use microphones to narrate the photographs of their assigned community component. The students will also select background music to be used throughout the presentation. The podcasts will be made available to the community through Web Page Station.

Students will then utilize iMovie software, Clip Art Station, and other software to download and organize the photographs they took while on their walking tour of the community and combine it with the podcast to create documentaries. The group will then preview their movie and make any necessary changes. Once all necessary changes have been made, the high school mentor will burn their groups’ project to a DVD which will then be presented to the entire class and posted on-line.

Copies of each groups’ completed DVD will be donated to both the community and school libraries for viewing by community members and student peers.