Internet Project

{ December 2, 2008 @ 8:56 pm } · { Uncategorized }

Find (online or in a magazine) a report on a teaching project with the New Media that you really liked and you think was a success (not the one you had in-class) and explain it to your readers.

Searching the web I found the internet project “Monster Exchange”. The first thing which made me curious was the name of the project. But this was not the only reason why I’ve chosen this project.

I liked especially the fact that with this project they’ve manged it to involve  several teaching aspects at the same time.

  • Firstly, there is the opportunity of exchanging informations with other schools,
  • secondly,this project advances the reading and writing skills of students,
  • thirdly, its a kind of “learning by playing”, hence it is a project which requires creativity
  • fourthly, one gets to know how to handle with internet technology

    • I think it is very important that one gets to know the internet and its technology as soon as possible and this project is made for children in Kindergarten up to students of the 8th grade level.   

    Here is the link: http://www.monsterexchange.org/index.asp

  • Description:

    • This project was created first in 1995 by  John Thompson and Brian Maguire.

    The aim was to to encourage the  the development of reading and writing skills by using Internet technology in the classroom curriculum.

    1.  Many different schools worldwide are paired together and the students in each classrooms have to go together in groups.
    2. Each of these groups have to draw an original picture an write a description of a monster.
    3. The partnered classes then exchange their descriptions via e-mail.
    4. These students are then challenged to use reading comprehension skills to read the descriptions and translate them into a monster picture.
    5. The challenge  is then to create a redrawn picture as close to the original picture as possible without looking at the original and using only the written description of the monster.

     
    The written descriptions, the original pictures of the monsters and  the redrawn monster pictures have to be  scanned and uploaded to the Internet using the browser-based Monster Gallery Builder. The Monster Gallery Builder is entirely form-based and does not require the teacher or student to know any HTML code.

    Finally these pictures are published in the Monster Gallery where you can give feedback via e-mail.

    Furthermore it is useful to know that there are a lot of tips and support provided for teachers, involving with lesson plans , timelines, resources etc.

    “Since then the project has grown to incorporate many state and national curriculum standards and has empowered thousands of students from schools worldwide to tap into their creativity and develop their reading, writing and comprehension skills in a fun way.”

    Hope you liked it.

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