Shelley - you're right on target here - and you can delete and reorganize and work with the ideas here until you're ready to start writing them up officially in the project pages.... you can delete this too when you're done reading it... - Janine
I teach a grade 4 class in Alberta and part of our new Social Studies curriculum is paleontoloy, fossils, dinosaurs, etc.
We have the most amazing Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller and in the past I have taken my students on a sleepover fieldtrip to the museum. The museum is now offering VC sessions on similar activites. Connecting with the museum may be even easier now.
As part of the Language Arts curriculum we are required to do research reports. I thought a Grade 4 Dinosaur Wiki for my class would be an interesting class project. The students would work on research skills, technology integration and something interactive and exciting to share with other students with similar interests - and from what I know - Grade 4 students are quite interested in Dinosaurs. VCing with the museum and other Grade 4 Alberta classes, as well as other classes interested in Dinosaurs, a Dinosuar Wiki and I'd love to do something with podcasts too.
I was surfing around and came across a site (Bob Sparkle?? The link is at work and I don't think I've got it right here at home.) It was either a Blog or a podcast site. He had a tracking system that showed a map of the world and red dots showed up from the places where people lived that had surfed his site. My class thought that was very exciting.
Just some ideas floating around in my head. I hope this is what I'm supposed to share here. :o)