Summer Thrill Tech Workshop!

Some of our students, in Standards 7 and 8, spent three days in May participating in a tech workshop at the school. We researched our topic: The Mountain Railways of India in collaborative student groups using laptop computers to access the internet.

Students worked in groups of four or five. Each group selected a railway system to research. All of the railways selected are on the list of world heritage sites of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 

Each group searched the internet to learn about the location, history and travel route of their chosen railway. They also searched for pictures, with creative commons licensing, to include with their final presentations.

Working together, students read online texts, evaluated what they read, synthesized the information and wrote brief summaries to be included in their final presentations. 

Students learned about how to use search engines, like Google, to find information. They practiced scanning through online texts to determine whether to use the information in their research. They downloaded documents and pdf files and they utilized Microsoft Word to write, edit and save their work.

Students prepared their text and photos so that an online audience could learn about their topic. We did some of the editing as a whole class using the LCD projector to look at each group’s writing. We worked together to improve the grammar and sentence structure of their work.

We accessed free online presentation software, PREZI, to create and publish our final research.

 Students took turns uploading their text and images to create the final PREZI.

In three full days of hard work, these students conquered power outages, temperamental wi-fi, and the summer heat to research, collaborate, write and create an original document to share with other students around the world.

Here is their PREZI.

Click here to view this PREZI

Watch out global workforce, these collaborative problem-solvers are on their way.