smilebox

I investigated [|http://www.smilebox.com] as my next web 2.0 technology. This is a fantastic site that is free (or minimal cost for upgrading) where you can create scrapbooks, videos and ecards all online. There is a tutorial on the website that will help you visually and auditorily in using the website, however, it was VERY user friendly and I was able to try it out by playing on my own. No doubt, students will have more confidence and knowledge of manipulating the smilebox site.

The biggest challenge would be uploading pictures which will be used to create the video in school. Students would have to take pictures from either our school website or their cameras. There is one working scanner in our building, so any pictures that are not in digital format would be a bit more difficult to upload; as the scanner is not in the computer lab where most of this would be completed.

__Creativity and Innovation__ 1a & 1b __Communication and Collaboration__ 2a, 2b, 2d __Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making__ 4b & 4c __Digital Citizenship__ 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d __Technology Operations and Concepts__ 6a, 6c, 6d
 * NETS standards attended to in this activity are**:


 * __LESSON:__**

The students will create a video scrapbook using smilebox for their 8th grade final project. They will collaborate and edit their presentation using skills they've learned in other presentation programs.

I will form small groups of 2-3 students as teams to work on the projects. They will collaborate and decide what pictures, songs and format they will use to create their presentation. The groups will work on uploading pictures from cameras or our website to include in their project. They will scan pictures that are not in digital format and then save to upload into the smilebox program. The groups will work on editing their project which will be displayed at the end of the year.

Final projects will be projected at the 8th grade dinner-dance via LCD on a screen so everyone can enjoy the work and children's years in our school as a farewell. There will be no formal assessment, but they will be shown at the dinner-dance, so that will be the incentive to work hard together and create a good depiction of their elementary school years.

This project should take approx. 2-3 class periods ( 55 mins each) to complete. If more time is needed they can see me and we I can give them time during lunch or after school. All work will be saved on flash drives so they can be easily brought to the dinner-dance and plugged into a laptop.