BP8_2010033_Web2.0Tool4_Smilebox

If flickr does not work out for my students I want to have an alternative planned for them to use to be creative with their digital photos, videos, and music. Using the Web 2.0 tool called Smilebox, I would have my students make an invitation to the park for Earth Day and invitations to their parents to attend on the days when we have special Earth Day guest speakers. Something fun and a cool way to learn about different unique ecosystems would be to use Creative Commons images and videos to create photo albums, slideshows, scrapbooks, or a collection of make believe postcards about the positive and negative aspects of the selected ecosystem. Many of the creations allow for the addition of royalty free music right from their website. We could post the creations to our school Earth Day Wiki page.

Students could create thank you cards for a variety of people such as for our guest speakers and for people who donate things to our garden. We might even be able to turn the cards and other creations into fundraisers. Or students might learn to provide a service to create Smilebox products for their family and friends to earn money for field trips. I could assign a seasonal photo journal that students would use to document their scientific observations of the land, water, sky, and life forms that are active during the different seasons in their own backyard. The potential for creativity is infinite using Smilebox. I was disappointed to find out that the free trial ends after 14 days and after that there is a monthly fee of $5.99 per month. But if all my students could have access to Smilebox at least a couple times a month and learned from their digital creations, then it would be worth the monthly fee. The website www.smilebox.com has an excellent video tour.

Make your own scrapbook design

I made an assignment scrapbook about Flower Evolution with specific questions about flowers. My students could then do the research and make their own scrapbook. Their creations could be checked, edited, and used to study for the test about plant evolution.