We checked out several digital cameras and video cameras from our school library and sent the kids around the school to take pictures related to their topic. The "food" group took pictures of our tuk shop, lunch line, types of food we eat, the lunch tables we eat on, etc. The "transportation" group took pictures of our bus fleet (which looks quite different from U.S. yellow busses, motorbikes, bikes, and interviewed a few of the bus drivers. The "celebrations" group filmed a few students performing a traditional Nepali dance. The "language" group interviewed students and staff members speaking various languages. We sorted them into categories and uploaded them to shared Google Drive folders.
One of the hardest parts of this project is getting the kids to see themselves (and their everyday lives and their school) through the eyes of another. Sure, they can take a picture of the drinking fountain and say, "This is where we get a drink." But can they say, "Tap water in Nepal can make you very sick, so all of our drinking fountains have filters that clean the water before we can drink it." Sure, they can take pictures of the housing around the school, but can they say, "Houses here are often made of manmade bricks, have large water tanks on the roof, often have solar panels that heat the water, and sometimes we can play on the roof." They can interview people speaking other languages but can they say, "In our class of 25 students, we have over a dozen nationalities and languages spoken." They can take a picture of the school bell, but can they say, "Our school has two gong bells. A man rings them manually with a little hammer-type instrument. One pitch is for the secondary students and a different pitch is for the younger students. The bell-ringer is never late."
You get the idea.
They see their life but have to dig deeper to see how it is really unique and sets them apart from the other schools in the project. That is an on-going challenge.
We will soon start uploading the media to VoiceThread and actually creating a multimedia presentation collaboratively with other students from our partner schools. Wish us luck!
One of the hardest parts of this project is getting the kids to see themselves (and their everyday lives and their school) through the eyes of another. Sure, they can take a picture of the drinking fountain and say, "This is where we get a drink." But can they say, "Tap water in Nepal can make you very sick, so all of our drinking fountains have filters that clean the water before we can drink it." Sure, they can take pictures of the housing around the school, but can they say, "Houses here are often made of manmade bricks, have large water tanks on the roof, often have solar panels that heat the water, and sometimes we can play on the roof." They can interview people speaking other languages but can they say, "In our class of 25 students, we have over a dozen nationalities and languages spoken." They can take a picture of the school bell, but can they say, "Our school has two gong bells. A man rings them manually with a little hammer-type instrument. One pitch is for the secondary students and a different pitch is for the younger students. The bell-ringer is never late."
You get the idea.
They see their life but have to dig deeper to see how it is really unique and sets them apart from the other schools in the project. That is an on-going challenge.
We will soon start uploading the media to VoiceThread and actually creating a multimedia presentation collaboratively with other students from our partner schools. Wish us luck!