Open Submissions for Kids Creating Community Content Contest 2011

Are you familiar with the Kids Creating Community (KC3) Competition? It's a fantastic (needless to say authentic) opportunity for your students to develop compelling material to teach their peers via videoconference. Brought to you by my colleagues at the Center for Interactive Learning and Tandberg.

The call for proposals just went out - - and I wanted to be sure you were aware of it! Please see the announcement below.

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You’re Invited to highlight your community, your students, and your school by participating in a free contest opportunity utilizing videoconferencing technology.

Kids Creating Community Content (KC3) provides students with real world experience working on a project team while building research and presentation skills that support 21st Century Learning as they use a variety of technologies.

If you have access to videoconferencing and want to engage your students in a technology rich research project that connects them with students around the globe we encourage you to explore the Kids Creating Community Content opportunity.

Now in it’s fourth year, KC3 connects middle and high school students in the United States and International schools as they work on similar projects. Community landmarks, cultural activities and regional historical sites or resources are some of the many integrated curricular programs created by student teams. Your students will have the opportunity to share their program at a national or international level. Research, organization, standards based learning, communication and presentation are all part of their work.

Encourage your educators to involve their teens in using technology to communicate and share meaningful information with their peers and fellow students. Use digital media and technology environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

We look forward to seeing your students on air! Proposals are due on November 15, 2010.

Don't want to create this year, but still want to get in on the action? Pre-register to be an audience site!

Photo credit: gStatic.com

Great Videoconference Opportunity with Literary Legend Lois Lowery

As a children's literacy specialist (yes -- that is my graduate training!), I have a particular affinity for fabulous writing aimed toward children and teens. Quite often, those books resonate with adults as well. My colleagues at HEC-TV in St. Louis have put together a wonderful series of programs with one of my favorite children's literature authors: Lois Lowry.

Author of The Giver, Ms. Lowry has penned more than 20 novels and won the Newbery Medal twice. Lois Lowry told Contemporary Authors that she measures her success as an author by her ability to "help adolescents answer their own questions about life, identity and human relationships."

The series kicks off on October 7th, with the event 'airing' from 11:00 AM ET to 12:00 PM ET. Hope you and your students can take part in this fantastic event!

Here's the 411 from HEC-TV:

In this first of a series of four HEC-TV Live! programs focusing on Lois Lowry’s Newberry Medal winning young adult novel, “The Giver,” students will have the unique opportunity to hear directly from the author herself. Join students from the St. Louis metropolitan area as they ask the author questions about her background and writing style as well as questions about the plot, characters, setting, themes and language of the novel itself. Discussion of “The Giver” will form the core of the program. We recommend students joining us for the program either have already read the novel or be in the process of doing so. Elements of the story including important moments of the plot as well as themes and concepts will be revealed during the program. If you don’t want students to know the entire story before reading it for themselves, you may choose to watch the archive of the program which will be available on our website, http://www.hectv.org.

This series of programs is being produced in conjunction with Washington University in St. Louis and Metro Theater Company of St. Louis as they prepare and present a stage adaptation of the novel to be presented at Edison Theatre on the campus of Washington University in January.

Other programs in the series include:

• November 16—Issues and Themes of “The Giver”
• December 9—Performing the Play: Bringing Characters to Life
• January 5—Producing the Play: Bringing the Story to the Stage

These programs will also be available for enrollment through CILC.

Special Note: This October 7 program is available via videoconference and webcast nationwide as a “View Only” opportunity. Students viewing via videoconference or webcast will be able to e-mail questions to the author during the program but will not interact face to face. All other programs in the series will be available as BOTH interactive and view only.

Photo Credit: Image from GrAde Saver