I know this is a broad question, but I would like to know what kind of technology based projects are you having or have had your students do? I teach 5th grade. Thanks!
I've done blogging with my students for reader's response journals. I've also done projects on ThinkQuest, both for the competition and for the smaller projects on Think.com: http://www.thinkquest.org/en/projects/index.html).
I have several technology projects that you could do on my website. (Just click on "Edgirl" and click on "Go to homepage" to fine it.) I can explain the projects here for you if you want. I used them in a 9th grade mathematics classroom, but they can easily be scaled down and 5th grade mathematics concepts can be used in place of the Algebra concepts. If you don't see how this is possible, let me know. I am happy to explain to you how I think you could use technology in your 5th grade classroom. I would explain now, but it is late. Hope to hear from you.
Have you heard of Glogster? You can have the students do projects using this website edu.glogster.com
teachgrade: It's funny that you mention glogster because a teacher at my school was telling me about this just yesterday. I am going to check it out. Edgirl: That looks like a great site. I see you use google docs. I have just started using google docs (can't believe it's taken me so long to discover how great they are). I love the collaborative quality of them. I look forward to looking at your stuff some more. Ladybug: I already do journals, so using a blog format instead of paper and pencil may be a more interesting twist for them. Thanks for the ideas, Everyone! I'm trying to find more creative, technology based projects to do this year.
Glogster Ning Podcasts TEDTalks I use GoogleForms and Edmodo for a variety of things in my classroom.
Im curious about Edmodo....is there a way you can set it up so that anything a student posts will have to be approved by you first? I think its a great tool for doing book talks among literature circles (but being the devils advocate, what if it is used inappropriately and students post things on the weekend that I dont see until monday, etc.) I realize you are HS and not elem. so this may be a non issue for you
I don't think it has a setting like you are describing. No post can go up by a student without it going to you, too. You can set notifications of posts to be delivered to your cell phone or email. I guess that could alert you if someone posted over the weekend and you could log in and remove it if necessary. I don't know if the notifications have the content of the post (likely not) or just info that a post has been added. If you have a lot of students posting, that might not be a good solution.
Ok, thanks for your information! I know in Wikispaces I definitely can and was just wondering from a more experienced user! Have a great day!