Flat+Stanley

http://wuflatstanley. wikispaces.com
 * Flat Stanley Home Page **

http://wuflatstanley.wikispaces.com/Renee+Rostien **Description: **
 * Renee's Flat Stanley Page **
 * 1) Students will participate in a collaborative project named Flat Stanley where each student in the course is a participant in the collaborative project and will act as a representative of a class or school. This means if there are 20 students in the course, the collaborative project will have 20 participating classes / schools.
 * 2) Technically, the Flat Stanley Collaborative Project is a descriptive writing project for the participants, but in our case, will also involve an introduction to digital photography (both taking and manipulating photos), creating an audio file (that could be a podcast), possibly creating a video, and laying out material on a wiki.
 * 3) Each student will take Flat Stanley on an “adventure.” The “adventure” could take many forms: participating in the school or classroom activities, “seeing the sites” in the area, going on a weekend trip or vacation, helping with errands, attending notable events, or just having a good time visiting. Bottom line with the “adventure,” have fun and be creative! A word of warning - there will be quite a few people you come across that know Flat Stanley!
 * 4) During the “adventure,” students will need to take pictures of Flat Stanley having a good time during his visit. Don’t be afraid to pose with Flat Stanley! There will need to be a minimum of three good photos (pictures with impact) of Flat Stanley on his “adventure.” A bonus would be to include a short video in addition to the pictures!
 * 5) An audio recording (podcast / MP3) will need to be produced highlighting Flat Stanley’s “adventure.” This can be done “on location” or produced “after the fact.” The content of the audio is up to the participant, but should supplement the activities seen in the pictures, and be between 30 and 60 seconds in length.
 * 6) The pictures will need to be manipulated keeping in mind the concept of pictures with impact and also be made “Web-efficient” to conserve space on the wiki and to allow pages to load quickly. Pictures with impact mainly addresses the concept of cropping and “Web-efficient” mainly refers to resolution and picture dimensions that affect file size.
 * 7) The culminating activity is that the student will place the material on the Flat Stanley Collaborative Project wiki. Each student will contribute one page to the wiki highlighting their portion of Flat Stanley’s “overall adventure.” The page will include at a minimum: a title, student’s name, three (3) “Web-efficient” pictures of Flat Stanley’s “adventure” with a brief description of each picture (this is a descriptive writing project), optionally a video clip of Flat Stanley, and the audio clip.

**Skills Learned or Expanded:**


 * I learned how to crop and edit my photos by going to Picnik.com.
 *  I also learned how to make my photos web efficient.
 * I learned how to record music and sound by making a podcast using Audacity.
 * I was able to expand on the procedure for downloading photos and files.
 * I was also able to refine on the technique for displaying presentation pages on the Wiki.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Reflection: **

<span style="color: #056105; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">This was a fun project and it was fairly easy to complete. Using the Picnik website to edit my photos was most helpful. I told my 3rd graders what I was doing and they loved it. They were thrilled to get their picture taken with Stanley and to be a part of my project. Because they were so into it, I decided to extend the project to my students. They will be able to take Flat Stanley home with them over night and take pictures of Stanley doing things with them. We will add another Wiki page to my current Wiki and the students will be able to share it with their parents provided they have a computer at home. Students will do a hard copy first then add it to the Wiki. I would love to be able to incorporate more activities like this one into my everyday lessons. Unfortunately, with limited resources and strict times lines it is rare that I can teach these types of activities.