Sunday, November 15, 2009

Week 8, Thing 19.1 Alaska's Digital Pipeline

I went immediately to the LitSite Alaska Workbooks, and then followed the purple link to "Alaska Kids" and found some GREAT activities for our fourth graders who do a study on the various regions of the state. I am going to add the direct link to this site to my school web page so our teachers can access it easily, and then somehow work it into their curriculum. Much on this Alaska Kids site is under development, with a Coming in 2010 image on the pages, but if the rest of it is as good as what is up so far, I'm excited!

When I went to the Alaska State Museum Site, I was immediately put-off by the very legaleze looking form that popped up and I had to agree to terms and then enter the site. The next page was a simple search box for me to type a subject in. No explanation anywhere along the way or any sense of welcome to the site. When I searched "gold rush" I got a list of artifacts, many with photos and basic facts about the item. Good for what it is, and for adult researchers, but not a site I would use with kids.

On the other hand, the Alaskan Digital Archives are quite impressive, and I foresee many uses there for my elementary kiddos. I am thinking again of our fourth graders and their Alaskan unit. Perhaps finding a photo or artifact in this site, and then creating some kind of a tech presentation about their item/person/fact to share with the other fourth graders.
Very exciting possiblities! Can't wait to share it with my fourth grade teachers!

1 comment:

  1. The Alaska Digital Archives is really very cool. I was able to use it for several digital literacy lessons and I really love the little videos of the earthquake. I was able to show them to my mother and she was really tickled to be able to tell me about some of the places that she saw downtown just after the earthquake. She was living in Government Hill at the time.

    I agree that the state museum could do something to to make thier site more consumer friendly. If it isn't appealing to adults in general it isn't going to appeal to kids at all.

    Ann

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