This week in a Technology in Language Arts class I'm taking, we developed an Author Trading Card: a brief bio and reflection using Word or another publisher (I used Pages for mine - does graphics a little more simply). After that was complete we crafted persuasive podcasts on the same author. I chose Mo Willems of "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" fame.
Anyway, I thought this was an interesting way of using a word publishing program/app for something other than its original intent (which I always like). I feel like breaking out of the confines of "Word is used for typing papers, PowerPoint is used for presentations" mentality is always a good thing. It keeps us creative and it opens up a ton of new options.
I spoke with a mom recently who's daughter (in a different school) had to create a diorama of a medieval times village. It came out huge and they had to spend about $40 at the craft store for something which didn't really challenge her to learn, she could really share outside of the classroom (but through photographs), and ultimately would get thrown away in a couple of weeks. This is really frustrating to me for obvious reasons. We rely on traditional methods that may not be worth our students' time and effort.
Why not take 10 minutes and brainstorm what an application with which you're already familiar can do other than the normal. Or better yet, tweet it out as a question. Post it to Edmodo: "What have you done with Word other than papers?". "Have you used PowerPoint for something other than a presentation?" Or, even better, leave your ideas in the comments!
Here's the Mo Willems Writes for Un-Cool People podcast!
