exchange stu
list of possible projects for international (high school) exchange students & the host school
Many schools host foreign exchange students. Here's a proposal for school project: either for fun, for extra-credit, for contest - whichever is likely to produce best results.
1. Main idea:
both the many int'l exchange students and the US raised teens could write and record audio, then add 6-8 images to accompany. Suggested framework:
<intl students>
-Me and my town a) in native language (as resource to students learning that language on campuses around the world); b) in English -they write and then get a native English speaker to polish it.
-My hobby
-My first impressions and culture shock in rural mid-Michigan, USA
-One of the holidays we celebrate in my country
-All about one of my favorite foods from my home country
-An interesting new trend in my home country
-Not many people in USA know about _____ in my country.
<local hosting school's students; teachers as well?>
-Me and my town a) in English; b) in Spanish or another language they study at HS (but using native speaker check/coaching)
-My hobby
-One of our holidays here
-All about one of my favorite foods
-An interesting new trend in USA
-Commentary on yearbook pages
2. Method:
a) record audio with mic (audacity.com or online odeo.com), import to Windows MovieMaker then drop 6-8 pictures in the timeline and grab timeframe to scale the playback time of each image to fit the audio
b) use the free version of JING (limited to 5' and saved as SWF; hosted locally or free at screencast.com in Okemos), www.jingproject.com -see demo at http://tinyurl.com/whyjing
c) use PowerPoint's "record narration" and host locally or at slideshare.com (or exported as movie, upload to blog) -see demo at http://tinyurl.com/speakppt
3. Final steps:
If conducted as a contest, then go with online student voting, or use teacher jury. If conducted as extra-credit or "just for fun" (extra curricular), then also gather a judging panel. Another way: get currently enrolled media production students to adopt a person and coach them through the production process to the end. Decide on how much online exposure to allow (according to author's wishes). If in-school only, then put on LAN. If world-wide, then consider teachertube or youtube, tinypic.com and so on.
4. Potential impacts:
a) memento for student
b) verbal processing of experiences
c) language learning application
d) motivation to others; syblings...
e) raise interest, knowledge, and awareness of intl presence; maybe stir some teens to go overseas, too.
f) if posted online (blogger.com or posterous.com), then the effects could be magnified to other people.