I've been trying to plan an inquiry-based research project for my fifth grade classes that incorporates a lot of my current research lessons such as, using databases, creating bibliographies, summarizing, website evaluation, etc. But instead of using themes like Lewis & Clark and the Iditarod, as well as discrete activities each week, I wanted students to choose their own topic and create a product at the end of say, 6 weeks, of step-by-step lessons on these skills.
I also want the students to work in teams of 2-3 students, and Google Presentation would be an ideal product because the skills learned would be directly transferable to Powerpoint, which is a 5th grade technology benchmark. Also, Google Presentation would allow the kind of collaboration that is so necessary and valuable for this kind of learning. So my question is - how does this October announcement that 'Google Apps to be implemented in K-12 schools across New York state' affect us? How soon can we use these great collaborative tools? Anyone have any idea?
