Project Timeline

Timeline / Entry Event

The role social media has in the hiring process-Demonstrates the importance of thinking before posting

Impact of social media on Writing skills

Entry Event: Two guest speakers will draw the students into the project. One could be a businessman who decides which students are awarded scholarships from his company. He will talk about how he checks applicant's social media sites after they interview with him. The second guest speaker could be a member of the media. He will discuss the damage that can be done with irresponsible posts. Thereafter, students will listen to a recording of the "War of the Worlds" broadcast and discuss the panic that it caused with the guest speakers.

Students will have the option of getting feedback from the guest speakers and instructor by using Skype or Google Hangouts

Formative

1. Students will research events that involved information that was disseminated in a way that engrossed a target audience in a positive or negative fashion. They will create a Google Slides presentation about the event (100 points). This will give them a sense of just how powerful the media and messages can be (Days 1-3).

2. Students will use www.Bubbl.us to visually represent all of the fallout associated with the event (100 points) (Day 4).

3. Students will formulate a hypothesis about the impact that social media can have on “believability” of “news” today. They will write a one-page essay in which they outline the ideals behind their hypothesis and post it to www.Edublogs.com (100 points) (Day 5).

4. Students will compose a poorly written tweet about their “news story” and one well-written tweet about their news story to try to determine if the wording of the tweets creates more enthusiastic responses (100 points). They will track the results and create a visual representation of them using www.onlinecharttools.com (100 points). They will also blog about the responses (Days 6-8).

5. Students will research current events to determine which are “trending” using Twitter.com, www.hashtracking.com, CNN Student News, etc. Based upon this information, they will use www.storyboardthat.com to create a storyboard based upon the event. They will “modify” the event to alter the outcome (100 points). They will try to make their new “reality” as believable as possible. They will also blog about their experiences while doing this (www.edublogs.com) (Days 9-11).

6. Students will use www.celtx.com / www.plotbot.com to write original script about “story” they want to record. They will use www.Storyboardthat.com to visually represent the story (100 points). They will also post this to www.edublogs.com (Days 12-14).

7. Students will record their “story” using www.audiotool.com, www.wevideo.com, www.symbaloo.com or www.podbean.com. They will rehearse the script and record two versions, one that is not read with emotion and one that is read with emotion (100 points). They will blog about this experience using www.edublogs.com (Days 15-16).

8. Students will play their recordings to an “audience” they select. They will act as if the information is real and make note of the reactions of the “audience” (100 points). They will blog about this using www.edublogs.com (Days 17-18).

9. Students will distribute a survey about the effectiveness of the message using www.surveymonkey.com or Google Forms. Based upon feedback, they will use www.onlinecharttools.com to create charts and graphs to represent the “believability” of the two recordings (100 points). They will blog about this using www.edublogs.com (Days 17-18).

10. Students will compose an overview of all of their experiences and blogs in one final post on www.Edublogs.com. They will be specific about what their expectations were before their “audience” heard their two recordings, what they noticed in terms of body language of the audience during the recordings, things the audience said, etc. (100 points) (Day 19).

11. Students will create final presentations of all data using Google Slides, www.Prezi.com, etc. (100 points) (Days 20-22).

Summative

Students will invite teachers, members of the media, etc. to their final presentations using evite.com. The audience will provide feedback based upon the quality of the research, the quality of the final product, and the presentation skills of the students (400 points) (Days 23-25). Students will assess themselves and their peers using WebPA.

The complete, online timeline can be found here.