Kids Creating Community Content

Innovative teachers rounded up their creative students and turned them loose on the first ever KC3 Contest (Kids Creating Community Content) sponsored by Tandberg and CILC. Judges and student audience groups were not disappointed by the informative, fun, and interactive content offered by their peers across the United States.

Criteria
Presenting students were required to develop community-based, videoconferencing content that aligned to national standards and present their content to a student audience in an engaging format.

Resulting Projects
Judges scored programs from fifteen (15) middle and high school student groups representative of ten (10) classrooms, and were treated not only to the student presentations, but also to the connecting peer groups–our digital students TRULY do not let geographical distance squelch communication efforts! Program topics featured historical themes like The Underground Railroad and Mound Builders to geographic specific presentations like Texas Oil and Wind Farming. Other groups chose to look at specific curriculum areas, such as math, and present information in an innovative manner as in Monkeying Around with Averages and Going Batty for Math. Learning more about another culture was also an aspect covered in the KC3 Contest as students shared about Hawaiian Aquaculture and the origins of Hula dancing. With all the various programs students did a terrific job of zeroing in on specific, community based presentations that highlighted their locale as well as their skills.

Teacher Impact
Teachers were energized by their students’ enthusiasm; one teacher said, “I realize I need to change some of my thoughts about teaching and raise the bar for my students. They exceeded my expectations and pushed me to learn new things. I need to be more willing to jump in and use new technology and learn right along with my students.” Another teacher said, “I was so proud of my students for their success in completing this project, they all agree it was a lot of work, and pushed them outside their comfort zone, but what they learned far outweighs all the hours they spent preparing.”

Student Impact
Students, too, were impacted by the opportunity. One student commented, “Oh my gosh, this was one of the most fun activities I have ever done. Presenting the videoconference fieldtrip made me realize that something so amazing is so close to home, and I have never even been there until now!”

Concluding Comments
Learning happened on all sides of the camera and in all corners of the classrooms in this project, and the success of the project itself relied heavily on complimentary bridging and videostreaming by Michael Lay and Greg Bond of Scott County, TN and Lance Ford from Howe, OK.

Projects like this re-ignite one’s passion for education and renew one’s faith in students… students not just learning, but students teaching other students, students collaborating together for an authentic purpose, and students taking control of their learning and sharing that learning with others.

View Winners
Gain deeper understanding of these projects and view the winners.