This week's new exploration is a bit of a catch-all because I realized that the students are working very hard, but are often hampered by the often slow process of putting their ideas down on paper.  I'm always looking for efficient ways for the kids to produce work on their projects and the old 'hunt and peck' computer skills are clearly not fast enough to avoid frustration.  In our school board, typing and keyboarding skills are not offered any longer, so the students may never learn to touch-type.  I think my old grade ten typing course was one of the most useful educational experiences I've ever had.  Add all these ideas together and the solution seems to be that we need to slow down to speed up.  I need to take the time to encourage keyboarding skills, so every day for the next few weeks we are taking forty minutes to practice the basic touch typing techniques.  The kids are encouraged to practice at home and I will run a contest for most improved (not necessarily fastest or best) typist.  In the end, they may avoid the bad habits and inefficiencies of hunt and peck.  One of the challenges is going to be to make it fun.
The rest of this week is devoted to learning all sorts of communication skills.  Here's a short list:  creating podcasts, making iMovies for 'how to videos' similar to those seen on YouTube, writing stories using the voice dictation program Dragon Dictate, and blogging.  I'm afraid to go to lessons on Facebook and Twitter just yet until I have a good feel for safety and online security.  We intend to debate the value of texting versus talking on the phone.  Wish me luck.