What does this section give Me?

1. The reasons that student creation is important 
2. A process for student creation
3. Some tools that actually work on the High School level
4. Some examples of Student Creation Projects

Why is It Important?

     When you think of student creation, think of it this way: If I give a student a worksheet or problem out of the book, I am only going to get that response. When I give a student an opportunity to create, you can get more than you would ever expect.

The Tools

Touchcast: touchcast.com
     Touchcast is a way to present content, but it can be a great way to have students create! Touchcast is a full video editor that has lots of incredible features built into it including Vapps, green screen, whiteboard annotations, teleprompter, multi-camera, and more.

     Video can be an incredibly powerful tool in building scenarios as it gives you many options. You could have students do interviews, PSA's, commercials, news broadcast, and so much more.  It also makes publishing easy by having a 1 button touch in order to upload it to Youtube.

     This app is currently IPAD only, but if you have an iPad it is worth it!
We Video: wevideo.com
If you don't have an iPad, there is still a video platform for you, and it is called WeVideo. WeVideo is a fully functioning online video editor that you can use on almost any device. It does have a free and paid version, but you should be able to do what you want through the free version is you are ok with a watermark.
Weebly: education.weebly.com
     Having high school students build a website can be an incredible way to get them creating. students can create websites for almost any type of organization or problem. This can also be a great way to publish student work.

     If you go through the education site, you can set up the username and password for your students!
Social Media: twitter.com, padlet.com, fakebook.com, education.weebly.com
Why not use Social Media for good? Students are on it, so we should use it as a powerful tool for learning rather than pushing it away. Students can use Social Media in order to put themselves in the real world shoes of a character or organization. There are many powerful ways to do it, and you will find just a few below.
  • Twitter: Students can create accounts of figures and organizations and then tweet as if they were them. Because these are high school students, you can choose to have them on this platform
  • Padlet: Padlet can be a great way to fake Social Media post including Twitter and Instagram in order to put them in the situation
  • Fakebook: Fakebook allows you to create fake Facebook profiles. It's another great way to put students in the shoes of someone else and in those real world situations
  • Weebly: Weebly has a feature that takes you into Social Media territory. You can have kids blog! Have them blog those real world events!
Powtoon: powtoon.com
     It may seem silly to have High School students working with animation, but that are students that no matter what you do, they will not record themselves on video. You really need to have something in reserve to help those reluctant talkers find their voice.
     
​     There is a host of animation apps out there, but Powtoon seems to be the most cost efficient. It's a freemium model that does allow you enough freedom to make videos that matter.

A Process

     Creation at the High School level can be a daunting task. There is so much content to cover that many come to the conclusion that there is just not enough time. They can't be further from the truth. It's all about how you schedule it, so if you have not looked at the managing it section we suggest you do that first. You can find that page here.
The Steps in the Process
1. Schedule Your Content and Make Your Unit's
  • This piece is so important. Student creation on the high school level works much better on  a unit level than a lesson by lesson level. High School's just have too much content to cover to take several days on one project. It's easier to free up a few days across a unit for students to work on their creation project rather than freeing up a few days that focus in on one form of content. If you do it by unit, it also makes it much easier to provide students with choice.
2. Make that real world connection
  • The next step is to take a look at the content in your unit and decide how it can connect to the real world. That's the key to really making creation work with High School students. If they can see a real world problem solving or can be put in a real world position it adds motivation.
3. Develop a Scenario
  • The easiest way for students to create is to develop a scenario for them to live out. It could be as simple as having them live out a situation such as creating a social media account for a historical figure, it could have them solve a real world problem such as an environmental problem, it could have them create a resource for a real organization such as the Freedman's Bureau, and many more. Really, it all depends on your content. The overall goal is to just have them create something for a reason.
4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 in order to get several options.
  • Since your creation assignment is going to be unit based, you really need a few different creation assignments that students can choose from. Creating several real world scenarios allows students to pick what really interests them. You could also have students develop their own scenario and project as an option.
5. Pick Tools That Fit, But Don't be Tied
  • After you have developed your scenarios, you want to give some suggestion on the right tool in order to ensure students have success. Don't be tied to that, though. Students may come up with much better tools or be experts in others. By letting them pick, you also can learn something new.
6. Publish It
  • While there are some high school students who will not want their work published, one of the nice things about teaching high school is you don't have to worry about it as much. Making that real world connection and getting a real audience is very important, and there are times your student's work could even change the world. Set up a plan to publish it, get approval if needed, and get those students that real audience they need.

The Examples

This section focuses in on those student examples. Hopefully, by seeing these works in action you can see the value that they bring to students, and above all remember that through these projects students are giving more back that they would with a worksheet.
Student Video Projects
Student Websites
This list will give you a few examples of student website projects. 
Social Media Projects
This list will give you a few of the many projects that can be done with Social Media
Student Animations
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