Multimedia project| Software | Go Robotic! | Keypals

As the school year draws to a close, parents are looking for ways to keep children's minds engaged with good academic content during the summer months. At this site I have listed some ways that you might use technology to do just that with students in grades K-12. These items were recently featured on the local Portland morning news program Good Day Oregon.

1. Embellish a project completed during the school year using multimedia tools.

For example, a middle school student enrolled in an introductory foreign language class created a family photo brochure with captions using photos, glue, and markers. The challenge this summer might be to try creating that same project digitally, and embellish the content in the process.

Note: if you do not know how to use the tools listed below, try asking your child before you look for other sources for help. Many of these tools are used regularly in schools.

• Perhaps you would scan in the photos and put together an MS PowerPoint Presentation or a Hyperstudio stack.
• You could take the information and format it into a newsletter using a word processor like MS Word, AppleWorks, Open Office, Star Office, or Lotus Smart Suite.
• You could take the information and develop a web page. You might have a web editor like MS Front Page or MS Publisher associated with your office suite. Or you could try using Netscape Composer, a free web editor that comes with Netscape Communicator. Netscape also has some nice templates that can get you started. For a brief step-by-step tutorial on how to use Netscape Composer, try this resource.
  

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2. Select some engaging new educational software

Go beyond typical drill and practice software found in many major retail stores and try some more challenging software. A couple of examples:

• Kid Pix is a great paint/creativity tool that students in grades K-5 or so can really enjoy. It costs about $20. Using this tool students can paint their own graphics and assemble their pictures into entertaining slide shows.
• Summer is a great time to try out some of the more challenging simulation titles with educational content. These are in the $25-40 price range. Two good examples:
  

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3. Go robotic! Lego Mindstorms

This option is quite a bit more expensive (around $200 at local retail stores), but a whole lot of learning fun. Legos are now available as programmable objects. Available in stores as Lego Mindstorms, they maintain an excellent website full of many different learning opportunities for students. One interesting fact: the home version of Mindstorms is a Windows only product, but educators have access to a Macintosh version called Robolab available from Pitsco--Lego Educational Division

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4. Bonus: Find a Key Pal for your child to write to this summer

KidLink is a reputable service that finds keypals on the Internet, which is one good way to keep writing skills up during the summer while making a friend miles away. Consider using keypal correspondence as a starting point for talking and learning about a whole range of subjects, including geography and language arts. You can see from the website that KidLink has international appeal. I choose the English version of this website, but you might have other language abilities.

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Hopefully these ideas can get you and your child started on some enjoyable learning projects this summer.

Multimedia project| Software | Go Robotic! | Keypals