Two summers ago, JoAnn Brown, a 4th grade Inclusive Teacher at the Dr. William W. Henderson Inclusion Elementary School participated in two professional development courses, Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum and Integrating Visual/Digital Media in the Curriculum offered by the Office of Instructional and Information Technology.Equipped with the experience and tools gained from the trainings, JoAnn returned to school that Fall and trained her 4th grade colleagues Danielle Merdin and Terri Wellner on how to create iMovie videos. She also guided her students through a cross-curricular study of the 50 states, which culminated in the creation of a shared digital photo book.
Inspired by her work, Danielle and Terri expanded the use of these tools internationally when they were awarded a Fund For Teachers grant to establish a virtual partnership with an elementary school in Nairobi, Kenya. They traveled to Kenya during the summer of 2010, collected video, pictures, and created a blog. They used that digital media they collected as content to supplement the 4th grade Science and Writing curriculum, and as a forum to establish the Virtual Information Project (V.I.P.).
The V.I.P. is a partnership and virtual classroom exchange between the Dr. William Henderson Inclusion Elementary School and the Kilimani Integrated Primary School in Nairobi, Kenya. For more information and updates on the current status of the project, visit the V.I.P. Blog at: www.virtualinformationproject.blogspot.com
If you would like to contact the project leaders or join the mailing list, please do so at virtualinformationproject@gmail.com.
Also please watch a mini-documentary about the partnership at http://www1.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=209578&title=Virtual_Information_Project
