It is time for a change in technology class.  From here on out, you can choose one of three roads when you get to class:

1. Learn – This path involves everything we did at the beginning of the year: keyboarding and lessons from Learning.com.
2. Explore – This path involves starting with Learning.com, but then exploring a new resource from the classroom resources page each week.  You will then give a short written summary of the resource.
3. Innovate – This path involves starting with Learning.com, but then using the rest of your time to make something new.  This is much harder than it may seem, as you will be in charge of getting your own work done and recording it each week for both of us to see, as well as presenting your research at the end of the semester.

Innovation

Computers and technology are about innovation.  They should rapidly speed up the process of creating new ideas.  In this class, I want you learn how to innovate, both as a creator and as an explorer.

Process

If you choose to Learn, you know what to do next: Head to a keyboarding site, finish a lesson, and then head to Learning.com to learn a different lesson.

If you choose to Explore, you will start out with a lesson from Learning.com.  This is where you get your basic computer skills.  You must complete one lesson before you move on for the day.  After you have shown me your completed lesson, you will go to the Classroom Resources page, pick a link and find out what it can do.  The last five or ten minutes of class, you will review the resources here.

If you choose to Innovate, you will start out with a lesson from Learning.com.  You must learn the rules before you can successfully break them. After you have shown me your completed lesson, you can decide what task you need to complete next in your Innovation Project.

Innovate Project Tasks

Your Innovate Project will follow the Scientific Method, and along each step of the method, you will complete and document a specific task.  The steps and their tasks are detailed below.

1. Explore: Find at least two or three resources you would like to explore and then do so. Record what you did and your response to it.
2. Problem: Figure out a problem, big or small, you would like to solve using technology.  This is often about how to do something better than before.
3. Hypothesis: How do you think you can solve the problem using either the tools you explored above or something new.
4. Materials: Describe in detail the tools you will use to solve this problem.
5. Methods: Describe in detail the process you used to solve the problem.
6. Results: In plain language, how succesful was your solution?
7. Conclusion: Present the above to me and the rest of the class, and include next steps: If successful, what should you do now? If not successful, why not, and what else could work?