Don+Foshee+Grant+Proposal

** NOTE: **   // This is the text of the project submission. Timelines and implementation have been adjusted to accommodate TAKS testing schedule. //**

Project Overview ** Develop a comprehensive weather safety program for schools, including the following: training to develop a student safety plan, providing student safety booklets, a weather radio and a website to provide weather information. Classrooms will study weather and then connect with a local weather person for a question and answer session to learn in depth about the potential for severe weather in Texas. In the pre-conference work, students will be charged with online assignments such as: ensuring information located in Wikipedia is accurate, writing WikiHow documents, and contributing to the main weather wiki for the project. All documents and content will be related to severe weather conditions and safety in Texas. After the videoconference, participating classes will be able to join the campaign to create a video to promote severe weather awareness to other students in Texas. Videos will be judged by the News Channel 10 Weather and Public Relations team as to which provides accurate weather information and is compelling video. The final videos will be showcased during National Severe Safety Awareness Week in spring of 2009. Distance Learning Technologies ** > > ** Target Audience ** Pilot year (2008-09) Elementary and Intermediate students in Central Texas, Year two and beyond: partnerships with other schools in areas where severe weather events begin ** Backyard Treasure Connection ** We will partner with Rusty Garrett from News Channel 10, The Weather Authority for the videoconference and online portions. The entire News Channel 10 Weather team will participate in judging the submitted videos. Rusty Garrett has been the most trusted weather source in Central Texas for the past 20 years and shares weather safety face-to-face and in videoconferencing with students. This project will enable Rusty to move from merely presenting into the co-teaching and facilitating with the partner teachers. This project will also be partnered with the book Night of the Twisters for teachers wishing for the complete interdisciplinary unit. Exceptional Uniqueness ** This project blends face-to-face interactions using interactive videoconferencing with the emerging technologies of the web to allow for students creating their own content. The web-based collaborative technologies will enable multiple classrooms from multiple districts to participate in this project. The project is built on the educational philosophy of social constructivism. Knowledge of how to be safe when severe weather strikes will be shared via interactions with the “experts” and then reinforced as students review and evaluate content found on the web on user-generated sites such as Wikipedia. Finally, the creation of the videos will move students to the highest level of learning as they determine how to share their knowledge with others. The service learning element of the project will come into play as student teams review their campus safety plan and determine the best place for using the weather radio sent to the campus. Projected Participation and Outreach to Other Constituencies — ** Participation would be limited to 20 classes to enable proper teacher training and support. Through networking within the TxDLA organization, we will develop additional weather-related programs including the storm chasers from the panhandle and other organizations across the state.
 * 1) Joomla will be used as a content management system to develop a website.(Changed to wikispaces.)
 * 1) Wordpress will be used for the blogging platform to connect students.(Used wikispaces comments section.)
 * 1) Video conferencing will be used for the final interviews of experts related to the books.
 * 2) TeacherTube/YouTube for uploading and sharing of videos.
 * 3) WikiHow and Wikipedia for correcting information on the web related to severe weather.