I have worried for a while that I will have to break this awesome paperless streak come spring when research paper time rolls around. It's not the actual paper I'm worried about; it's the notecard-writing and organizing of the paper that's freaking me out. In the past, kids have gone through a 7-layer-burrito-sized stack of notecards, and those have been used to cluster ideas and organize topics and quotes. What's a paperfree teacher to do if she can't use notecards?
I just discovered some of the answer...and maybe all of the answer.
Mindmeister
Check this bad jammer out:
A Tour of MindMeister from MindMeister on Vimeo.
I haven't worked out the details (After all, it's a spring project, and right now, I have to figure out how to give a paperless exam to 46 students with only 24 computers....), but I can see how this will help kids organize ideas, websites, and notes about certain topics. Not only that, the girls are gonna love being able to make it all pretty by embedding pictures.
Gosh, now I can't wait to make a little mini project with Mindmeister to get them used to it. : )
From a student who's supposed to be working on a research paper now instead of reading blogs, I've been organizing my notes just by using page numbers as bullet points for a Word doc and just typing stuff in. Granted, I've been forced to use paper because I need to work fast and have to work on airplanes or in classrooms, but the principle is sound. Just a suggestion for keeping things flexible.
ReplyDeleteNotecards were always my bane because I hate trying to meet a quota. More than once I filled out several with redundant information from different sources just to fit the required amount. I know some students have to be prodded to have enough information to constitute a paper, but there are also some of us who do fine without forced checkpoints. Although, in fairness, the GSL research paper experience did get me an excellent grade on my Vonnegut paper last year, so obviously it works.
Ah, the irony....The method is tried and true, for sure. And I am certainly aware that not all people need the same quota, but that kind of differentiation is better left to the high schools. If I recall, you probably kicked some butt on the research paper I gave you! : ) The way I see it, there's always Word. ; )
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