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With keyboarding as a part of the curriculum instead of the focus, the Elementary Computer Curriculum uses a project-based approach to integrate computing skills into the classroom. Each project is designed to integrate a range of information and communication technology skills into student learning. This includes word processing, programming, graphics, spreadsheets, desktop publishing, applied technology, telecommunications, databases, operating systems, and multimedia.
Each project contains meaningful theme-related assignments that use Microsoft applications. For example, students produce a book advertisement using PowerPoint, write a report on endangered species using Word, analyze and graph survey results in Excel, and organize data on space missions using Access. Each project enhances skills in subject areas such as language arts, mathematics, geography, science, social studies, and visual arts.
In one of our Advanced Projects, students form video production teams and work together to create a digital story. The story they tell will be a re-make of a classic nursery rhyme. As a group, students must determine how to give the poem a “new-spin”. Once the team has a plan, their ideas are organized using a storyboard. After that, actors, marionettes, or puppets enact the action sequences. The events are recorded using video capture devices and the raw footage is edited using the tools in Windows Movie Maker. The goal throughout the activities is to produce a story that children will enjoy today.
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