Its companion site, ifakeSiri.com, does the same thing, except the image looks like a conversation with iPhone’s voice command, Siri.  I was hoping it created an audio file, but alas, it does not.  Still sort of fun.

Project Based Learning: Kids could have some fun with this, and though it is not as involved as making a fake facebook page, a lot of the deliverable ideas would be the same.

Gamestar Mechanic

Description: Gamestar Mechanic is a game-based digital learning platform geared at 4th to 9th grade students that is designed to teach the guiding principles of game design and systems thinking in a highly engaging and creative environment.

Project Uses: Use Gamestar Mechanic and game design to recreate tension or problems of a narrative, to recreate historical events, or model some process (how a bill becomes a law, perhaps) by letting the character actively participate.

[pressbooks.com]

Project Based Learning (PBL): eBooks are a great deliverable idea. While creating traditional books has long been used as strong deliverables, the digital version can take it a few steps further. First, whether or not anyone ever actually reads it, it has the ability to be released to an actual, public audience. This adds an important level of authenticity and relevance to the work. Second, seeing their work displayed on an iPad is a really cool experience for a lot of students, and that can also add a desire to be more professional – the product matters.

Learn more at Udacity.com!

The Purdue OWL: Research and Citation.

The Purdue OWL page is a wonderful collection of resources on proper writing format, citations, research, grammar, and other related issues, with sections for both MLA and APA format.

Boundless is another example of high quality Open Educational Resources (OER), like some others that I’ve written about here. Like many of the others, too, it is growing in the number of subjects it offers, and that list is already substantial. Boundless textbooks are totally free, are available across several platforms, and have a very nice built in reader that allows you to take notes, save your progress, highlight important text, and list questions that may come up as you read.

Project Based Learning: If you have students venturing out for some self-directed learning, but less focused on a traditional driving question (like a good project is), then this is a high quality resource. Certainly online learning takes a lot of discipline and you have to work out with the student how to define the scope and plan of such a project, but with that in mind, this would be a great place to look for resources.

Text 2 Mind Map offers a great way to turn your typed outlines into mind maps.

Project Based Learning: The Text 2 Mind mapping tool can be useful during the brainstorming process as students figure out what interests them and what they know (like a KWL). It can also be useful as a deliverable – a way to show connections between and within certain subjects.

Check it out here: Text 2 Mind

Make My Own Game – Flash Game Maker on Sploder!.

Sploder is a website that helps build simple flash games. Though it doesn’t have the options that some of the other tools have (you have to choose a basic template), it is a fairly user-friendly, mostly drag-and-drop type builder.

Project-Based Learning: While it isn’t as open and flexible as stencyl, Sploder still allows kids to work within the game-design field, and it doesn’t really require coding ability, making it more accessible in general. Students can use the puzzle or quest game to explore or recreate ideas related to their projects. (Or just spend some time designing a puzzle – that alone requires some serious brain power!)

From their website: Sploder is online game software that allows people to create cool games and publish them on the web. Sploder even allows you to easily put Flash games on your site without having to learn Flash.

Google Story Builder is a really simple web app from google that lets you create stories in google docs – it makes it look like two ‘characters’ are having a conversation back and forth. It would be a fun way to create a simple deliverable.

I played around with it this morning and made this: “PBL” by Tim.

Project Based Learning: While I don’t think Google Story Builder would be great for complex issues, it could be fun for some literature or creative writing projects, some health projects (one character could make some bad decisions…), or even smaller history projects. It is fun and very easy to use!

OER Commons is a website dedicated to Open Education Resources (OER). OER material is completely free and compiled with the purpose of providing strong educational resources to everyone. OER Commons has a great collection of resources, materials, and information, including entire courses, DVD collections, and more. OER Commons seems like a wonderful, professional level resource and includes a wide variety of subjects.

Here’s a simple video explaining what Open Education Resources (OER) actually means:

Project Based Learning: We all need good sources, right? OER Commons seems like a good place to start!