Eighth grade students create web-based digital portfolios of their Middle School work choosing academic and extracurricular hightlights and incorporating text, graphics and sound. Students in English, History and languages construct websites to present their work, including research on MacBeth, historical figures in ancient Rome, and events in World History since 1945. They also create hyperlinked, annotated poems and publish them on the web . Students use Geometer's Sketchpad to understand geometry concepts, spending time conjecturing and learning rather that plotting and drawing. In any subject class, students can participate in online discussion groups across grade levels or sections, expanding the walls of the classroom and providing students with another method for communicating, sharing and developing ideas.
Students studying a language can participate in online chats to practice their language skills.
Transcripts of chats can be saved for analysis of use of vocabulary and grammar. The laptop can become a student's personal language lab, providing access to genuine language web sites, radio transmissions and chats. Project-Based Learning Students in journalism courses use desktop publishing and online resources to create a virtual newsroom. The high school newspaper is assembled digitally before being published in print.