This social networking assignment takes place over the course of a month and involves students working collaboratively online to build vocabulary skills. Students look up vocabulary words, find and share related images, write sentences using the words, comment on each other's work, collaboratively write a story, and create a presentation to share what they've learned. The assignment utilizes several social networking tools like ThinkQuest, Flickr, Wikispaces, and Mixedink to enable students to learn and work together both locally and globally.

1. Community Building Assignment
Janice Bezanson EDTECH 541
Spring 2011

2. Social Networking in Fifth Grade
This social networking assignment takes place over the course of a month and includes
nine steps. This assignment can be repeated each month using new vocabulary words.
Subjects: Reading & Writing
Background Information: Students participating in this assignment have been
assigned to both small groups and partners. Groups and partners rotate monthly. The
students have previous experience working with the assigned web pages and software.
Students have been previously in-serviced on proper netiquette skills and understand
the consequences for failure to follow established rules.

3. Assignment Overview
The assignment is posted on a Vocabulary Project page on ThinkQuest. Students work
through the project during the month at their own pace. The project is shown below as it
appears on ThinkQuest.
This month's words: jolt pry prospect incident dumbfounded vindicate isolated refurbish
Directions:
1. Look up the meaning of each word using dictionary.com. or any online dictionary. Add this month's words and their
meanings to your vocabulary list in Word.
2. Go to flickr's creative commons to search for pictures that depict the meaning of this month's vocabulary words.
Save them to your desktop, then upload them to the discussion board at http://www.flickr.com/groups/bezanson/3.
3. Play picture match with your parent using the pictures stored on our class flickr page. Have your parents try to
match the pictures on our class page to this week's vocabulary words.
4. Create an interesting sentence for each of this week's vocabulary words.
5. Go to Mrs. Bezanson's wiki to add your sentences to our class wiki. https://bezanson.wikispaces.com/
6. Read through the posted sentences and comment on at least three other writings. You are looking for interesting
sentences or vocabulary words used in an interesting or different context.
7. Using what you learned reading through this month's sentences, work in your groups to create an interesting
portion of our group short story. Go to mixedink.com and be prepared to create, share and enjoy.
8. Work with your partner and design a narrated Pixie presentation of this month's mixedink short story.
9. Upload your Pixie to our ThinkQuest project page. Invite students and teachers from our ThinkQuest community to
view your presentation and critique it.

4. Social Networking Tools
The following social networking sites are used for this assignment:
•ThinkQuest - This is a protected, online learning platform that enables teachers to
integrate learning projects into their classroom curriculum. This site requires
administrative approval.
•FlickGroups - Used as a collaborative place to interact and store pictures.
•Wikispaces - Used as a collaborative place of learning.
•Mixedink - A place for students to write collaboratively.
Screen shots of each of the above sites can be seen on the next four slides.

5. ThinkQuest

6. FlickrGroups

7. Wikispaces

8. Mixedink

9. Project Finale
The final projects will be uploaded to ThinkQuest for students around the world to view
and critique. This assignment allows students to learn and collaborate with classmates,
peers and teachers around the world.
Image from flick creative commons
Collaborative online learning makes the world a smaller place.

10. Resources
✤ Webpages used for the assignment
dictionary.com
flickr's creative commons
flickr groups
mixedink
ThinkQuest
wikispaces
✤ Images
Flickr Creative Commons
Cover photo by Janice Bezanson