More Fun Than A Worksheet

My son came home from school last week and with our usual "do you have homework" formalities, announced that he had to create a fake Facebook page for a Texas History icon. He was assigned Susanna Dickinson, one of the survivors from the Battle of the Alamo. During class he spent some time researching and came home with a two page Fakebook worksheet/template to complete.

Having been a Texas History teacher, I was greatly intrigued by his homework. However, as an educational technology specialist and fan of edtech tools, I had to show him another option beyond the dreaded worksheet. Don't get me wrong, this worksheet was not the typical drill and kill, fact based only worksheet. It was really a template, but if there is already a digital tool available, why not make use of said tool?

A wonderful website, www.classtools.net, is loaded with free tools for student and teacher use, one of which happens to be Fakebook. The tool is easy to use and and even comes with a StartUp Guide. (Plus a ready made rubric that ClassTools calls a MarkSheet.) I showed him the Gallery and we looked at several Fakebooks in the History category for ideas. Since Facebook is not really high on the pre-teen list of frequented sites, we opened my Facebook page and took a quick tour there as well. Now armed with more FB knowledge, my son started to work on his homework. To my great joy, he decided to use the digital tool. In his words, "It's more fun than the worksheet and I can use real images."  He made sure the worksheet information was covered in his ClassTools Fakebook, even though the design was a little bit different. This is the end result. Biased of course, but well done even from an edtech teacher point of view, in my opinion.  
Susanna Dickinson Fakebook by Colton
(the QR code in the image links to the page as well)

Challenge: As an extension of this activity, have students drop an image of their Fakebook into another tool, like Skitch, for example and use text boxes to explain why they chose certain people as friends for their character or explain the reasoning behind the status updates. Students could also use VoiceThread, screenshot images of the Fakebook and create their own recorded audio explanations. 

The possibilities are limitless with some creativity, research and a few innovative tech tools. 

Until next time... Follow your treasure map!

S~