always learning

OK, I know I said I was going to move on to wikis next, but I got so inspired by the ideas posted on Google Maps Mania that I’m going try that next (but I’m still learning how to use my wikispace in the meantime).
Peggy would like her students to do a very short research project (1 or 2 lessons) to introduce the concept of geography. They need to find out basic information (like population, per capita income, political structure, etc,) about one country each – every student has a different country – using various web resources. In the past she has had students present a poster with a regional and country map and the information color coded around the edges of the images.

Instead, we’re going to try this:

• Students will research about their assigned country. As they research, they need to keep their notes in a Word document for later transfer onto the blog.
• Once they have found all the required information, they will use the “thumbtack” feature on Google Earth to label their country. They will also put all the required info in the “info” section of the thumbtack (color coded into the 5 themes of geography).
• When they are finished we can watch the slideshow view so the students can see the world view zoom into regional and local for each country they’ve researched (plus, of course, all the information they have all compiled on each of their Google Earth files).
• Then they will write a consise paragraph about what they learned on their blog and upload their Google Earth file.
• Peggy and I will compile all the individual files into one sixth grade geography file so the students can see all the research in one slideshow and post on our blog.

What do you think? Could this be better?