Thing 8

Discovery Utopia and Holocaust Wiki are outstanding. The organization moves students through the project with clear expectations and multiple resources at each stage. The resource tools were extensive and provided more information than needed for the project. Students would need to apply a variety of skills to gather the concrete information and then to create create the project. I would not add anything to either of these projects (well, maybe if given more time to link the TEKS with the project).
1001 Flat World Tales project was not on my list of favorite sites. The resources and the progress checks seemed to be limited. I did not think that placing the grading procedures immediately after the task would encourage students to jump in. Also, the wording "kill off" was a factor. Yes, I know the story, but I think another word would have worked better.
Some ideas that have emerged in the 23 Things study center around the new ELA TEKS. I think a wiki would work in order to produce some clarifying statements about what the new student expectations will become in the way of assignments. As we become more familiar with the process, I hope the collect student examples of products.
Another idea is to begin to move to eportfolios in middle school. Tammy Rushing and I have started this discussion.