You can read Part 1 of the series here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here.

In my last post, I outlined a project for Grade 11 students that incorporated traditional classroom resources and social media channels. The students were required to form teams and colonize new planets. They needed to start producing goods for trade with the other colonies and secure the resources their particular colony lacked.

How the Project Used Social Media

There's a lot to chose from ...

A lot of the core content we needed was already at hand in textbooks and on various websites. When necessary, we created small micro-activities to let the students practice the skills they were going to need, for example accounting worksheets and examples of statistical analysis of real demographic data.

For this project, social media was mainly used as means of sharing information, which was necessary for each colony’s successful performance. We also didn’t use all the channels available to us. For example, Facebook and video conferencing channels weren’t employed, and we didn’t officially use chat or texting, although the students regularly sent information to each other using these channels. I’ll describe how each social media channel was used:

Twitter: To keep the project lively we made regular “Interplanetary News” broadcasts. These were quick announcements about events happening in the universe of the project. And we weren’t always nice. Sometimes we would create a volcanic eruption on the Fire Planet that destroyed metal caches. We would announce random attacks on one of the Earth2 colonies, and they would lose 50% of their surplus food stores. Sandstorms on the Desert Planet would delay fuel deliveries. Basically, we tried to mess with everyone equally.

But we weren’t always cruel. We had a Fire Planet colony develop new smelting technologies that cut production costs by 40%. The Ice Planet discovered alternative fuel supplies trapped in the ice, which helped reduce transportation costs. Envoys from the indigenous population on Earth2 reached out to negotiate with the colonists. Everyone also got a treat now and then.

And sometimes we sent out “neutral” announcements. The Air Planet developed a more powerful engine that sped up transport, but also consumed more fuel and caused more rapid environmental degradation. The Fire Planet created more “efficient” weapons.  New mineral supplies were found on the earth planet which would help in the creation of lighter weight metals, but could only be accessed through strip mining. We left it up to the students to decide how they would use this information.

The students really became addicted to these “Interplanetary” tweets: those who caught the information first and acted quickly usually benefitted, while those who missed them normally lost out on trade negotiations. Twitter was an excellently delivery system for these types of announcements.

Google Docs: Students uploaded their constitutions, official trade agreements and financial records onto Google Docs, where any member of the colonial government could make changes or add information. Colonies did not have access to another colony’s data, but the teachers could access all the information at any time. One of our grading criteria was how often and accurately financial documents were updated. The math teacher could also regularly check the accuracy of the financial transactions and step in to help when problems were detected. The English and history teachers analyzed the trade agreements after each Congress to ensure that promises were kept.

Blog: We set up the “Interplanetary New” blog where the teachers and students could post news and reactions. Sometimes things got a little nasty here, especially when trade talks broke down or one colony betrayed another, so we also had to make sure we took turns reviewing the comments. We fed the “Interplanetary” tweets to the blog, so students could check and make sure they weren’t missing any “breaking” news.

How would we have used other social media channels?

Facebook: We did consider having each student set up a Facebook account where he or she could keep a journal of the project, describe decision making processes, share thoughts on different aspects of the project, and post pictures from the Interplanetary Congresses, but time just didn’t allow for this.

YouTube: This would have been the perfect place for students to upload their Colony Anthems. Honestly, at the time we just didn’t consider it, but it would definitely be a channel I would add to the project.

Video Conferencing: At the time we ran the project, we weren’t aware of any low cost or free video conferencing services. Today, I think it would be very interesting to run at least one of the Congresses using this channel, just to get the students feedback on the differences between this system and a standard face-to-face meeting.

How did the project end?

Although there were some stressful times over those two weeks, the feedback from the students and the parents at the end of the project was almost universally positive. We had parents thanking us for finally teaching their children about responsible money management, telling us that they had never seen their sons and daughters so engaged in a school project, and describing the pride they felt as they watched their 14 and 15 year olds assume leadership roles and discuss the difficult decisions they had to make. Needless to say, we the teachers felt it was an incredibly rewarding two weeks, and the incorporation of social media channels really helped the project come alive for the students.

In the final post in this series, I would like to discuss why educators need to invest more time developing projects like this one, and consider using social media in general on a more consistent basis.

How would you use social media channels in a project like this? What other resources or services could be have included?

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