Project Proposals

Final Revised Proposal

From a basic educational standpoint, we will provide learners with a user-friendly resource for the selection of literature that will foster their desire to read, as well as opportunities for literary discussion that feel more “real” than the traditional book report/review. Consequently, we envision an online database similar to Amazon.com or IMDB.com with composite reviews and boards where students can search and post personal reviews. Additionally, we would like to establish a forum where students can engage in relevant conversations about what they read.

The focus of our site will be social. We believe that all learning is social, and that good pedagogy reflects a commitment to more equitable and meaningful modes of social interaction.Ideally, we would like to build a virtual community that belongs first to the students. As such, we hope to design a site where conversations about reading are grounded in topics and discourses that are authentic to our adolescent users. Reading is a given, it is the connection with and through books that we are trying to achieve. We look to thefacebook.com as the model for a social meeting ground where students can formulate (reader) identities through personal profiles and subsequently discover new affinities with their peers.

We are familiar with Nancie Atwell’s work in reading. We agree that too often students are forced to divorce personal and school literacy, to the detriment of both. What we hope to create is a socially sanctioned arena where learners can use their skills of analysis, evaluation, and communication, to test and extend their identities as literate and whole people.
Software Available at the MET: Unknown.
Software We Will Use: Currently unknown. Probably PHP (or another scripting language) and MySQL (or another database).
Group meeting times: We are all free Fridays between1-2, as well as during the weekends. Our meetings will primarily happen over the weekends.

Original Proposal

Name: Brian Mills
School: The Met Center - Met West
E-mail: bmills (at) metcenter.org
Subject: all subjects
Grade: 9th-12th
Project: I'd like a program that encourages students to review books they have read and recommend them to other students. We don't have a required reading list at the Met -- though students are required to document reading 20 books in the course of their four years here -- and so we try to use peer recommendations as a motivator for students to read and talk about books. The problem is that the avid readers are a little shy about speaking up in school assemblies about books they've enjoyed reading. A digital medium might make this task less intimidating.

Basically, I'm looking for an interactive database whose fields include include book titles, authors, brief reviews by students, the location of the book in the building (we don't have a library), and one that is sortable not only by genre, topic and key words, but also -- and most importantly -- by reviewer. Ideal scenario: If Kandakai likes Cynthia, he will look up her name on the database, find out what she's read, and read the same books so that he can start a conversation with her. Positive peer pressure!

I also like the Borders.com feature of having sidebar "top ten" book lists by people who write in. This would be a cool way for staff and well-read students to share books online, and it would help students to understand that writing book reviews isn't just "make-work" but actually has a community function. I want the students to feel that they are joining a community of readers,and that they are educating others by sharing their own opinions on books they've read.

Our kids spend hours a day on computers, sometimes working, but at other times just cruising the net or instant-messaging their friends. This program would be a way to integrate their peer-group obsession with something educational.

"Teaching in the Middle" (the second half of the book) is a great introduction to the ideal of creating a "dining room table" type of forum for students to talk about books. It starts with a student survey of reading habits and attitudes. Having a digitized book discussion could potentially get kids to formulate opinions about what they read beyond "boring" and "I liked it." Maybe specific prompts could be included such as "If you were a Martian, what would this book teach you about human culture?"

While I would want the program to be truly open to student input so that there would not be a single "gatekeeper" responsible for uploading student work, I'd want to limit the potential for abuse, e.g., a student review of Hustler magazine. I'm open to creative solutions to this. One possibility would be that a group of student "editors" could be trained to update the contents periodically. Maybe an e-mail account could be created for them as a holding station for material to be uploaded?

One essential aspect of the program would have to be visual appeal. Many of my students are visual and hands-on learners. Text does not appeal to them as much as cool graphics and buttons.

Preliminary Revised Proposal #1

Elaboration and clarification revision

Name: Brian Mills
School: The Met Center - Met West
E-mail: bmills (at) metcenter.org
Subject: all subjects
Grade: 9th-12th
Project: Book review software, through which students can review and recommend books to their peers. This will be used during the students' free time at school, to serve as a log of the books they read every year. Per requirement, students are each expected to read at least 20 books, with no specification, this software will replace their current record keeping. Ideally we would like to create a means through which the students can write back and forth to each other about the books, creating not only a collection of book reviews, but also a literary dialogue.
Approach/Goals: As we begin this work our group is striving to create software that will promote a natural discussion of the literature that these students are already reading. Ideally, students will be writing book reports that are both interesting for them, as well as others, writing them primarily for each other instead of their advisors. Through these means we hope to integrate individuals academic and social identities.
Software Available at the MET: Unknown.
Software We Will Use: Currently unknown. Probably PHP (or another scripting language) and MySQL (or another database).
Group meeting times: We are all free Fridays between1-2, as well as during the weekends. Our meetings will primarily happen over the weekends.

Our first meeting was Friday 11th @ oceans
Hopefully we will meet with Brian Friday, 18th.
Our second group meeting is schedule for the long weekend.

Preliminary Revised Proposal #2

Educational philosophy revision

Our first meeting was Friday 11th @ oceans
Hopefully we will meet with Brian Friday, 18th.
Our second group meeting is schedule for the long weekend.