Creating a
Multimedia Journey

Subject(s)

Educational Technology
Language Arts
-- Creative Writing
Social Studies
--Geography
Technology

Grade

3-12
Advanced (Adaptable for most grades)

Brief Description

Students take a journey through sound exploring the sounds of the places they visit. They then research some of the places they visit and write a fictional account of their journey.

Objectives

Students will

learn about other countries.
create a narrative.
develop their abilities to create multimedia projects using a range of media sources.

Keywords

Travel, sound, culture

Materials Needed

Internet access
the Web site Sound Transit
hard-drive space to store media

Lesson Plan

Explain to students that they are going to go on a journey to another country --any country in the world -- and ask each student to choose a country he or she would like to visit. (For students who can�t decide on a country, you might suggest a destination or have them close their eyes and point to spot on a map.)

After students have selected their destinations, tell them they will stop at five places on their journey. Have them go to Sound Transit, and follow the directions to enter their current location, their desired destination, and five stops along the way. (See: http://img.skitch.com/20080911-jeqfnxdwh15f7sk8hx3ht4x4d5.jpg.

The site then will offer them several possible trip variations. They should select one and click NEXT.

The web site then will create an audio version of each student�s trip, which can be downloaded as an mp3 file. (This might take a few minutes) Ask students to download and save their audio files to a folder on their desktops.

Let them listen to their files.

They also will be able to see maps of their trips.

Ask students to open a new window on their browsers and go to flickr. Each student then should search for and download what he or she feels are the most appropriate images of the places visited.

Have students listen to their sound files again, this time while looking at the images selected. Ask students to make notes about what they hear.

Finally, ask them to use the images and their notes to write a story of their journey. They can do that using a word processor, a blog, or a web site.

Extension Activity
Students also might upload their images and record the story of their journey using voicethread or PowerPoint. You can see a voicethread tutorial here.