Learning & Leading Through Technology

1. Get the support of your building-level leadership. Let them know what you are planning. Emphasize that this is new and exciting for everyone involved.

2. Outline the parameters of your competition.

What ages are eligible to compete? Will you award any prizes? How will you assess the project? Will you have judges? A rubric? What is the topic or theme? What standards would you like to address? Make sure that the rules are easy for potential participants to access and understand. If you use a backward design process, your expectations will become clearer to both you and your students.

3. Come up with a time frame. We suggest that you allot at least a quarter, but preferably a semester or more, for students to complete their projects. Give them class

Create Your Own Online Competition

Signing your students up for outside online competitions is an easy way to get them involved and inspired. But you can also take it a step further by starting your own competition. All you need are a collaborative online community, leadership support, time, and transparency to make it happen.

Here are seven steps to creating your own competition:
time, but a goal is for them to get so in-
vested in their projects that they want to
work on them at home or in an after-school
club as well.

4. Decide on an online community or space to showcase the projects to each other and the world. Depending on your fire-wall limits and the type of competition, you might use Wikispaces, Facebook, or Google+. The Scratch website is perfect for programming projects. Visit the Scratch Help page ( scratch.mit.edu/help). See what other educators are doing and get support on ScratchEd ( scratched.media.mit.edu).

5. If you decide to use Scratch, create a Studio (gallery) and begin advertising on the website. Market your competition.

You don’t want it to be limited to just
your students. Advertise to Scratchers,
teachers, and other students in your
school and district. Get ideas and learn
how to promote on the Scratch Discuss
page ( scratch.mit.edu/discuss). Post on
the “New Scratchers” forum and encour-
age your students to do the same to be-
come enculturated into the community.

6. Reach out to the online community for feedback. Using the audience is key to producing high-quality projects. As your students begin working on their projects, require them to test other projects, post comments, and be open to feedback from others. You are teaching them how to interact appropriately as well as how to be part of the wisdom of the crowd. If you are using the Scratch website, refer to the FAQs ( scratch.mit.edu/help/faq) and the community guidelines ( scratch.mit.edu/ community_guidelines).