Task 16 - Student 2.0 tools

So I just finished looking at the Assignment Calculator and the Research Project Calculator.  Pretty fancy stuff.  Students input the type of assignment and the due date and get a timeline and suggestions about how to go about the project.  It took me back to 5th grade.  Mrs. Campbell gave each student a small, spiral notebook at the beginning of 5th grade.  It was our responsibility to keep track of that thing come (the 5th grade versions of ) hell or high water.  We had to write down our assignments as we got them and we had to take the book home everynight to show our parents and bring it back the next day.  In high school, I visited Mrs. Campbell and thanked her profusely for preparing me for High School and for keeping track of my own assignments.  She was my homework hero. 

So, be it in a spiral notebook or online, I wish more teachers would use these kinds of tools and share the project timelines with the library!  If we know 30 kids will be coming in looking for "hot button issues" for reports, we can be ready!  I think tools like these could be especially helpful if teachers coordinated with school librarians.  If the librarians got the same reminders as students about when things are due and what step the research is in, they could help the process along.  
Things like the Research Project Calculator are really cool...if your students have the internet and computer access required to make the work realistically.  One options is to have email reminders sent to the student.  That only works if the student has reliable access to the internet.  Quite frankly, in my community that is not the case.