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One goal of KidPad is to enable children to create non-linear stories to express their thoughts visually, in a more natural way than linear storytelling allows. KidPad supports collaboration between children because it can be used with multiple mice on the same computer. Certain tools in KidPad encourage collaboration because they enable two children to perform a task that they would be unable to perform alone. For example, if a child wants to draw in orange she must work with another child. There is no orange crayon but if the red and yellow crayons are put together the colors mix and two mice can draw in orange.

The Blogs O' Persuasion are a set of blogs devoted to 6th grade student viewpoints on a variety of controversial topics. We are using blogging as the platform for students to share their persuasive writing with other students, teachers, and the world! We would welcome any comments for the students' posts, so please let them know what you think. The skills and knowledge that we are addressing through this project are: Evaluating websites and other online resources to gather research and data to support their persuasive position on a topic Collaborating with others and sharing research sources - we used a Google Form to gather sources and posted all the useful links in the Link Library of each blog Writing persuasively! Writing in a digital space. We taught the students how to use hypertext as linktribution and as a means of enriching the readers' experience. Some students also learned how to add CC licensed images to their posts and give proper attribution. Being good digital citizens. We taught the students about using comments appropriately to communicate with their peers about their posts. Some very cool goals done in an authentic and in an interesting way.