Thanks for starting the discussion, Bob!
To add a bit more detail to the way we used the digital diary.
It started as a tool for Mark’s biology classes to record observations of the flora and fauna as they traveled around. When we created the Math-Biology bundle, the tool became an obvious choice for all classes (but especially for the math classes) to add a cultural component to them. For a small portion of the grade the students are required to keep the journal in an enhanced form, with records not only of the flora and fauna, but also with short entries for the cultural observations of the day – museums, temples, types of dishes etc. Thus, if they take math-biology combo they can just keep one journal and satisfy the biology requirements as long as the I-course requirement for all courses simultaneously.
I am planning on further enhancing it and require those who take math classes to also add short entries, describing the math methods covered during the group projects, while working with the foreign students and list if they have any observations on strength and weaknesses of the ways mathematics is taught at the hosting institutions. This could be used in some form from other disciplines as well.
So, in short, the Journal is a great tool for:
1) Addressing some class needs;
2) Keeping a cultural trail of observations and discoveries;
3) Keeping the memory of the trip, the participants and the pictures.
If an app is created that would allow the integration of pictures and videos with short descriptions, keeps a track on the place and time those were taken, works online as well as offline and syncs with product at some GGC cloud, that will be a great achievement.
Although my first inclination was that this could be a project all of us are involved and write/contribute to its description, the more I think about it, the less obvious for me is how this could be achieved.
Any ideas?
