Students explore the geography of self(ies)

An innovative way for students to explore who they are happens in Lori Lisai’s classroom at Lamoille Union Middle School where she works with them to craft an interactive biography through her Geography of Self project.

A bulletin board houses the student self portraits; 8th graders include their 7th grade portraits side-by-side: a visual representation of growth-over-time.

Thinking more deeply about selfies

Lisai values good design so she takes time teaching students how to take self-portraits and build frames with an eye to design elements. Check out her instructions to the students, below, about what selfies can mean and how to think about them from an artistic and more deeply meaningful point of view.

QR codes bring up digital presentations

On each portrait is a QR code. Scan the code and you will be taken to a Thinglink where the student portrait is embellished with links to multi-media biographies of self.

The student example at right, for instance, brings the viewer to a Haiku Deck presentation of images with text overlays of things this student values.

Other students included iMovies to tell their story of self.

Below is a Thinglink example from Isabelle Sullivan from Lamoille Union School in Vermont.

But it doesn’t have to be just for students

Educators are modeling augmented reality and identity exploration

John Craig, the principal of Hazen Union Middle School and a few of his teachers were inspired by Thinglink as well and are experimenting with students creating Thinglinks, much like Lori did, to add to their Personal Learning Plans (PLPs). John created this example with his newborn son, Emerson as a model.

The end result is a bulletin board showing students sharing their identity growth and remaining connected with who they were as a means of telling the story of who they are becoming:

Check out my description of the project using Shadow Puppet below to hear more about the project.

How have you used augmented reality with your students to help them explore their identities?

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