Scotch Plains Teacher to Present at Microsoft Forum

Fanwood resident Kim Leegan, who teaches history at Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, will participate for her in the elite Microsoft Partners in Learning 2012 US Forum. 

The forum showcases and celebrates educators across the United States that utilize technology in the classroom in creative ways.

“I feel so blessed to be given this incredible opportunity a second time,” Leegan said.

Leegan will present her students’ class project, an Interactive Civil War Museum, which combined the use of search engines, digital voice recording, video, two-dimensional barcodes, and social networking sites.

Using such tools as Encarta, Bing, Internet Explorer and other online databases, students in teams conducted research on selected topics about the Civil War.

These teams then created a visual display regarding their chosen topic. They used voice thread and video editing technology to create brief films about their topics.

Once on display, viewers of the museum were able to watch the films on students’ laptops, which were next to each exhibit and ready to play the videos.

Each team also created a QR code, which allowed viewers with smartphones to view additional hidden information on the students’ chosen topics.

As visitors exited the museum, they were invited to Tweet the exhibit creators with comments or questions. Twitter feed was later followed in class.

“I am honored that I was chosen to present my work,” Leegan said.

More than 100 educators from 25 states will travel to Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, WA to showcase their projects from July 31 to August 1. Leegan is the only representative from New Jersey in this year’s competition.

Leegan’s project will be evaluated at the forum by professionals in the education field, and if selected as a finalist, she will continue on as U.S. representative at the Global Forum in Athens this fall.