The document discusses the value of communities from the perspective of a student. It summarizes the student's experience participating in several online and local communities. The student reflects that communities are important because they allow people to make friends, help each other, and feel better during difficult times. The student enjoyed being part of an online community through Edmodo where they learned about other cultures while also finding common interests. They created a VoiceThread presentation to share media and explain transportation in Beijing to this online community.

1. Communities Reflection
Communities:
I think a community is a group of people who are connected. I
identify with a variety of communities such as church, BISS and my
family. I enjoy belonging to my neighborhood community the most
because we can help each other and when there is problem and make
people laugh. I think communities are important for people because
we can have friends to play or talk and sometimes when we have sad
things happen, our neighbors can make our feelings better.
My Virtual Community:
I was a member of a Flat Classroom Community called Transportation.
While working with my community in Edmodo, I learned that every
country has different ways of life because of different cultures. I
discovered that my team members and I had commonalities such as
our favorite animal is the dog and our favorite transportation is
planes and trains. I also discovered that we had differences such as
living in a different places and having different favorite foods. I
enjoyed being a member of this community because we could talk `to
each other and make friendships. It was challenging to answer the
entire question that they asked me because sometimes I had to do
research.
Media Collection:
I collected media to teach my community about what transportation
Beijing people use and how much it cost. I collected photos and videos
such as a bus, a metal car, bicycles, a bullet train and an expensive
car. The most important photo I shared was about bicycles. It was
important because it showed that it is very cheap and most people
use it in Beijing.
Voice Thread Presentation:
I explained my media in a Voice Thread presentation. I enjoyed
working with Voice Thread because it was fun to speak on the
computer and making my group’s own slide show was fun. I think I
explained busesthe best because I told my group all about how much
it cost to ride one whole ride. Next time I use Voice Thread, I will
try to put more information in my explanations.
What else?
During this unit I especially enjoyed using VoiceThread. After this
unit, I will continue to useSkype to keep connected to my family and
friendship communities.