Slide Share, a slide show sharing service, is having a contest in which contestants have 30 slides to explain the current credit crisis. The contest ends in two days so you don’t have much time if you or your students (they would have to be high school age at least) want to enter. But, the idea behind the contest could easily be applied to other subjects.

Applications for Education
If your students are too young to participate the Credit Crisis Contest they can still reap benefits from this Slide Share contest. The contest is producing a lot of content about the credit crisis. Some of the content is informative and some of it will raise questions that you can discuss with your students.

Having a classroom contest or school wide “contest” where students show off the work they produced to demonstrate understanding can be good way to get students excited about learning. Every year my school district has a district-wide art show and a district wide “celebration of learning” where students get to share work with their peers, teachers, and parent. The students, especially younger students, really get excited about these events. Using a program like Slide Share or even just a simple wiki could be one way to conduct an online “celebration of learning” in your school.