Instead of asking your students “Have you turned it in?” , we need to start asking “Have you published it?”
I love this quote. We’ve all been in this scenario before, where you produced a paper, presentation or other product – only to turn it in to an audience of one, the teacher. We’re looking for classroom examples where students are given the opportunity to publish to a larger audience. Use the comment boxes below to add your examples!
Zac Sinram, Valley Southwoods, Twitter: @zacsinram
As part of Global Cultural Studies (GCS), his class has opportunities for various enrichment activities, where student selects select an activity of interest. One of the options is a restaurant review, which isn’t turned into the teacher, it’s posted on-line at a number of popular restaurant review sites. This helps students “own” the review, knowing that it will posted in the public eye, where reviews are commonly responded to. To ensure the experience meets the goals of the class, he provides a list of specific cultural dining options to select from, a suggested framework for structuring your review, and guidelines for where to publish the review.

Great examples and ideas! It’s always more compelling to have an audience beyond the teacher.
Look at and post K12 student work for a worldwide viewing audience in 200 countries in Student Media Galleries: http://bit.ly/StMedia
Two groups of students share their community through the site:
1. Here’s “what I do before or after school” from gr. 5 students in Senegal (in French with English subtitles): http://www.epals.com/themes/epals1/media/postlist.aspx?App=senegal&Sort=PostDate&PageIndex=1
2. Here’s a tour of a bakery given by a grade 4 student from a village near Puebla, Mexico: http://www.epals.com/media/p/303506.aspx
This is the first of more than 20 planned to explore and report on all aspects of community life, small shops and businesses, cooking and traditional food, and celebrations. They will share their stories through photos and text in PowerPoint presentations or short video movies: http://www.epals.com/blogs/teacherspotlight/archive/2011/12/02/little-photo-reporters.aspx
For any teachers who want to know how to participate in this free activity, I do a weekly webinar: http://bit.ly/ePals101