By Victoria Longo

I am a new member of Fontbonne Hall Academy’s Alumnae. Fontbonne Hall Academy is a college preparatory high school that allows for learning and growth, changing girls into women of tomorrow.

During my senior year at Fontbonne, I took an elective, “Introduction to Child Development.” For Women’s History Month, my 18 classmates and I were given the task of creating a project, which would reflect what we were learning in the course. Our teacher, Gloria Musto, instructed us to research prominent women in the field of Child Development and be creative in our presentation of our research information. Groups were created and we went to work.

We wanted to use a digital platform that was easy to maneuver and also would allow us to provide information, use pictures, and even videos. We brainstormed which of the popular sites would best suit our task. After exploring all options, we decided to use Google+ which is part of Fontbonne’s digital platform.

We discovered that Google + had everything we needed in making the project fun yet educational. After researching in groups, my class came up with four women that we wanted to showcase as important women in the field of child development. We chose Mary Ainsworth, Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, and Maria Montessori.

These women made important contributions to the study of a child’s physical, psychological, and educational growth and development. Each group created gmail accounts for the women we chose and used Google + to have them interact.

The profiles we created included personal facts and information about their family life, as well as excerpts from their personal research and accomplishments. We used different media to share data we discovered for each of our “historical personae.”

Google + allowed for interaction between each woman as though this information was being communicated in current time. For example, we learned that two of the women we researched did not agree with each other’s beliefs. How funny is that? So, in their persona, we were able to have them disagree and give their own perspective on a given topic, just by commenting on each other’s posts. Interestingly enough, people from outside the FHA community began to comment on the Google+ pages for Mary, Anna, Melanie, and Maria. We placed a disclaimer on the main page so users would understand that this was a class project…how fun!

I believe that this project allowed us to not only learn something new, but use a social media platform as a learning and teaching tool which Google found to be extraordinary. I want to thank Fontbonne Hall Academy and my teacher for allowing us to experience a new learning tool with Google Apps for Education. I can say I will use these apps for the rest of my life.

Longo is a member of the class of 2015.