Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Session 4- Collaboration

 Share your ideas, concerns, and questions about embedding a collaborative project in your teaching. Reflect on the readings and activity sites and comment on strategies you observed teachers use; what goals and/or objectives were targeted with the use of collaborative projects? Do you have similar goals or objectives for your students?

32 comments:

Stacey Yuhase said...

After exploring the collaboration website a couple of projects really stood out as possibilities for my students. I read about the “ePals” website and made a free teacher account. Just for joining I was able to make 30 free student accounts as well. My largest class is about 30 students so I plan on choosing a group to try out this site very soon! It has some great projects and forums that students can participate in to communicate with classrooms all over the world. I was surprised to find so many teachers from countries such as Turkey, Poland, and India that were looking to make connections with groups studying the same topics we are.
We are fortunate to have a “distance learning lab” at my school, with all of the necessary equipment ready-to-go for video conferencing. I found a great weather unit on the ePals site that am going to try to get my 9th grade physical science students involved in. This project is already ongoing on the website and has established some objectives. The students will learn about global weather patterns and recent changes in these patterns. They are required to collaborate with multiple students from other classrooms and to share information that they have collected from their own community. These match up very well with the WV CSO’s for physical science. I always encourage my students to work together and to use each other for sharing of ideas. I am very excited about the possibility that they can now extend these discussions to countries all over the world!
After reading about several projects that other teachers have successfully completed, I have realized that there are several steps I must take ahead of time. I now know that I need to have very clear guidelines for any “distance-learning” or video conferencing meeting that my students have with others. I am not sure how to write these guidelines ahead of time other than setting specific topics that they must follow. On the other hand, I want them to feel free to explore the topics that they are interested in as they come up in the discussion. I also loved that there is an 8th grade class having a “Skype-a-thon” all-nighter. The students are staying at the school from 5pm until midnight and they are going to try to Skype with 300 different people! They have a list of questions they plan to ask and they have been working for months to set up times with people in many different countries. What an awesome experience this will be for those students! I would love to establish even a very small version of this at my school.

ashley said...

I agree with the first reading that you should start small and with an existing project. There were so many great projects listed on the activity sites. I particularly liked the Square of life project. Students from different schools across the globe would mark a square on the playground. They would record what they found within the square and compare it to the other school's findings. This would allow studnets to learn about plants in their own community and abroad while gaining appreciation for another culture and expanding technology skills. I think this would be a fun way to address a science lesson on plants and discussing what grows in certain climates.

helenadams071 said...

First, I love being able to access the websites, in addition to the embedded sites within sites. Sometimes there are more information that extends beyond the required readings.

Second, I am interested in the ePals. Since my lesson is utilizing podcasts, I could have the children attach the podcasts to their emails so that other children can see their work. In http://www.ciese.org/collabprojs.html, there was only one site that I could use and that was the square of life. I have already taught this lesson, but I am planning on adding to next year’s lessons. The classroom 2.0 was helpful and even let me download a free album to use during Black Heritage Month.

Finally, there are so many useful websites, that I feel overwhelmed with all the information at times. It seems that there is a lack of time to get the content knowledge down, and trying to incorporate new things seems lack the sufficient time for everyone to achieve Mastery Level. Lately, my school seems to be having technology issues, so it puts a damper on trying to utilize the technology in the classroom, and I find myself reverting back to the old school just to finish the lesson.

S. Skeen said...

I had no idea that there are so many resources for creating and/or joining collaborative projects. The e-pals seems like a site that my students would enjoy. I have used think.com (thinkquest) in the past. This site has an abundance of collaborative projects too and students are encouraged to create a project as part of an annual competition. The site can also be used as a form of wiki or webquest with the teacher creating different pages for the students to progress through. The piece of this site that my students enjoyed the most was the ability to chat with other students (in the U.S. and lots of other countries). The nice thing, as I've mentioned before, about this site is the fact that any negative content will be flagged. I am in the process of updating my log-in info for this site and hope to start using it again both for introducing my students to collaborative projects and providing a means for them to communicate globally.

Aimee said...

In order to not get overwhelmed by this concept, I would utilize existing projects to start and try to work with other teachers within my school to learn online collaboration. I would also choose something the students know well and give them additional exposure to the topic. To make sure it is truly interactive, I would have the students develop questions to ask of their collaboration partners regarding the chosen topic. The students will most likely enjoy the opportunity to communicate with another student globally but they may be just as overwhelmed by the process as a teacher doing this for the first time. Getting them prepared and giving them the tools to be successful will make it run more smoothly.

The project that I chose to be a part of my water cycle lesson was a part of the Planet Earth in Our Hands. My focus is on the conservation of water and this fits nicely with the purpose of this project: This project aims to promote student voice and empower students to recognize and engage in responsible use of the earth's resources.

Julie Yearego said...

After reviewing many of the student collaboration websites, for my lesson plan I would plan on incorporating www.schoolsonline.org.
Students will be interacting with students in another country and asking (and then answering) via a blog - questions on local job opportunities as provided in the website:
http://www.iearn.org/circles/lcguide/pp/textpj2.html#local.

Many of the student interactions seemed to be limited to specific projects on many of the websites. The schoolsonline.org appears to be more open in the dialogue between students. I really think this would be an "eye opening" experience - especially on wage differences between the USA and other countries.

I did not sign up yet for this as it requests classroom specific information, which I do not have as I work as a Substitute Teacher and do not yet have a class of my own.

Julie Yearego said...

Ashley,
I really liked that Square of Life project - especially for younger children. There were so many great projects that students would enjoy sharing and learning from other peers in a different part of the world.

My background is Business Education for Middle to High School aged children, and I didn't see many projects that would "fit" those type courses/age group. So, I took some ideas I found and would attempt to "blog" with other students globally about job opportunities in each of our communities.

I would love to hear from teachers (especially anyone in this class) who has actually collaborated with students in other countries. Such a great experience for students to look forward to sharing and learning! Flattening our world. :)

-Julie

Tina Ballengee said...

After this weeks readings and exploration, I am excited to incorporate Epals into my classroom next year. Especially in regards to my "Our West Virginia" lesson. I think my students will be very excited to share information about our state that we compile utilizing Animoto. The use of Epals to share our project may encourage other classrooms to produce and share one of their own. It would be great to get one from each of the other 49 states. Collaborative projects definately open up the world for our students.

Holly Vandevander said...

Before jumping into a collaborative project of my own, I think it’s a wise idea to participate in another project that has already been established. This way, the teacher and the students can have ample time to become familiar with the structure, responsibilities, and expectations of being an active member of a collaborative project.

Therefore, I was very interested in a collaborative project I found through the iEARN website entitled, “Finding Solutions to Hunger”. During the course of this project, students research and discuss causes of hunger and poverty around the world. Not only would this help them become informed global citizens, but it will also encourage them to take action to make a difference.

In my classroom, hunger was one of the underlying themes of the novel we studied. Although we discussed issues about hunger, I felt that we really only skimmed the surface. This type of project would help my students become more aware and would get them involved locally (a service project is involved) and share it globally (video or slideshow presentation of efforts made). I think this type of project would be really meaningful and eye-opening for my students. It would require a lot of dedication and responsibility for all involved.

Holly Vandevander said...

Ashley -

I also think it's beneficial to join an existing project before starting your own.

rdobson said...

Thinkquest and epals are used at my school. My students seems to love to interact on on line with other students especially if they are working on the same project. I know that occasionally if not monitored things get off track a bit but, of course, the experience is worth it. I believe our school uses collaborative sites mostly for science. I have heard students talk about WV history being "on" also. I have used it in English on the middle school level for bookreport and to some extent (not global) techsteps. Of course, I believe that it has to be monitored. We have not to date had a negative experience.

Jody said...

I totally agree with starting small, especially with my young students. I would most likely join an ongoing collaboration. I loved the Square of Life project! We incorporate Science and Social Studies into our Reading curriculum, so we don't get an enormous amount of time to elaborate on things. This would even work with my Holidays Around the World project. I think if the students developed a global relationship and tried to continue it throughout school, they would really take pride and independence in it.

Deborah Vasicek said...

I have found collaberative project ideas that I ever even knew existed. My concern is time. There is only so much time in a year to teach the concepts our students need to know. While many of these tools are a great teaching tool, using them just for the sake of using them can take up valuable class instruction time. I think balance is very important.

Keith said...

Initially, the idea of a collaboration project seemed daunting. I felt there could be a serious time commitment, and I would end up having to depend on another teacher without an established working relationship.

After seeing the projects listed in this session, I don't think my concerns are warranted. There were so many small projects that could fit into a small time window. Starting with a simple project the first time seems logical.

I would be most interested in a cross-curriculum project for the core subjects.

Kelly Harris said...

I had no idea there were so many existing global collaboration projects! I wish I had seen some of these before starting my project for this course. I haven’t yet found an existing activity that fits in well with my unit plan, but I found so many good ideas for other projects, some of which are too late to start for this school year. These existing projects seem like the best way to go for someone who’s trying an online collaborative project for the first time.

I noticed that many of the projects promote global awareness while having students work to solve problems. For example, the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education site allows students to learn about life in developing countries while asking them to solve significant problems such as a lack of purified water and electricity. Projects on this site for younger students require them to collect data locally and share it with others to understand basic science concepts or to see how their world compares to others’ ways of life and surroundings. The Global Grocery List project mentioned on the Edutopia site also combines global awareness with core knowledge. Students learn math and consumer science skills while also learning about global economics.

I also noticed that many projects developed social and cultural awareness. For example, the Edutopia site highlighted a bullying forum on which students share their experiences and offer encouragement, and two interesting projects on the iEARN site involved stereotypes and the values and principles by which we live our lives.

I’m also pursing social and cultural awareness in my unit plan for this course. I’ve noticed that when students present their persuasive papers and speeches/debates, they often have trouble seeing multiple perspectives. For example, they don’t fully understand or appreciate the arguments surrounding the issue of immigration because of their limited exposure to it. In my unit plan, language arts students will collaborate with students in another region of the United States via an online discussion board and Skype during a debate unit.

Jessica Gagich said...

I think it is great that there are so many existing projects that can be used. Using one of these projects is a great way to get involved and get used to completing these types of projects. PenPal News is a great way for students to collaborate with others around the world and get involved in what is happening around the world. Thinkquest is a great way to get students to interact with one another. My concern is time; with my classroom content, and other activites that I am required to complete it seems I have very little time to devote to an effective collaborative project. My goal with a collaborative project would be to get my students interacting with other students from around the world. I would want my students to learn and understand different perspectives that other students have.

Joe said...

After the readings and looking at several sites and reading some of our post I am excited about the concepts of being able to take a student from the small confines of time and space in WV and introduce them to the global potential for them. I am however on the outside looking in and here are my thoughts and questions. For me personally from my readings the students and myself should be able to.( Send messages,find recipients for our messages, respond to messages we receive, and check on messages sent to us, we should check and verify that the messages contain truth or false statements and even a mixture of both. If we are working on a problem we have to work together with others to determine the problem, get it from its current status to meet a goal and come up with a innovative and new idea with value.) 21st Century Skills
My question to you in the classrooms are these. Do the classrooms you are working in have the hardware to allow the students to accomplish these task? Do the older schools that have the hardware have sufficient technology to make it reliable and function in a manner when needed? What percentage of our students have technology of this magnitude in their homes? How many of our students embrace the idea of it being a tool and not a toy? Will the use of web 2:0 make it more possible to meet the CSO's as set forth? Stacey made reference to this and I say thanks. My deeper question is will we have to give up in another area to gain in this area? You are there, teaching, will it work with all the other requirements on you now? As I looked at the sites I was impressed, but also saw the adds for this and that off two the side.
I think the one thing I liked more than the rest was the optional reading at the bottom "Steps To Developing a Collaboration Project" No bells and whistles in this article, just the facts .
" Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. John Adams
I am not cynical, just thinking deeper and want insight from reliable sources. That,s you let me know what it is like on the ground,on the inside. This is after all a collaboration.

Jennifer Parker said...

Upon my initial review of the featured projects on the websites, I was concerned that I would not find one that would relate well to my portfolio project as a guidance counselor. However, the very last project I reviewed, Laws of Life: Virtues, spoke to me. I do have concerns as to how seamlessly this can be embedded into my lesson plan, but I’m hopeful that I can make it work.

What I took from this week’s readings is that global learning is critical. The statement that struck me most was that “most jobs that students will have in the future don’t exist today.” As a future guidance counselor, I feel this creates a special challenge. With the significance of career exploration in schools, I believe it will be just as important to nurture creativity and encourage students to work with individuals worldwide. I feel these goals and objectives were also exhibited in many of this week’s readings and activity sites.

Matt said...

Initially, I was a bit concerned with how I would incorporate collaboration into the classroom. After I explored further, I found so many sites already utilizing project collaboration and realized all I needed to do was join and begin. This seems like the best way to start using collaborative projects as a newcomer to this strategy. Some of the projects I found are collaborative but not very interactive. I think using epals.com can give students a direct path to communicate with the other students who are working on the same projects. This can help reinforce the importance of having respect for others and interacting productively as a member of a group.

Danny Caufield said...

Wow! After reading all the material and checking out all the links, I have found that collaborative learning is very broad. It's a bit overwhelming to be honest. Each week, we've been given all these great tools, and I've bookmarked each and every one of them, but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to dive into so many things at once. I have noticed many of us talking about ePals lately, so I looked into their site, and it's fantastic! After creating an account and adding my students, I surfed through the options and materials. They incorporate all kinds of projects, topics, question prompts, and they even recommend a topic of the month, which I thought was interesting. I'm very excited to get started with my kids, as I imagine they will be just as excited.
I think this will give me the opportunity to get a foothold into collaborative teaching. I'd have to agree, especially someone a bit new like myself, that jumping into an already existing project will yield the most success, rather than creating something new, you have to crawl before you walk.
I'm concerned, however, that I may not have all the time and resources in my school to really get my hands dirty with my technology interests. For example, my school has major internet issues, connections fail all the time, certain pages won't come up on our mobile lab and so forth. I'll probably be spending most of my time with my students on the desktops in the lab, but there's only forty minutes allocated to each class per day. I'm just going to work with what I have, and maybe that's why I have so much interest in ePals. It will allow my class to do a lot of the work in the classroom, then pass their ideas quickly along to the school we've chosen.

Rachel said...

I would have my students create a digital video to incorporate the other components of the lesson I have created thus far. The students are currently using their vocabulary words to create a cartoon strip with music clips. I think it would be easy to turn the cartoon strip into a digital movie especially since it has music incorporated in it also.

Tina Braden said...

In response to Stacey Yuhase's post:

I like the ePals idea as well and I believe this is one I could incorporate into my classroom setting easier than others. I believe my students would like communicating with students from other places.

Tina Braden said...

Rachel - I love the thought of having students create a digital video. This will make students more aware of how to use video in the classroom and other aspects of life.

Tina Braden said...

I thought a lot of the ideas for distance learning were great ideas, but I have some reservations with using some of these in my classroom for several reasons.

First, I have multiple grade levels on my case load (I am a special education teacher) and I think it would be difficult to incorporate some of the distance learning ideas with a group of students on so many different academic and skill levels.

Second, being in a special education setting I worry about confidentiality. I realize with parent permission for some of the projects and it wouldn't be a problem.

Of all of the activities and websites I visited I like the idea of using ePals as Stacey Yuhase did. I think this would be a great way for students to meet others around the world and learn about different cultures - this would also be easiest to get parent permission and have not have has many confidentiality problems, especially if I worked with a general education teacher.

April Nicolls said...

After reviewing several of the websites on collaboration, I realized there are so many ways that we can communicate globally with classrooms. I think it would be good to begin with an idea that is already out there, instead of reinventing the wheel. There is so much that teachers can learn from other teachers which they can use within their classroom. I think the safest way is for students to use e-mails to communicate with other students in various classrooms. I think that is where my reservations would come from. Even though they are students communicating with students, there still needs to be a level of privacy that students maintain. I also love the idea of digital story telling, especially if students are communicating from country to country. One article stated that students could use pictures to tell about their cultures. If one classroom is from Turkey and then another is from the US, it would be very interesting for students to share pictures of their daily lives.

Jim Jones said...

Well I think we are in agreement to start small and join an existing project, which as most have noted there is no shortage of projects out there. I guess finding the right project for your classroom is the challenge, which, right now is my challenge, I am having trouble finding an established collaborative project to use in the HS Library/Media classroom. I have seen a few that could be adapted, like the Digital photography storytelling project which I think has alot of potential. This could involve many of the Web 2.0 tools mentioned in this weeks posts, designing webpages, epals, blogs/wikis, glogster....I am also seeing some concerns about adequate resources at the schools and at home. I feel like my county does well with technology but the time requirements to do such projects would be a problem and I feel alot of these projects would need daily attention and that isn't always possible. I would be interested to know of classrooms in WV that are doing or who have done these projects and see how they have dealt with issues/concerns that have been mentioned in this weeks posts.

ytannous said...

Share your ideas, concerns, and questions about embedding a collaborative project in your teaching. Reflect on the readings and activity sites and comment on strategies you observed teachers use; what goals and/or objectives were targeted with the use of collaborative projects? Do you have similar goals or objectives for your students?

Since I never incorporated a collaborative project into any of my classes before, I think it would be best to start with a project that already exists. Also, I don't think many of my students have much experience work on this type of project either. One project that would work well with my class was the Human Genetics project from the CIESE site. The project ties in well with several of the CSOs that I need to cover with my Biology students. I currently do a simple lab with my students where they collect class data on some simple, observable genetic traits (dimples, hair line, chin type, and the ability to roll their tongues) and a question usually comes up concerning some of the recessive traits being prevalent. I usually get questions like: If widow's peak is a dominant trait, why do more of us have a straight hair line? The Human Genetics project would be a good extension of this and help students understand that dominant does not always mean the most prevalent. My biggest concern at this point is not having access to the internet. We are currently experiencing wireless network issues, so I'm not able to use any of my class set of net books. It's supposed to take a few weeks to get it all straightened out, but it concerns me that it won't be fixed in time for my students to work on the project I had planned. Those of us with lap tops have been offered the use of the computer labs, but with limited computers and limited amount of time available in the labs, its not really an option for what I have planned.

In response to other posts, I to like the idea of these collaborative projects, but I'm still concerned that the time it takes to complete them may take time away from something else. Aside from time, limited hardware can be an issue.

Unknown said...

My concern is that with teaching in an MI classroom that the lessons may be over my student's heads. They have trouble grasping something that is abstract. They need something that they can physically hold and using the web sometimes makes that hard. I am going to try the epals as a first step.

bmaciver said...

After looking at the websites and reading about the different collaborative projects, I am really excited to start this with one of my classes. As a TIS, it is nice to try things with different classes. I normally try to do different techy things with my 5th graders because they know more about the computer. However, I think I am going to find something for another grade. I really liked Epals, there is also a 4th grade Tech Step that wants you to use Epals. When we did the tech step this years teachers did not want to use Epals, so I modified it so they didnt have to use it.. HOWEVER for next year I am going to encourage them to try Epals.
I am excited and overwhelmed by all the cool stuff students can do using web 2.0 tools. Collaboration is something that I have wanted to try with students but did not know where to start. Having a list of really great websites with projects already to do is FANTASTIC. Also, time seems to be a big factor in pulling these types of projects off. If you can show a teacher how they can use existing content and use a web project to enhance it, I think they will like it. Recently I introduced a 5th grade teacher to Schoology an online learning platform. He and his class love it, the students are excited, they cant wait to READ more, so they can do the next activity etc. Web 2.0 tools are not going anyway anytime soon and I want to show teachers as much as I can this school year so hopefully they will use the tools next year.

susan cochran said...

There was a lot to take in this week. However, they were great ideas. There is no way I can remeber them all. Thank goodness they can be kept and referred to. Like many others, I really like the epal. I also liked the Holiday around the world and the global recipe book. My daughter and I are thinking about digging into the global ecipe book on our own. Then, when I have a classroom, I will feel confiden in what I am doing.

Melissa Mohr said...

I am amazed at all the opportunities I never knew existed that can get our students experience and knowledge they may not ever have gotten without collaborative projects. I do stuggle with time and opportunity during our usual school week. I look foward to pulling our tech teacher in with me so that maybe we could actually complete a collaborative project together!

Jeremy Metz said...

One of the main goals of the projects seemed to be making students more globally aware. They also seemed to focus on students communicating and collaborating with students that they normally would not be able to. The projects also stressed the idea of students seeing different perspective of students from other parts of the country and world. These are also goals that I have for my own collaborative projects. I like for students to post their work and projects and get feedback from others. I think that the collaborative aspects of projects makes students take their work more seriously and put more effort in because they know that other peers will be seeing it and commenting on it. One strategy that I think is important is to set clear expectations and guidelines when doing collaborative projects. Students need to know how to respectfully work with others and comment on other’s work. I think the use of collaborative projects can help to teach students how to be responsible digital citizens.