Saturday, May 22, 2010
Session 4
Share your ideas/concerns/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/objectives were targeted with the use of collaborative projects? Do you have similar goals/objectives for your students?
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The second sentence in the Global Collaboration and Learning article pretty much states the over all goals and objectives, as well as my goals for my students, of collaborative projects. "Tomorrow’s citizens must be global communicators, must be able to participate successfully in project-based activities, and must have collaborative skills." I believe using collaborative projects is a great way to keep students engaged as they learn math while including global, real life issues. I am concerned about the amount of time students will need to use the internet for these projects. Computer labs are in high demand and there are not many available.
ReplyDeleteI think global collaboration is a wonderful idea. What a wonderful way to teach compassion, understanding, and tolerance.
ReplyDeleteI think starting something new is always a bit difficult, but global collaboration has so many benefits that we must embrace it. We would be denying our students so much if we didn't engage in it. When confronted with something new, I like to set a goal and jump right in, otherwise, it will not get done. I might decide to do one global project next year and then build up. I think the advice that one article gave about joining a project already created and in progress is a good way to start, rather than starting one on your own at first, especially if you are hesitant.
I see a lot of sharing in the global projects. There is a lot of positivity too. "You can make a difference," "taking care of our environment," "exchanging cultures" and "doing good" are just some of the repeated goals and themes I have been seeing in the projects.
I have a grammar objective to reach in my project, but the bigger goal is for students to become more global. I want them to connect to others students from around the world and see we are more similar than different.
I like Tara's comment about real life issues that can be addressed through global learning. Math is a tricky subject for many, but if lessons can be connected to relevance and real world settings, students will be more likely to be engaged and learn more. I also like what Amber wrote about jumping in slowly and I, too, like the article that suggests joining something that has already been created before trying one on my own. Both points were very important. Ideas about embeding a collaborative project in my teaching include just that. I will be teaching 5th block credit recovery next year with students that failed English this year. I don't see the point in repeating material (stories, writing assignments, plays, etc.) and I will have 9th-12th graders in the class. I think it would be a great trial run to experiment with a global forum since the most I will have in the class will be 15 kids and the class is after school which will give me unlimited access to the labs and tech tools. The strategies that I've seen others use are limited to what we read this week. I'm interested in the ilearn - learning circles, thinkquest - creating websites together with another class- way cool idea. I was intrigued by the postcard geography because it created opportunity to incorporate so many disciplines. The goals and objectives tageted with the use of collaboration projects are definitely leadership, respect for others, individual accountability, interaction with members of a group, problem solving, technology skills with blogs, wikis, forums, global awareness, utilizing emails, podcasts, video conferencing, interactive websites, all of which are used to answer an essential question. I have attempted over the past year to have similar global objectives and standards with project based learning, but at best all I've been able to do is tinker with globalizing my classroom. I plan to work on at least one unit in the upcoming year that will allow me to do more than just tinker with it. I really want to investigate the iearn learning circles more. I think I've been most intrigued by that.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to integrating my collaborative project this fall. It is going to allow my students (as well as another teacher's class) to see the world as a larger place. It is difficult, especially for elementary students, to understand how large the world really is, and global projects really allow our students to develop respect for opinions and circumstances outside of their "bubble."
ReplyDeleteI really liked the projects on the CIESE website. In addition to the unit I have planned, I would like to incorporate on of these activities, such as the "Noon Day Project" into the curriculum. One of my goals for math is for my students to apply real world phenomenon to math concepts, and I feel this project, where students are measuring the circumference of the earth, would integrate the higher level, standards based math concepts that we want our students to master as 21st century learners.
I really enjoyed reading everyone else's ideas on how they want to incorporate global learning into their classrooms. I agree with some of the other teachers: it is difficult to suddenly begin integrating global connections in our lessons. After reading all of the articles for Session Four, I had so many ideas for my poetry unit that I was almost overwhelmed. I especially liked reading about the Learning Circle models, the iearn project on IQUOTES, and the site on Global Collaboration and Learning. Since I obviously cannot incorporate everything into one lesson, I believe I will use bits and pieces of each. I am going to change up my lesson to incorporate some of the new things I learned. I want my kids to speak to an author on Skype. It would be amazing for my students to speak to someone who writes poetry professionaly. The students could gain great insight from this experience and be motivated to create poetry of their own. I also want my kids to complete a poetry webquest, but I believe I will create my own now instead of using the one I found. I want my kids to complete more research on poems from around the world and create an online poetry movie that incorporates poems they have found from around the world. In addition, I want the kids to include some original pieces. I believe this will be make the lesson more global and connect more interesting Web 2.0 Tools to the unit.
ReplyDeleteI think collaboration would be beneficial to students in a variety of ways. I believe that social skills are very important, especially with middle school students. Sometimes they are so mean to each other. I really feel they need to grasp the differences in others. What better way to do this than to be exposed to different cultures and people in a variety of ways. We have had an increase in Spanish speaking students in our schools within the last 3-5 years. It's interesting to see the students who accept this and the ones who don't. I often say to them when they get frustrated with their Spanish speaking classmates, "imagine you all of a sudden went to school and everyone was speaking Spanish, how would you feel?" This sometimes puts it into perspective for the students.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main thoughts or worries whenever incorporating a collaboration project into a lesson is where or not the kids will accept it. Will they actually open up and have the necessary discussions and truly learn and grow from it. Geeting students to engage into any type of discussion/public communication will help them not only in your class, but all classes and beyond the classroom. Public speaking is always a huge fear among most students but can be one of their greatest assests in life if they can develop it and overcome their fears. using skype is a great way to incorporate web 2.0 tools and when using some form of technology it usually puts the kids at ease. When using collaboration projects getting the students involved is always one of the goals or objectives and when that happens there is usually a positive outcome.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amber and the Teacher’s Guide to International Collaboration on the Internet article that the best place to start a collaborative project experience is to join one that already exists. This is especially true for educators that are new to the Web 2.0 world, like me. The projects that most interested me the most were the ones on the CIESE site. I would like my chemistry classes to join the project on global water quality next year, even though it doesn’t really fit into my Web 2.0 lesson plan for this class. My students would gain so much by participating in a project like this. They would receive core content, lab skills, local social skills (lab groups), global social skills (communicating via Web 2.0), and knowledge about places they may never actually visit. The amount of learning that could occur is endless.
ReplyDeleteI have another idea for my Web 2.0 lesson plan, which involves the development of atomic models. Students have a hard time trying to visualize what an atom actually looks like, and how scientists actually “come up with this stuff.” (This is a comment I have heard from my students many times.) I would like to incorporate a blog into my lesson plan that involves contact with a scientist that is presently working in the field of atomic structure. My students would get a first-hand description of what it takes to discover such abstract information. They would also be able to learn about the different forms of technology that are currently being used in this field. This would be much more motivating and enriching to my students than the way I have been teaching this unit.
Oh wow, I have been looking for collaborative project resources for a long time now. I think that this will be a wonderful resource for our school. I mean, lets face it, like USDOE stated in the first reading, those who are new to projects are better off modifying an existing one than creating one on their own right off the bat. And why not with the internet and the plethora of resources and web 2.0 tools available?
ReplyDeleteIt only makes sense that students collaborate with those outside their school. I would say that majority of jobs the students will be applying to will have them communicating with people outside their companies (ie. classes) be it customers or corporate bosses. Students need this skill to become effective in the 21st century.
Concerns about this? Sure... internet bandwidth would be the biggest one. But again that might depend on the how we are collaborating. Most applications should be fine and the ones we have technical difficulties we will have to find workarounds for. In my experience students are some of the best resources for find technical solutions to problems. Why not let them help with all the concerns we have? :)
I also have been wondering where I can find collaborative projects that are already created. Because I will be new to this, it will be easier to start with one that has already been created.
ReplyDeleteI am a member of our school's Tech Team, and will be attending a tech "academy" at my school this summer. I plan on bringing up these collaborative projects with the other teachers at my school. I think that they will all be interested in getting one started!
I think the collaborative projects will give a new spin on students communicating with other students. I remember when we had penpals, then we had a class project with another school in Australia, and now the world has opened up to global cooperative learning. What a wonderful learning opportunity awaits our students.
ReplyDeleteJust as many of the others stated, it's nice to have a resource full of ready-made collaborative projects. Taking on my first major distance learning project this year was very exciting, but quite a learning experience ... to say the least! I realized that with all the technology available, pinpointing the effective Web 2.0 tools to use took not only time, but trial and error as well! How exciting it would be to include several schools and an actual school in the country being visited. This will definitely be my new focus when repeating or revisiting the idea used for my DLP!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Will when he referenced USDOE about starting small and building on what you know instead of throwing yourself into a big project. You can become easily overwhelmed and the students will not be getting out what they could have from the project. It would be great to have a collection of projects that were sorted for grade level and subject. I have spoken to other teachers to get ideas but I have never truly collaborated with another teacher on an entire lesson. I like the idea of these projects and think that it is a great way to keep our students engaged.
ReplyDeleteWow! There were so many cool resources in the links for session 4! I had no idea that all of these programs existed! I have been trying to develop a lesson that can be used by a teacher in my building who is really into technology and I think epals and iearn are exactly what I was looking for to connect virtually with other countries! I'm going to check both of these out as potential sources for my project.
ReplyDeleteI liked the comment in the EDTECH article: "Tomorrow's citizens must be global communicators, must be able to participate in project-based activities, and must have collaborative skills." What a statement! It is true that our students have to be global communicators. With the use of Web 2.0 tools, students can learn about different cultures and collaborate on many topics.
ReplyDeleteI really like the topics of collaborative projects on The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education. I found this site had their projects broken down into grade levels. This made it easier for me to scan the grade levels rather than reading about each project and then deciding if I can use it in first grade.
I think collaborative learning is going to be the learning of the future, but I do have concerns. My first concern is about the availability of internet service in remote areas. My other concern is time. Are teachers going to do collaborative projects with thier students? It takes a lot of time to do a collaborative project, and they still have to teach the required amount of reading and math minutes per day. I know in first grade you are pretty much held to a tight schedule and allowing time for these projects can be somewhat overwhelming.
I am very anxious about integrating a collaborative project into my class this year. As I was browsing the activity sites they each had one I was interested in. The first one had Human Genetics, I could do so much with this in math. It is where students collect data about human genetics which then we could make graphs, discuss and compare our findings, etc. The next one is the Global Grocery List. For my lesson plan we are going to pretend to be grown up and have jobs and bills, etc. This activity has students actually go out the grocery store and find the prices of most popular products and gives them a better understanding of how much it costs to feed a family. The third is a Multicultural Recipe Book. I love this idea beacause you can collaborate with the home ec. teacher in your building as well as learn about other cultures and maybe even communicate about the food with kids from those cultures. I look forward to all of these projects!
ReplyDeleteI agree with others that the best place to start a collaborative project is to join one that already exists. I would be terrified to start one alone when I'm unsure what exactly it is that I'm doing. I'm new to the Web 2.0 world and would like help in trying to figure things out and doing collaborative projects. I liked some of the projects on the CIESE site.
ReplyDeleteI think that we can all learn from each other, students and teachers, and collaborative projects are a great way to learn from others. I would like to find one project to do this year just to get my feet wet until I understand it more. However, I'm unsure as to which project yet that I would like to start with.
I had also been looking for global collaboration ideas. These sites are excellent resources! My concern about global collaboration is more about time zones than anything. I think it is imperative that students working together be able to "meet" each other via Skype or other means. But, I know from experience how difficult it is to schedule videoconferences in different time zones - even if it is just EST to CST - let alone EST to PST! The few global videoconferences that we envisioned this year were dropped because of 12-13 hour time differences. But, it is obvious that others are doing it, so we are going to have to think outside the box and make it happen. I think that the learning is much too vital to not deal with scheduling headaches!
ReplyDeleteNan Argabrite
Global collaboration opens the lines of communication beyond belief! Students learn so much from each other and the engagement level increases considerably. Making global connections is another facet of educational learning today. Teaching these skills enable students to connect and network with others across cultures and barriers.
ReplyDeleteMany of the students in my area have never been more than a few miles away from home. They have no communication with anyone beyond their small circle. Incorporating methods of global collaboration would go far in introducing these students to new people, cultures, and ideas. I've mentioned before that Sibelius offers a collaborative mode called Scorch where compositions can be uploaded and shared with other Sibelius users. Creating a collaborative composition with someone from another part of the world would produce unique challenges for music students. Skype would be a great way for students to discuss the project with their collaborator.
ReplyDelete