Telecollaboration Part 2 – Student Publishing Projects

My favorite telecollaborative projects are those where students get to write, video, draw, or design unique products and share them with the world.  Perhaps it’s because I’m still a Language Arts teacher at heart, and I get excited about students being creative, but I believe students do have the most buy in when they are able to help contribute not simply their ideas, but a bit of themselves.

The basic idea is having students create original artwork, poetry, short stories, or video productions and publish them on the web.  They become collaborative when your classroom connects with another to share these creations or collaboratively develop them.  The published web space can be a virtual art gallery, a blog, or your own channel on www.schooltube.com.  The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Let me share some examples to give you a visual:

The Monster Exchange has been very popular for many years.  Here students each draw their own monsters on paper or in a program such as Tux Paint.  The next step is to use technical writing to describe how to draw the monster, which is an excellent way to incorporate math terms in the writing curriculum.  The teacher uploads the writing pieces only for a partner classroom to attempt to recreate the monsters.  Finally both classrooms upload their drawings to compare the original monsters with the “new”.  It’s a great project that I highly recommend for grades 4-6.

Fairy Tale/Folk Tale Cyberdictionary has been around for ten years and is still active.  This K-2^nd grade project involves writing and art. Classes rewrite a fairy tale or folk tale in their own words.  Next each child in assigned one letter of the alphabet to illustrate a happening in the story related to that letter.  For example, Paul Bunyan carried an axe, so a student might draw a picture of Paul chopping down trees.  To make this project easier to implement, I would recommend using Tux Paint or some other illustration software.

Scholastic’s Share What You Are Reading –Here Scholastic invites K-12 students to write their own book reviews to share with other students all around the US.  What I especially like about this project is the ease of posting.  Type in a form and submit – no registration, no hoops to jump through making it simple for both teachers and students.  Another thought with this site, do your students take Accelerated Reader Tests?  If a quiz has not been released for a title, students could use this site as a virtual book report for points.

SchooTube Video Contests are always available to join.  Here your budding filmmakers can share their skills to make a public service announcement or creative and quirky video for prizes.  These projects are usually targeted to 9-12 classrooms, but occasionally you’ll find opportunities for younger students, as well.

I’ve run two different student publishing telecollaborative projects in the past that I definitely plan to launch again. The first was entitled “The Four Lines of Sight Project”.  This global 2^nd grade project had a simple question.  If I gave each student

the exact same 4 lines on a sheet of paper, what would they create?  The students could rotate the lines in any direction and use any art medium to elaborate on the lines.  Over 300 2^nd grade students participated and added their work to our

virtual art gallery. Here are a few samples:

    

It was an amazing project, and now with the use of VoiceThread, PhotoPeach, and Flickr, this project would be easy for me to launch again.

Another project I ran recently was a Digital Scavenger Hunt Project.  Here groups of students were asked to create literal vignettes of idioms and photograph them for a competition.  For example, the phrase, “sleep tight” can be represented with students crammed together in a corner pretending to be asleep.  The 7 challenges ranged in theme from numbers (two can play at that game) to geography (it’s all Greek to me).  Teams imported their images into PowerPoint to describe the scenes and then emailed them to me where I reassembled them into VoiceThreads.

I’ve also seen:

Baby Blogs - Here high school FACS students were assigned to carry baby dolls.  Each created a blog featuring their child and wrote daily the struggles of being responsible for a little one.  Students would then comment on each other’s blogs for encouragement and to ask questions.
Shakespeare Blogs - freshman students took on the role of a character in Romeo and Juliet.  As the play progressed characters blogged in a virtual diaries and left comments for each other.  For example, the Nurse would comment on Juliet’s page.

Student Publishing Projects are fairly easy to implement, especially with many of the wonderful web 2.0 tools available to produce, manage, and share student work.  Yes, the majority of the work load is placed on the students rather than the teacher, but don’t be fooled, teachers still have some responsibilities, as well.  It’s generally not difficult work, however.

Here are some key thoughts:

What curriculum standards can I address through a publishing project? 
How much time do I expect the project will take? Most publishing projects take a short period of time.
How would I like the published work to be shared?  Blog? Photo gallery? Voicethread?
What tech support will I need? Do I need help in starting a blog? Will I need to scan in dozens of drawings? Do I know someone who can help with uploading video?

Here is the cool part - Doing student publishing projects makes magic to happen in your classroom.  Student creativity will surprise you, friendships will be made with partner classrooms, and you will find yourself pondering new projects before the first one ends. 

 

Telecollaboration Part 1 – Data Collection Projects

Have you heard the new buzzword - telecollaboration?  It’s honestly nothing new; it’s simply a new term for an old idea.  You’ve heard of telecommuting, television, and IP telephony, but this is a new one to add in Webster’s “tele” lineup.  Telecollaboration is simply defined as: collaborative work using the Internet for project communication. 

There are several different telecollaborative projects, but today I’m going to focus on the easiest to implement, data collection. 

Classrooms all have data to share i.e. weather, interests, customs, and photos, and some of these are posted on classroom web pages to share with parents and the community.  Now think bigger!  What if data was collected from multiple classrooms and analyzed by students?  Data on clean water perhaps?  Students from all over the world could share data on the cleanliness, accessibility, and pollution of the water in their community.  Or what about lunch programs?  Students can analyze what meals are well received in schools, which school programs are the healthiest, and how can schools encourage better food choices for their students.

The major benefit of a data collection project is the ease of implementation.  Often these projects incorporate the use of an online data collection tool such as a survey or Google Form.  You can also use a wiki for more qualitative data as surveys usually limit to text and numerical data. 

Another benefit is ANY school age student can participate.  A kindergarten project I helped organize was the Here Birdy, Birdy project.  Kindergarten students from 5 classrooms across North America collected daily data on bird feeders outside of their classrooms.  During calendar time the students recorded the number of birds at the feeder, what colors of birds they saw, and how much bird seed was eaten using an interactive white board.  At the end of the week, each teacher posted the data on the project wiki for everyone to share. 

I’ve also seen data projects on:

Temperatures at noon on the First Day of Fall, Winter, and Spring
Number of teeth first graders lose
Favorite Dr. Seuss Books on Read Across America Day
Prices of grocery items in different areas of the world
What students are eating for dinner
Hours of sunlight on winter solstice
Economic value of a Big Mac

Third benefit of data collection project is the ease of management.  Depending on how many schools you have involved, the work usually isn’t too terrible.  It generally consists of the following: Posting of project on webspace for classrooms to register, welcome letter with expectations to all classrooms, spreadsheet with classroom email contacts, data collection tool, spreadsheet or wiki with survey results, and thank you letter.  To be honest, once you have all the classrooms registered, the entire data collection process and data posting can happen in 24 hours. 

The real work with students occurs once the data is reported.  What are you going to have the students do with the data?  Graphs?  Action plans?  Web conferencing?  The sky is the limit, but remember at this point is where the higher level thinking skills should be tested.

Currently, there are data collection projects that are looking for classroom partners for all grade levels.  These are usually reoccurring annual projects, so if you enjoy them this year, consider repeating next year with a new crop of students.

CIESE Real Time Data Projects
Journey North Spring Projects
WATT’s Up Energy Conservation Project
School Yard and Classroom Investigations

I also recommend reading The Guided Tour of Data Sharing to help you get started.

What Teachers Should and Should Not Be Posting on Their Classroom Webpages

More and more teachers have the opportunity to cut a slice of the Internet pie and share content with administrators, students, and parents.  Many, however, are unsure what to do with this slice or how to serve it up to waiting guests.  Fear not, I have a few suggestions that might get you started.  I’ve broken it down to “Should” and “Should Not” lists in hopes of making it easy.

SHOULD POST

• Inspirational quotes on your homepage are an excellent welcome to your parents and students.  Need help finding a quote?  Try Quote Stumbler (“find a quote” is in the top left corner), Quotiki, or The Quotations Page.
• Upcoming events that pertain to your classroom should always be posted on the site such as field trips, major project deadlines, guest speakers, themed days (I know a Chemistry teacher who has Mole Day once a year), and final tests.  As much as you love the basketball team, it simply isn’t necessary to post those games on your class site.
• Homework assignments should be posted, but I do understand the difficulty with this.  I was never one who could stone in my lesson plans two weeks in advance since my lessons seemed to alter regularly depending on classroom situations.  If your web site does not already offer an assignment calendar, my suggestion is to create an RSS type calendar at RSSCalendar or Kiko.  Students can subscribe to the feed on their own sites and even receive email reminders with Kiko.
• Weblinks that go hand in hand with current curriculum.  Honestly, this is the most important component to your web site.  The most common mistake I have seen is the posting of generic links to grammar or math games rather than the specific units the class is currently studying.  If Ancient Egypt is the topic for February, then post interactive and informational links on Ancient Egypt.  Even if you are a math teacher, put links up on current concepts, not just homework helpers.  Traffic to your webpage will increase and you will find you and the students becoming more dependent on the web page.  Plus, when you need a link for an interactive whiteboard computer lab activity, it will be there without students having to type out 12” URLs.
• Vocabulary and spelling words should be posted.  Yes, I know this seems trite, but trust me.  As parents and students visit your site more regularly, these words will be “in their face”, so to speak, and can be easily referenced.
• Student artwork is one of the best features to add to your site.  Don’t have a scanner?  No worries!  Take digital pictures of the artwork and make a slideshow.    I would update this every few weeks to keep new color and vibrancy on your page.  Even if you are a high school teacher, consider this opportunity.  When I taught language arts, I would spring an art pop quiz on the students asking them to draw the major conflict of last night’s reading in stick people.  I instantly was aware of who actually read the content and it was a wonderful way for students to be alternatively assessed.
• Photo of the day or week with a brief caption.  Have students take photos not just of what is happening in class, but of a stack of novels students are reading, the view out the classroom window, a sculpture in the library, or the dessert at lunch.  It doesn’t need to be a glamorous photo, but it gives parents unique insights to school happenings and encourages students to notice the little things.
• News from the front lines.  Use your web space as the current event news feed for your parents.  Don’t feel that this needs to be lengthy, but it should be relevant.  Include highlights of the week or student quotes. 

SHOULD NOT POST

• Images copied from other websites.  UNLESS you have posted images that you have taken yourself or are in public domain, copyright to everything does not belong to you.  Sorry darlin’.  I do have some light in this dark tunnel, however.  You can purchase royalty free images for less than $2 at many sites such as iStock Photo and StockXPert, and public domain images (aka FREE) can be found at Discovery Education Clipart Gallery,  Public Domain Photo Database, WP Clipart, Photos8, US History Images, and Karen Whimsey Public Doman Images.   There are some wonderful images that you can also use from the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, but each one has unique copyright rules, so be sure to read closely before posting on your site.
• Your weekly schedule of when you go to PE/Music/Art and recess.  This is only needed at the beginning of the school year and will clutter up your webpage.   The students know the routine fairly quickly, so save the virtual real estate for more enlightening information. 
• Anything that does not fall under district policies.  Be sure to check on rules for posting student names, photos, and work.  This will save you from a great deal of grief later.  I promise!  Oh, and if you need a quick fix for blurring student faces, try FotoFlexer, a free online image editor that has a pixilation tool for blurring.
• Nothing.  I know it takes time to post content on your web page, but you will find the more you post relevant and current information, the more traffic and successful communication you will have with your parents and students.

Good luck with your slice of the Internet pie, and be sure to save a bite for your students.

7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me

 

I was tagged by DMantz7 to submit my 7 things.  Since I've been toying around with getting a blog started, this is a great kick off.

1. I worked for the Disney Company for five years.  1 year down at Walt Disney World working outdoor foods in the Magic Kingdom and just over 4 years at the Disney Store.  I loved being a part of making dreams come true and telling folks my job is to make others happy.  The best part of working for Disney was being able to interact with cultures from all over the world.  In a matter of 30 minutes, I might visit with folks from five different countries.  The parks still hold a very dear spot in my heart and would go every year, but DH isn't as gung-ho about the parks as I am.
2. I was almost in  the movie Hoosiers when I was in middle school.  The film was made just 30 minutes away from our school district in Indiana and they invited neighboring district students to be in the crowd scenes.  Since the bus would only hold so many kids to travel to the set, they were selective on who could go. Unfortunately, I missed the cut, but many of my friends did make it.  Hoosiers still one of the greatest sports movies ever made.  Go Hickory!
   1. I am full of useless movie trivia.  My brothers and sisters have always been movie buffs, but I think I took it a little on the extreme.  I would read Premiere magazine from cover to cover, worked at a video store for 6 years to support this habit, and even made the challenge to watch every movie released in the summer of 1992.  (I actually made that goal minus 4 films because they were horror flicks and I don't do those).  So to this day, if you watch a movie with me, I can fill you in all kinds of Jeopardy winning trivia about the film, the actors, and the director.  I'm not "up-to-speed" as I once was because I've become more choosy in what a watch, but I can still hang with the best (esp on Disney Trivia). Pathetic, I know.  
   2. When I was 18 I went to Australia and New Zealand for a student tour.  It was fabulous, and I learned how to zip-line in the Blue Mountains, discovered much of the Maori culture, and fell in love with Pavlova.  I was really surprised how similar Australia looked to the Midwest, but then again these are both prairie ecosystems.  New Zealand's biome, on the other hand, was stunning.  I even went to the glowworm cave.  Yes, they do exist!
   3. I am a total freak for desserts.  It doesn't matter where I travel, I sniff them out.  Though many make fun of me for this, I can tell you where to find the sweetest treats anywhere.  Some of my favorites are flan, creme brule, bread pudding, peach cobbler, and lemon cake.  Dog gone it, now I'm hungry. Where are my keys?
   4. I've always been a computer nerdy chick.  My mom actually taught the four of us about computers from way back, as she instantly saw the potential in them.  She was an office manager for my dad (he sold fire trucks and ambulances for a living - yeah - whole different story) and bought her first computer in 1981 with Microsoft Word 1.0.  She had the two inch manual, read the entire thing in one night, and submitted her first bid proposal the next day typed in Word.  She was the person who taught us about tables, margins, etc. and we took it from there.  Now my sister works in hospital admissions, one brother works in post production at NBC in Kansas City, and another brother works in tech support.  You should see our family nerd gatherings!
   5. I get epiphanies for HUGE student projects between 3-5 am often - in the dead of sleep.  It usually happens when I'm formulating a global project and working out the kinks.  It's frustrating to have sleep deficiency for the night, but I get so wrapped up in the details of these projects I can't stop thinking about them, and they turn out to be really exciting opportunities.  I love global learning and opening new doors to friendships in other countries.

 

 

Well, there you have it.  Pass the spoon, we're going to share some dessert.