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Collaborative Tools for the Webcast
Teen Live Project
Participants
There are five participants in this project:
Central Framing Questions
- What are the central issues and concerns that people my age, in my place, have about their lives, about their futures, or about the issues that are facing their nation and the world? - How do I relate to these issues? - How are these issues similar and different from other people my age in different places around the world? - What is it like to be ____ (your age) in ____________ (your state or country)? Ideas
- We need to design a project that is:
Stage 1: Relating to Each Other: The kids will get to know each other in a more intense way through reading each others blogs, posting photos, possible Skype calls. This will get them familiar with each other, the issues they are discussing, and the perspectives of kids in each nation. (Do we want to agree on a common starting point? A prompt or reflection, or personal introduction to help students find each other, perhaps - Jamie) (I also like the idea of a central starting prompt. We read your blog post this morning, Jamie, and are going to use something similar, but it would be nice if we had an actual focusing question or idea that the kids can write from - Kim)
Stage 2: Their central questions are framed, they continue to blog, post photos, maybe several focused Skype calls around specific issues can be held, or an exchange of podcasts about specific topics.Looking at planning, I 'm wondering if this stage should be eliminated? If the kids frame their topics in stage 1 and if they exchange podcasts or videos, etc. in stage 1, do we need this further step or is it just extending out the timeline too far? ~Clarence~ (I totally agree ~Lee) (I also think we could drop this stage - Jamie) (I agree, but I think it would be nice if we could have some sort of central planning wiki for the kids where they can share ideas and brainstorm. One location, just like we have here, where they can compile resources and even share tech help. I think we will find clusters of students wanting to do similar projects and it would be nice for them to have a central location to plan. - Kim)
Stage 3: Groups in each place will design and construct a final representation showcasing their understanding of these issues. ideas for final projects may be documentary movies, a series of podcasts, or photo essays. These will be posted to a central location (if possible) to allow the kids to view, listen to, and watch each other's ideas. (i like this! ~lee) (For us this would happen around the beginning of March - does that work for everyone? -Kim)
Stage 4: Students in each place will spend time with the final representations created by the students in other classes. They will post reflections on similarities and differences,(Venn Diagram would be kind of cool.. an online version.. maybe interactive) things they find that are interesting and / or surprising (when they find things that are interesting, they should use some of them as part of "interests" in profiles. Our kids are all part of an elgg where they put many things in interests, likes and dislikes in their profiles. When anyone else uses that word, it becomes a link. ~Lee) If possible, a final connection to sum up these findings will be arranged. If not possible, then final reflections can be posted on blogs, in video form, or recorded in audio for download by other classes.
Timeline
Stage 1: 2 weeks? Possibly beginning the middle of January and concluding at the end of the month. Begins on January 15th and ends on January 26th. We need to come up with a scheduled time for a Skype call or to plan for a video / podcast exchange.
Stage 2: 2 weeks? February 1 - 14 Should this be eliminated? (Perhaps just stretch the stage 1 a bit and make stage 3 a bit longer.~Lee) (I like the idea of streching stage 1 until mid-Feb and maybe providing a central planning wiki for students to work from during this time).
Stage 3: 3 - 4 weeks (shorter better then longer) - This brings us into the middle of March. January 29th - February 9th This is only two weeks. Is this enough time or should we give an addtional week? (If we cut stage two, I'd like to have one more week here - Jamie) (We can work on this until the end of March if that works for the rest of you - the more time, the better - Kim).
Stage 4: Reflection: Kids view what others have done, reflect on similarities and differences. possible Skype call needs to be dated and organized. February 12th - 16th (should this be March?)
Remote Access: International Teen Life Reflection
remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/2007/04/int... International Teen Life ReflectionAs we finish up the video production part of the International Teen Life project, I asked the kids in my class to do some reflective thinking on their blogs. I gave them four guiding questions: - What did you learn about your topic? - What did you learn about collaborating internationally and locally? (I asked them to think about tools and skills) - What do you feel would have made this project easier / better / more interesting? finally, I asked them: - What have you learned about telling a story combining pictures / words / sounds / video? A few quotes that came from their posts:
"Its really neat to meet people that are so different then you are because then you could and probably will be amazed about some of the events that they had to go through there. And the amazing part is that we got to experience this all in middle school! Most people wouldn’t get this chance in their whole lifetime. Two big ideas have emerged out of their overall impressions of this project: 1.) Their main concern was about communication. Although we promoted the use of the wiki and the kids' blogs for communicating, they wished they had been given more opportunities to interact directly using tools such as Skype. They are concerned that they produced a piece in the end that the kids from the other places never had enough input into. 2.) The students were astounded at the time it took to weave all of the pieces together to complete this project. It was an amazingly complex task involving bits and pieces from students on three continents. Skype, MSN, blogs, wikis, video, still photos, mp3 files, copyright vs. Creative Commons, Google docs, and more all served a purpose for this project. I was very impressed with their ability to handle and make appropriate use of all of these tools. A complex task, but one that is vital for students learning to work in a global context. technorati tags:ITL, reflection, classroom |