As discussed in part C my project is progressing forward, and I am on pace to put everything into action in April. This week I have hit a bit of a snag in moving forward with the curriculum the kids need to learn to take part in the project. Due to weather we only had 1 day of school this week!! I have been able to to coordinate a collaborating class with a teacher in Vermont and as soon as we our back at school the students will have a test Skype session with their Vermont teammates. My hope is that this session will offer something we talk about in engineering which is "proof of concept." I'll get feedback from the students after they Skype with their partners and if they are able to communicate and share effectively this will demonstrate one of my big goals for the project; communicate effectively via video chat as they would in person. So even though the students aren't beginning the project yet, a successful test run with Skype will help solidify that one of my problems of practice has been successfully addressed.
Having developed this project basically from scratch I now fully realize what a huge undertaking it has been. Fortunately now that a lot of the ground work has been laid when I do this project or a similar one in the future I'll already have a lot of the curriculum for it created. All I'll need to do is find a collaborating teacher who is willing to try something new.
In order for a project like this two work it a few things are necessary. First, obviously is the access to necessary technology that allows videoconferencing without any hiccups or internet interruptions. Second, the students need to be introduced to it and they need to buy into it. The students should be excited about the opportunity to video conference with students from other schools and take part in a project they haven't experienced before. Third, the teachers have to be organized and fully on board. This project requires a fair amount of prep time to schedule meeting times and set deadlines and if either of the teachers aren't fully committed the students will suffer.
Upon the completion of the project this spring I hope that it goes well enough that I haven't been turned off to this type of collaboration. No matter I have invested a lot of time in this project and it is certainly something I will do again. Depending on the quality of work the students create with their collaborators maybe I will change the time constraints placed on the students to finish their necessary design work. I look forward to the students reactions and suggestions for a smoother implementation the second time around. It would be great if my collaborating teacher is one that I can work with on a regular basis and we can develop a comfort level with each other.
Great job Alan, in finding a class to collaborate with. It seems as if you only limited your interactions through Skype. With all the technology, have you thought about phone conferencing through text or social networking such as Edmodo.com or even through facebook since everyone seems to be on it? Just a thought of other ways to network. Video conferencing is nice, but a lot of times when we are on conference calls we are at our desk where we can share our computers screens, while on the telephone. We don't usually to video conference just phone conference.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing edmodo.com, I'll look into it.
ReplyDeleteAlan I am excited for your students. I know Apple was going to create a CBL Cloud page for Teachers and Students to collaborate with others all over the world. It might be something to look into for future projects.
ReplyDelete