School Leadership in the Use of Internet Technologies for Literacy and Learning
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INTERNET WORKSHOP 2: 
 
How are educators expanding classroom boundaries with networked communication resources?
Overview
This Internet Workshop will provide an opportunity to explore different ways that students and their teachers are connecting and communicating with others from around the world through email, listervs, electronic discussion boards and central curricular web sites. The experiences are intended to raise your awareness of various types of telecollaborative opportunities available and suggested practices that can successfully enhance student learning and support professional development in schools.  *

WHAT IS TELECOLLABORATION? 

The Internet can be powerful tool for communication within and between schools around the world.  As an educational leader, you should become familiar with how telecollaborative projects are being used to ground local inquiry, provide resources in the form of expertise, data and information and to introduce learners to new ways and purposes for communicating.  An important question to keep in mind throughout this workshop is to ask yourselves if and how access to this information and processes can help deepen students' understanding of the academic concepts that are covered in your school's curriculum.  

Judi Harris (1998) believes that the Internet offers educators three structure types that function as flexible frameworks for teachers' instructional design tools. Each activity structure encompasses five to seven different types of activities that are flexibly designed to support various learning goals.

  1. Interpersonal Exchanges are those activities in which individuals communicate electronically with other individuals, individuals communicate with groups or groups communicate with other groups. Interpersonal Exchanges include: keypals, global classrooms, electronic appearances, telementoring, question-and-answer activities, and impersonations.
  2. Information Collection and Analysis activities are those that involve students collecting, compiling, and comparing different types of interesting information. Information Collection and Analysis activity structures include: information exchanges, database creation, electronic publishing, telefieldtrips, and pooled data analysis.
  3. Problem Solving activities promote critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-based learning. Problem Solving structures include: information searches, peer feedback activities, parallel problem solving, sequential problem solving, telepresent problem solving, simulations, and social action projects.
CATEGORIES OF TELECOMMUNICATION


The structured Internet activities discussed above usually fall into one of four categories of telecommunication (Informatica, 2002).  


  1. Class to Class: Classes use the information, help or resources other classes have to offer, or they share information, resources and activities in collaborative or co-operative exchanges. Each class should have it's own e-mail address to ensure ownership and follow-up. 
  2. Teacher to Teacher: Teachers can use electronic networking for planning, sharing and support. For this type of interaction, teachers need to have a separate e-mail address as they will discuss and share with their peers. 
  3. Teacher or Expert to Class: Mentors or other experts can help students, answering their questions or communicating in the guise of a persona. You can even plan "live" interviews with experts or celebrities through a "chat" or “videoconferencing”. 
  4. Student to Student: As in keypaling, this is only one of many ways to use e-mail, and experts agree usually not the one that guarantees the best chance of success. 


HOW DO YOU DEFINE SOME OF THE TELECOLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS CURRENTLY BEING USED FOR LEARNING?

A listserv is an online email community of individuals who are interested in a common topic.  When you join a listserv you receive email messages posted to that list.  You may also post a message to the list. Listservs (mailing lists) provide special opportunities to support all educators with a means of continuous professional development. 

A bulletin board system is like an electronic message center. Many bulletin boards serve the particular interests of educators of a certain grade level or specific content area.  They allow you to review from a website an archive of messages previously posted by others and to leave your own message if you want. Bulletin boards are a particularly good place for posting a question you have and checking back a few days later to find answers posted by many others with similar interests.

check image A chatroom is an environment within which two or more users communicate via computers in real-time (simultaneously with immediate feedback).  Once a chat has been initiated, each user can enter text by typing on a keyboard and the entered text will appear on all the other user's monitors.  Chatrooms are helping to provide real-time opportunities for educators to meet and dialogue with other peers and experts in their field without the expenses typically associated with face-to-face interactions.  

There are thousands of listservs, bulletin boards and chatrooms on the Internet.  A number of them are devoted to discussion of important educational areas. Are you looking for answers to questions in educational leadership, reading education, math education, science education, social studies education, or any other curricular area?  There is a telecollaborative learning opportunity out there just right for you.

More information about telecollaborative activity structures is available at these resources:
Harris, J. (1998).  Virtual Architecture: Designing and Directing Curriculum-Based Telecollaboration. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.  Available: http://virtual-architecture.wm.edu/index.html

Informatica. (2002).  Organizing and Facilitation Telecollaborative Projects with Informatica Circle. Available: http://www.ardil.info/index.php?ardil=projects.inc
On the next few pages, you will complete an Internet Workshop experience together around the use of telecollaborative learning projects and networked communication resources.  You will have 30 minutes to explore and gather information in one area.  You will bring the information gathered back to our workshop session where we will share and discuss it for 15 minutes.  

 

Exploring Networked Communication Resources and Telecollaborative Learning Projects: (An Internet Workshop)

Directions: You will complete one of the following activities and bring your information to our workshop session, where you will share your results with others.  You will have 30 minutes to gather your information in one of the following areas.  Decide which one you would like to explore:
  1. Explore several online dialogues and listservs for educators in various curricular areas. 
  2. Explore email and discussion list opportunities for students. 
  3. Explore collections of telecollaborative projects that teachers and students can join. 
  4. Read an article about Internet Project as a telecollaborative instructional model.  
  5. Read articles about the effective use of telecollaborative projects with students.

Click on one of the following areas to explore in the next 30 minutes. 

Online Dialogues & Listservs Email & Discussion
Lists
Telecollaborative Project
Collections
Article about Internet Project
 Article about Telecollaborative Projects


    Activity 1. Online Dialogues for Educators
    Explore these online dialogue opportunities and their archives.  Be prepared to share answers to these four questions:

    • Who belongs to each list/discussion board? 
    • How does the culture (e.g., supportive, adversarial) on these lists/discussion boards compare to the culture in your own school/district?
    • Are the issues discussed within these environments similar or different to those questions asked by teachers/administrators in your school/district? 
    • How can one use the search function to locate information relevant to your school's needs on these lists/discussion boards?

    DISCUSSION BOARDS
     LISTSERVS
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    ACTIVITY 2. Email and Discussion Board Activities for Students
    Explore the resources below.  Take notes and be prepared to share your reflections about these three issues:
    • What types of resources are available for conducting project-based learning with email and electronic discussion boards?
    • Do you believe that access to this information/processes helps deepen student learning and enhance the topics of study introduced in your district's curriculum? If so, how?  
    • Do email and discussion board activities require your district to rethink some of its policies (e.g. student privacy policies, student email use, parental permission, etc)?

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    ACTIVITY 3. Telecollaborative Projects for Students
    Explore the range of telecollaborative projects designed to foster student learning. Take notes and be prepared to share what you discovered about these four issues: 
    • How are teachers around the world using telecollaborative projects in the classroom?  
    • How can access to this information and these processes help deepen students' understanding of academic concepts?
    • How might teachers back in your district begin to integrate telecollaborative projects into their curriculum? 
    • What new types of assessment might be needed in your district to measure the impact of participating in telecollaborative projects?
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    ACTIVITY 4. Read an Article about Internet Project as an Instructional Model for Telecollaborative Learning

    Read the article below.  Take notes and be prepared to share what you discovered about these three issues: 

    • Which examples of Internet Project do you think will be most useful?
    • Where can teachers go to locate projects from around the world?
    • Do you think an Internet Project model might be useful at your school?  Why or why not?

    Leu, D. J., Jr. (2001). Internet project: Preparing students for new literacies in a global village. Reading Online. [Article reprinted from The Reading Teacher, 54, 568-585]. [Online Serial]. Available:http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/RT/3-01_Column/index.html

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    ACTIVITY 5. Read articles about the effective use of telecollaborative projects with students. 

    Skim through the articles below. Take notes and be prepared to share answers to these questions: 

    • What do teachers do when implementing an online project into their classroom? 
    • What does current research and past experience reveal about the practical factors that lead to successful online collaborative projects?   
    • What might be some of the particular challenges associated with integrating telecollaborative projects into your district's curriculum?  Can any information in the articles below assist you in addressing these challenges? 

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    SELF-EVALUATION RUBRIC FOR TELECOLLABORATION ACTIVITY:
     
     

    Your Score 
    I gathered all the appropriate information for one of the areas. (2 points)  
    During the workshop session, I shared the information I found. (2 points)  
    I did this exceptionally well or I did more than was required. (Describe) (1 point)  
    TOTAL (5 possible points)   

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