Collaboration in the Digital Classroom

Want to learn more about collaborating in a digital classroom? I am going to offer an online facilitated professional development course called Collaboration in the Digital Classroom. This is from Intel® Teach Elements. Below is a QR code that links to a flyer and video explaining more about the course.

Here is a description from Intel® on Collaboration in the Digital Classroom: 

"Provides an in-depth look at collaboration with a focus on online collaborative tools. In this course, you will see how collaboration helps students develop 21st century thinking skills, deepen content understanding, and prepare them for the global world. You’ll learn how to plan and manage collaboration activities that integrate online collaborative tools—increasingly part of our globally connected workplaces.

• Learn how to find and choose the best Web-based tools to support collaboration
• Learn how to manage and support collaborators
• Understand and promote ethical, appropriate, and safe online behavior.

The course offers opportunities to apply the collaboration concepts with action planning exercises."

The start date of this workshop will be September 23, 2013 and we will end on Friday, November 15, 2013. We will have an optional face to face meeting to cover how to navigate this moodle. The optional face to face meeting will be on Tuesday, September 24, 2013 at 4801 Bethania Station Road in the IRC computer lab from 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. This workshop is limited to 15 participants.

Are you addicted yet?

My name is Marlo Gaddis. I am addicted to Pinterest.



Pinterest is the latest tool for organizing and sharing content on the web. Visualize a large corkboard where you can collect ideas, plan events, or find inspiration. Now make it digital so that you can browse the ideas of others. Add a dash of collaboration and you have Pinterest.

By connecting with your social media accounts in Facebook and Twitter, you can easily find your friends, family and co-workers. As they pin new things, you can see what they find valuable on the web. Most people have boards that sort by recipes, books to read, fashion, home design, and much more. But as always, smart educators are finding a way to make this tool a great way to collaborate with other educators. As a former elementary school teacher, I love seeing my educator friends and co-workers share lesson ideas, posters, crafts, websites and so much more! The best part about Pinterest is that the links are visual so that you don't have to guess what they are.

If you have a smartphone, you can download the Pinterest app in the iTunes Store or in the Android Market.

Collaboration Corner

Most of the time when I think of classes collaborating, it involves talking or working on the same project at the exact same time. The many technology tools that we now have available make it even more possible for classes to collaborate even when on opposite sides of the world.
I stumbled across the Collaboration Corner Blog one day. This blog is an example of two classes in opposite hemispheres (one in America and the other in Australia) collaborating.
From a page on this blog:

Since early 2009, Mrs Yollis' third grade class and Miss McGeady's grade two class have been blogging buddies.

We created this blog at the start of 2010 to collaborate and learn together.
***

We are finding that through technology, the barriers of distance, time zones and cultures can be broken down and collaboration is a very powerful tool!

***

Have a look at some of the great things we are doing and leave us a comment!

On that blog, you can find clocks that show the current time for each school. (I think that would be a great way to introduce time zones.) There are a couple of projects both classes are completing throughout the year.

Project #1: What's for lunch? This project involves each class posting pictures of descriptions of the contents of a student's lunchbox a couple times a week. There are questions on the blog for students to discuss after seeing and reading about the lunches.
Project #2: Our School This project both schools posting about about various places around their school each week. The students in each class are hoping to learn more about their blogging buddies.
***Notice the variety of web 2.0 tools used for posting videos and pictures in the blog

SMART Table: Collaborate & Learn through Touch

We have just recently installed, into our Elementary Schools, our fourth SMART Table. Now some of you may be asking... "What is a SMART Table?" The SMART Table is a multiuser, multitouch interactive device that allows young students the ability to learn in a collaborative environment using visual, auditory and tactile senses.

As I was setting up the table the teachers were stopping by with their students to show them what I was doing. You had to be there to fully understand the expressions on their faces as I would show them how they could just touch the table top and it would make the objects move or a video would play. This is my second install of a SMART Table in our district and I have to say that I am excited about the possibilities for the students using the them.
The table allows up to 40 simultaneous touches and up to 8 children using it at one time. Now you may think that with all of those little hands the SMART Table would really get dirty and may not function well. The nice thing is that you can quickly clean the surface with any Non-alcoholic-based cleaner.


Not only are the students learning subject material but they are indirectly learning social, thinking and motor skills as well. The table comes with a number of preloaded content and activities to get your students participating right out of the box. You can also add new content and activities to the table via a usb connection and transferring directly into the table's computer. There are a number of resources available online at the SMART Technologies website. As well if you are not sure and still need some additional instruction there are a number of videos and printed materials to get you started on the road to discovery and learning. Check this out for more insight on how to see the big picture as the SMART Solution integrates into your classroom instruction. If you still have questions check out the table FAQ from the Smarttech website.

SMART Table image provided by: SMARTTech.com

"Read With Me" via Skype . . .

A few weeks ago, I saw a tweet on twitter asking for people who would be interested in using skype to read stories with classes during the month of February. There was a link to a google form that contained questions about what times and days you would be available. I miss reading aloud to students, so I decided to try to participate in this project (Read Aloud time was one of my favorite times as a classroom teacher).

A few days later, I received an email from Cindy Phthisic, who is an Instuctional Technologist in Edenton, NC. Here is part of the letter:
"Thank you so much for volunteering your time to help with our Read With Me project this month. I have you scheduled to read with a class at 10:00am on February 8th. You will be reading to a group of 15 - 30 students depending upon how many classes sign up for your time.You may read any book of your choice, keeping in mind your audience will be students ages 4 - 8. If you need ideas for selecting a book, Dr. Seuss and Arthur books by Marc Brown are always good choices."

I looked on my bookcase at home and picked a book that I thought students would enjoy. I picked out Silly Sally by Audrey Wood to read to students. We did a test call on Skype to make sure things were working. Even though things worked then, we had a few technical problems when the actual time for the story came. I feel like that always happens to me when I try to do a video call using skype, but after a few minutes of troubleshooting (hanging up, recalling, closing, restarting . . .), everything was back working fine.

I spoke with Cindy later, and she told me a little about how she set up the project. First, she put out "all call" on Twitter and the Skype network to find people interested in reading to classes. She also emailed and called a few others like Mike Artell (who had just visited that school), June Atkinson, and a contact she had at the Washington Nationals who had helped with another skype call before Christmas. Volunteers signed up using a google form. Then she went through the dates that had been selected and set up the schedule. Cindy said this was an intro for most of the teachers and students to Skype, so they met in the media center and she handled the call. This "Read With Me" project was used as a Read Across America Preview, so Cindy took pictures of each of the readers to set up a map at the school showing the readers and their locations. The readers were from many places including Arkansas, California, Pennsylvania, Kansas, New York, and North Carolina.

I think the students enjoyed participating in this project. I know that I did! If anyone wants to try to do a project like this, I would be glad to help. I also don't mind reading a book to a classroom using skype . . . just let me know!

Melissa
mwedwards@wsfcs.k12.nc.us
mwedwards815 on Skype

Eight Ways to Use School Wikis

With school just around the corner teachers are beginning to plan for next school year. One way that teachers can increase collaboration among their students is to use Wikis. Wikispaces can also be used to store digital materials, screencasts, presentations, PDFs and other content. Wikis are also a great way for teachers to collaborate and share within a school or school district. Let’s look at the eight ways to use wikis in your school.

1. Decrease disruptions of instructional time
   a. Instead of everyone listening to all the announcements for an entire school, teachers can read over the principal created wiki and read only the announcements that apply to their students.
2. Make meetings more efficient
   a. Team meetings and planning can be collaborated thru a wiki
   b. Each team can have their own team meeting page on the wiki site
3. Collaborate on important documents
   a. Wikis are a great place to create, revise, and update the school education plan
4. Enhance professional development
   a. All materials needed for professional development workshops can be housed in a wiki for the school
   b. Discussions can be created for each professional development workshops for teachers to extend their learning of the materials
5. Share and collaborate on curriculum maps
   a. Teachers can collaborate and plan out their curriculum maps by subject, grade level or by school thru a wiki
6. Save trees and time
   a. Many documents for the school can be housed in a wiki and teachers can access from the wiki printing only what they need
7. A portal for all your lessons
   a. All lessons for a particular subject can be uploaded to a wiki where teachers can discuss, create and collaborate on the lesson plans throughout the school year
8. How to get started
   a. Go to http://pbworks.com/ to learn more about creating a wiki for yourself, other teachers or for your school
   b. Do a search for Educational Wikis on the internet to see all the ways schools, teachers and students are using wikis
   

Article from Tech & Learning July 21, 2009
Eight Ways to Use School Wikis by Lisa Nielsen
http://www.techlearning.com/article/22064

Web 2.0 collaboration from start to finish

In my effort to find more free web 2.0 tools out there to help make your life easier I came across a pretty good site that provides you with a lot of tools that you can use.


Creaza is a ..."an integrated, web-based toolbox for creative work, both at school and in your free time..." The site provides four utilities that help you to create podcasts and vodcasts, research and project based learning, audio files, movies and many more applications that you can easily integrate into your everyday instruction and apply to your curriculum.


The products are:

Mindomo will help you to organize your ideas and thoughts into clear and concise points so through this online mind mapping software.

Cartoonist is a piece of software that allows you to obviously create cartoons, comic strips or funny images. Oh the possibilities for all curriculum areas from Health Education to English.

Movie Editor is a quick and easy movie creator software. There are plenty of canned images, videos, sounds and songs built in or you can upload your own content and create using your imagination.




Audio Editor is a quick audio program that allows you to take existing music, sounds and voice to combine into your own content. Again there are some canned sounds within the software or you can upload your own stuff.



Think of all the possibilities for school curriculum from Elementary science where students are discussing, through a podcast in the audio editor, plant life and what they are seeing in their terrariums, to High school English where they are creating political cartoons or recreating through claymation a movie on the Battle of Bull run in a Social Studies class.

Now the site offers you both a free and a pay account. With the free account you have access to the products and a sharing area as well as the ability to download your completed projects. Now there is a downside to the site, yes and I have said it before, you have to create a username and password to access the site. Again I suggest using something that you will be able to easily keep up with.

If I can leave you with anything I will leave you with this quick phrase, "go forth and play."

images provided by www.creaza.com

Classroom Connections with Skype

One of the best ways to introduce technology into the classroom without having to purchase a lot of equipment is to use Skype as a free video conferencing tool. Skype is the application covered in the Creating Global Connections workshop offered by my department. And it really goes a long way towards making communication and collaboration with other classrooms or Skype users easy. Many educators and classrooms in our district are already using Skype to connect with other classrooms and engage in some collaborative projects. Some are still looking for classrooms to contact. I'd like to help more classrooms get connected. If you are interested in getting started and would like to contact a classroom across the county before you communicate around the world, these are some folks who might be able to help.

Ms. Hutchens (Skype name leahhutchens) at Ward has been using Skype with her kindergarten class to contact places like California and Australia this year. Sam Walker (Skype name swalker21) at Bolton used Skype to set up a guest speaker for his school and has teachers currently working with classrooms around the district—like Ms. Lee at Southwest (Skype name heidi.lynn.lee) and Ms. Edwards from Diggs (Skype name mwedwards815). In addition to the contact with Bolton, Ms. Edwards recently skyped a classroom in Georgia she’d contacted through the Skypeinschools wiki. Her experiences are detailed on her blog. If you are looking for a middle school class to get in touch with, Nanette Naylor at Philo (Skype name nmnaylor) is looking for Skyping partners for some of her classrooms. And finally, you can always Skype with me (Skype name emaiden3). At the very least I think I can help you get started finding another class to Skype with.

Recently I was shadowed for a day by a WSFCS student for the SLIDE program. I tried to think of a ways to have her use technology in a meaningful way while she was here in the department. That afternoon I had her Skype in with classrooms at Bolton and Diggs, and I bet that was the best part of her day with me. Using Skype she was able to speak to and engage with students around our district who got a chance to ask questions of a high school student in her last semester here in WSFCS schools.

I think that is the real power of Skype—to engage students and create connections with other learners and classes far outside the walls of the building.

Mobi - Not the Artist the InterWrite Tablet

So we have been talking a lot about collaboration and how to get students involved in the classroom. So what is it about kids today? Are they bored, unchallenged, tired? Where is the motivation for them from the instructor.

Let's get them involved and with the new InterWrite Workspace 8.01 software and the InterWrite Mobi Tablet that just might do the trick.

The InterWrite Mobi tablet is the first multi-user, multi-tablet collaborative solution for classrooms instruction. What is it you ask. Well the Mobi is the next generation of interactive tablet in which the user can manipulate desktop or laptop applications without being locked into one location in the room. You have the ability to roam free and be a part of the learning environment. The one nice addition to the Mobi over its predecessors is the addition of a 2.5" lcd color screen which allows you to link up with another product from eInstruction, the Classroom Performance Systems (CPS for short). Check out Brian Piekarski's previous article in our blog. All response information is sent to the display as it happens so that you can see where the students are without having to go back to the desktop or laptop. The board has also been redesigned to be more ergonomic for the user as well as lighter in weight and sturdier for in class use. Previous evolutions of InterWrite tablets had a rechargeable pen that had one contact point for charging the newly designed pen has a 360 degree contact point for charging and fits inside of its own holster built into the back of the boards hand-hold.

Now to talk about one really new cool feature of the InterWrite Workspace software that come with the Mobi Tablet or can be downloaded from the eInstruction website. It is the ability to use the collaborative workspace. While inside the workspace software the instructor can have up to 9 tablets interacting with the display at one time. it is very simple to use you click on the multi-user icon and drag and drop the tablets into the areas of the screen you want them to use. You are the instructor and have control of the page and all users. Each tablet has access to their own space only and cannot write in an another users defined space. Now those of you who have a previous incarnate of the the InterWrite tablet can still use the multi-user feature of Workspace v 8.01 software so do not worry at all.

Check out the eInstruction website for more information about the Mobi tablet, CPS and Workspace software.

video images and image provided by eInstruction

Dare to be Great

Did you ever get to the end of a great book and was let down by the ending? It was either not what you expected or left you wanting more.

Why not write your own ending to that book. Put in what you want the characters to do and say. Make the book come to life in your minds eye and get it on paper, or rather online. Yes online for you to keep or for you to share using Plotbot.

Plotbot, what is it, well it is an online web resource that allows you the user or people to collaborate the writing of screenplays, or manuscripts. As teachers you could also use this site in conjunction with writing assignments and book reviews to give your students the opportunity to write, or re-write, their own ending to a novel, short story, movie etc..
This process allows for student collaboration with their peers as well as with the instructor for feedback. As well will prepare some students for careers in writing screenplays or manuscripts.

The site is very easy to maneuver through. When you come to the splash page you create your account, and its is Free. Once you have created your username and password you are then asked whether or not you want this project to be private or public. If you decide to make your project private no one will be able to view it unless you invite them in. Once you have done that you create the project name and enter in some parameter settings and off you go.
Now that everything is set up you can begin creating your content. You can choose to make a(n) outline, screens, screenplay as well as set up a project blog, guidelines, references or character document. Depending on your content you can set up the rating for this according to the MPAA standards.
If you make the project public, or for your invitees, you can set up an RSS feed to it and keep up with editing.
Plotbot also has its own repository so that you can upload documents straight to the site for download and sharing.

So whether you plan on a career as a screenwriter or not, whether you like it your way take a chance and see what Plotbot has to offer.

Image provided by plotbot.com
video provided by Commoncraft

A Call to Action

While scanning through the thoughts and ideas pouring into my Google Reader, I encountered Clay Shirky’s comment ...

“Social tools don’t create collective action –
they merely remove the obstacles to it”.

In the 2008-2009 school year we have expanded local workshop offerings to include a variety of tools to support collaborative projects and discussions. Several curriculum areas have created blogs and/or wikis to encourage online conversations between teachers spread across the district. Multiple training sessions have focused on Web 2.0 tools teachers and students can utilize to move beyond paper and pencil reports and worksheet activities.

But are those tools moving from the training room to the classroom? Creating a site doesn't guarantee site participation. Requiring site participation doesn't guarantee true collaboration or communication. We have to convince participants that these tools have value. We have to make it worth their time and effort. We have to provide ongoing support to assist new users of technologies new to them through the bumpy stages.

District Instructional Technologists are here to help. We are happy to provide training and support. School level administrators and curriculum/technical staff are also key players. Teachers are more likely to determine a new approach is worth the effort if it is valued and used by their peers and encouraged by administrators. To enhance the probability of success, teachers must be supported on all sides (administration, curriculum, technology). We need to go beyond removing the obstacles and actually move forward. Collectively we can make real progress.

Let's pull together and truly make a difference.

Sharing the Workload

In years past, sharing your assignment with another student was absolutely unheard of! It left the door open for cheating, giggling and an unproductive environment! How did you prove which student did the work? Who learned the most? Did they learn anything at all, or use the time to catch up on school happenings? Many questions were left unanswered with simply “sharing” work. That was then. This is now.

With the integration of technology into the classroom, many traditionally valued ideals in the classrooms of yesteryears are just that – a thing of the past. Technology not only provides our students with multimedia, new methodologies and interactivity – it gives them the newfound ability to gain insight from their surroundings, and others. We already know that collaboration provides students with perspectives beyond their own. But, what method do you choose to set the students up for success in building those collaborations? Simple answer – collaborative workspaces.

There are many Web 2.0 applications to choose from, but here, we will look at four different versions.

1) Zoho Writer (zoho.com)
2) Writeboard (writeboard.com)
3) ThinkFree (thinkfree.com)
4) Google Docs (docs.google.com)

All four of these internet-based applications allow multiple users to edit the same document, at the same time. One of the best teacher features? There are revision updates automatically posted so you can tell which student made which changes, and at what time!

Pros to using collaborative writing tools – builds partnerships within a project, allows for ownership, allows for a unified workflow, and allows for the completion of work regardless of the location and time. Student accountability to each project partner is also a leading benefit. At the completion of the project, each of these applications has the ability to export the documents out into at least one or more popular file formats like .doc, .rtf, .pdf or .txt.

Cons to using collaborative writing tools – before assigning a group project using an online collaboration workspace, be sure all students involved have access to the internet. You also need to keep a watchful eye on the different ads displayed.

Are these applications just for students? Definitely not. These four can easily be used between grade-level teachers, school administrators, and others to collaborate on all types of projects and topics.

Each of the four applications mentioned is completely free. So, start writing. Encourage sharing.

Mind Mapping with Mindmeister

Mindmeister allows users to participate in real-time collaboration in global brainstorming sessions on the web. Users can be anywhere and work together anytime; seeing each other's changes as they are made. Skype calls allows the invited participants to discuss new ideas and put them into the mind map at the same time.

As you share your mind maps with friends or colleagues, the invitees will receive an email with a link and will be able to add their own ideas and comments. Old versions of the mind map are saved on the MindMeister server so you can replace the new ideas with a previous version if necessary.

I really like the brainstorming mode (two or more users are in the same mind map at the same time) and you can see every change that is made instantly through color-coded effects. Working offline is an option through Google Gears and when you go back online, just slide the button to online and all the changes will be automatically synched.

What ripples are you creating?

Stumbled across a pair of articles on friendship by Cathy Crovis. While we don't have to be "friends" with the people we work with, a good working relationship improves the effectiveness of any team. Teaching can be a very rewarding profession but it is also a very demanding, exhausting profession. Maybe Cathy's tips can serve as a reminder to reflect on our work relationships and improve our collaborative skills.

From "Labyrinth and The Power of Friendship" ....
1. Sometimes we have to fight fear to become friends with someone.
2. Friends can be found in the most unlikely places.
3. Not everyone who can be a friend appears that way at first.
4. Don't immediately discount others ways of helping.
5. True friends come through in the end.
6. We need to face our demons alone, but it's nice to know that someone's got our back just in case.

Each of our actions and reactions affect others. What can you do to send out positive ripples? How can you navigate through/around negative ripples blocking your path?

WiZIQ What is it?

WiZIQ or Wiz - IQ is a free online collaborative workspace and virtual classroom environment.
Similar to some of our other posts, this is an online environment with a virtual workspace that allows you to invite in users and share an interactive whiteboard experience: pdf, word, powerpoint, and images. You can also search their repository for information.

One additional item that is of some interest is that they have a area where you can upload test questions. Yes, online tests - built by users and shared into this environment. You just pick from the list provided or search a topic and the system gives you tests questions in a multiple choice format.

So here is another free tool in my quest to find more free online workspaces for collaboration and information sharing between students and teachers or teachers and teachers.

Palbee for Online Collaboration

Palbee allows up to 9 people to simultaneously work in an interactive online environment with video, chat, and whiteboard capabilities. Oh and not to forget the recording and sharing features of the output. This product is similar to Yugma but with its own twist.

So go out and take a look at this site to see what it has. You can take the content and embed it into your own webpage after you have recorded your session. You can upload photos, graphics and powerpoints which can then be added to the whiteboard area and changed, modified or drawn over.

This is a free online service that has you to create a username and password. All of your attendees will need to create a username as well to join in your session. But you can LOCK down the session so that only you, the owner, and the people you invite can participate. You can also set it as a widget on your browser.

Community Walk and Voicethread

I heard about Community Walk and Voicethread at the NCaect conference in Concord, NC. Community walk works in conjunction with Google Maps. You can embed your images and Google Maps images to tell a geographical story. Voicethread gives multiple users the opportunity to record their descriptions of the images and add it to the Community Walk presentation.

Any one of these tools are very useful all by themselves, but combined can offer an awesome project or presentation for our students.

Yugma- Desktop Sharing and Collaboration

While at the NCaect conference, I learned about a free web 2.0 tool called Yugma. Yugma allows you to share your desktop in real-time. At anytime, you can empower an attendee and have them take over as presenter. Their desktop is then shown and they take control of the mouse and keyboard. There is also a built-in whiteboard feature for collaboration. Yugma can work with Skype if you want audio or video with the presentation as well.