Volume 2, No. 18                     18 April, 2003 [To view this newsletter on line: http://www.emck.net/eline/03_04_18.htm.]

The Arts joins... ...for 2003! The Office of Professional Development adds 8 Arts Academies to its slate of offerings. Look for The Help Desk's Arts and Humanities issue in two weeks!

Collaboration and Communication in the Classroom

One of the most exciting uses of online resources is for collaboration and communication - between  schools, across political boundaries, across generations, across disciplines...even across abilities and physical challenges. Wherever there's a common interest, email, online forums, low-tech video/audio conferencing, and virtual bulletin boards can erase many other barriers. This issue of The Help Desk focuses on finding and exploiting such connections. It uses as a primary (though not exclusive) resource, the U.S. Department of Education's Teacher's Guide to International Collaboration on the Internet.

 

Those who consider the use of online collaboration and communication must overcome some barriers and myths, a few of which are listed below: "Internet communication isn't safe." Like all classroom activities, Internet communication must be mediated. We would never consider establishing "snail-mail" pen pals between our students and potential strangers from the outside without the teacher standing directly in the communication path (reading and selecting communications in both directions). The same is true on line. With such mediation, Internet communication is just as safe as any other. "My students must have email (or other direct online access)." Since mediation is important, the only person who must have access to the technology is the teacher. All other barriers can be overcome. "I don't need to use technology for these purposes." This is the flip-side of #2, and is true enough - the Flat Stanley Project began (and still continues with some participants) with ordinary snail mail. However, the beauty of online collaboration is that its capabilities have spawned literally hundreds of education-safe, rich connection exchanges. What used to take weeks, perhaps months of negotiation and design now takes a day or two...and the communication that results can be very nearly instantaneous!

  http://www.epals.com/ - Now in its 7th year, ePals is the premiere online email student-to-student or class-to-class connection source. Register your class, and then search other registered classes for subjects, locations, grade levels.

http://www.teaching.com/KeyPals/ - similar to ePals, but more oriented to shared projects. A service of Teaching.com, who also sponsors International Email Classroom Connections (IECC) - a clearinghouse aimed at cultural exchange.

http://www.globalschoolhouse.org/pr/ - A service of non-profit Global SchoolNet, this registry of over 900 collaborative online projects is searchable by grade, beginning date, and subject area.

http://www.wotw.org.uk/ - Here's a database of international classroom-to-classroom or school-to-school connections, with some resulting in global visits or student exchanges.

With classroom telephones becoming much more common, don't neglect this inexpensive, simple, and dependable method of connecting classes to classes! A speakerphone will work OK - to get full measure out of class-wide participation, a audio conferencing solution such as the Polycom SoundStation measurably improves interaction and fidelity in the classroom - at a cost of about $375. For those of you who want to try hooking up through video, almost any WebCam comes with video conference software. Below are some free downloadables, most of which require a public IP number to direct-connect outside of your district WAN (see your district tech support office for details).

http://www.ivisit.info/ - Reviewed in The Help Desk Vol. 1, #2, this software distinguishes itself by using the H.263 video compression format, making it work better where bandwidth is low. The downside - you have to reinstall it every few months, because the free version times out. (Mac: must run in "Classic mode" for OSX.)

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/default.asp - This venerable and dependable solution provides no compression, but Windows users (no Mac - sorry!) already have this software installed.

http://www.cu-seeme.net/ - Originally produced and distributed freely by Cornell University (hence the "CU"), the brand and development rights now belong to First Virtual Communications, and the newest version is "sold" through CUWorld (free if you pay for a subscription to their connection service - not a good idea for schools). The older versions are still available from CU-SeeMe.Net.

http://messenger.yahoo.com/ - Of course, since it's Yahoo, this is a dot-com with a vengeance. The software is free, and if you can stand the ads and directory access, it works.

[editor's note: As of 7/5/04, online video/audio teleconferencing has since left these tools behind.]

http://www.thejournal.com/

T.H.E. Journal is the oldest, most widely distributed educational technology magazine in the world - in no small part due to an aggressive campaign which awarded free subscriptions to identified teachers across the U.S. Its chatty and unassuming style make it an attractive resource for instructional ideas and examples, as well as research-based projects and initiatives aimed at the K-12 classroom. Of course, with the magazine and full-access website being free, expect some attention to the interests of advertisers and their wares, as well as pop-ups on the site.