Use MSP To Network Your Classroom

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Comment by Tom Jenkins on April 3, 2010 at 4:25pm

You know......Eric's post adds a wonderful element to this discussion. I want to re post a couple of his quotes:

Great post Tom! I agree MSP2 is an untapped resource to connect with other educators. Todd Williamson and I have connected on the Pringles Challenge (which Tom eluded to- even if he thinks I'm in New Hampshire- really I'm in Vermont!)

For instance, some of the students in Todd's class thought that our school had a lot of Canadians in it because we are so close to the Canadian border

Stereotypes or misconceptions........While I'm sure that both Vermont and New Hampshire have wonderful views and great ice cream ;), they are in fact different places with their own identities. While they may have some relatives across the border, they are in fact Americans. I am from Ohio, where we all do not grow corn and tip cows on the weekend........

The point being is there are too many generalizations in the world. Many of them innocent. Using connected classrooms not only helps our students learn, but helps break down barriers and enables our kids to have a much better perspective of their neighbors.

Comment by Karolee Smiley on March 20, 2010 at 8:46pm

I used to connect to other classrooms when working with the "JASON Project". We used to have a teachers forum group. It was a great place to look for partner teachers who also wanted to connect classrooms. The group also provided a forum for discussions on the nature of connectivity. People could share activities and strategies for bringing two different groups of kids "together". Depending on who I connected with, we used different techniques. Sometimes we use the latest technology, sometimes we kept it simple. It all comes down to what you want to accomplish and what you have access to.

With most of my activities, I have each student partnered with a student from another class. The one-to-one let's them build a more personal relationship.

I did e-buddies with one school (in Louisiana), but snail mail with another (Sweden). In each case, we decided what worked best with the kids and access we had.

In our district, we have used teleconferencing both for local and international connections. We have access to a polycom system. I had partner teachers on the other side of the district, which is very different in its demographics. We used to bring kids together digitally to bridge the differences, rather than try busing. Some of our teachers have more international connections, like Japan and Bosnia.

The great thing is, students see that "kids are kids", no matter the name, the color, or the cultural exposure. The learning goes beyond the curricular content, it provides them with new social skills and exposes them to diverse people and new points of view.

Comment by Davilla Riddle on March 17, 2010 at 7:36pm

I would love to take this on! Connecting and collaborating is something I am really trying to incorporate within these last couple of months of school. Thanks again Tom.

Mary, can we talk about it on Thursday??

Comment by Mary Henton on March 17, 2010 at 9:15am

Hi....wonder if there is interest in facilitating an online conversation or a webinar about these kinds of collaborations. Perhaps a couple of stories as case studies; how do you decide if/when to look for this kind of collaboration? Where to go to find partners? Lessons learned: "The top 10 reasons virtually-supported, cross-school collaborations" or "The top 10 things necessary for a successful cross-school collaboration."

Enough people interested in this kind of live conversation??

Comment by Davilla Riddle on March 16, 2010 at 9:32pm

Recently, I connected with a 2nd grade teacher in New York. I live in Hawaii. We met because her students were studying the ocean and wanted to learn more about humpback whales, which visit here every winter. The teacher found out via Twitter that I was a whale enthusiast. She contacted me about collaborating between our students and the rest is history. Right now, we are about half way through the project.

First, her students created a wall in Wallwisher with questions about whales. During an Adobe Connect session, several of my students answered their questions. We have a wiki with resources and links to technology tools used by both classrooms.

Next, my 8th grade students are conducting a virtual research cruise in which they are the scientists. We will post trip summaries and observations along our trip to a blog. We are going to follow several humpback whales north to Alaska. The students in New York will be responding to posts (observations, weather, location, etc.) from the whales' points of view.

Finally, the teacher and I hope to use digital storytelling as a conclusion to the project. Stay tuned...

Comment by Rebecca Lawson on March 14, 2010 at 9:02pm

Tom,

What a great idea!! Collaborative projects are a wonderful learning tool! My students and I did several of these back at the "dawn" on the Internet .. back when everything was text and the "web" was but a dream.

In fact, I have a project we wrote about water: Waters of the World. It is totally integrated with all subjects involved. Back when the only communication was text, it was fun. However, today teachers around the world could participate on a wiki or a ning.

The activities involved temperature, rain/snowfall, tests on water, etc. Students also wrote a narrative following a drop of rain that fell into the state/region's main river at the beginning and followed it all the way to the sea. There was even opportunity for students to use their engineering skills to build a small boat and race it.

I highly recommend these projects and hope we can get some - or at least one - going here on MSP2. A project like this could transform interaction here.

Please let me know what I can do to help facilitate this!
Rebecca

Comment by Mary Henton on March 12, 2010 at 12:40pm

Just popped over to our friends at Learn Central and saw that there was a similar string of conversation there earlier in the year. Have cross-posted.

Comment by Mary Henton on March 12, 2010 at 12:33pm

Love the ideas and suggestion! Yes. MSP2 would LOVE to see this site and resources as a way to facilitate cross-school, cross-country, cross-nation collaborations.
M

Comment by Eric Biederbeck on March 12, 2010 at 9:22am

Great post Tom! I agree MSP2 is an untapped resource to connect with other educators. Todd Williamson and I have connected on the Pringles Challenge (which Tom eluded to- even if he thinks I'm in New Hampshire- really I'm in Vermont!) For the project, sutdents were asked to create a box that would allow them to send one Pringles Potato Chip to students in the other class without the chipping breaking. Students were then scored on a rubric on how intact the potato chip was, how much the box weighed, and how big the box was. This activity was great from a math stand point because it reinforced the idea of volume for my students as well as giving them yet another change to work with the metric system (as our weight and volume measurements were in metric). Todd also set up a wiki on which his class posed questions of our class and vice versa. This was great because it allowed both classes to clear up misconceptions that they had about one another. For instance, some of the students in Todd's class thought that our school had a lot of Canadians in it because we are so close to the Canadian border. We were also able to share digital photos that we took of the packages after they had arrived. I found it to be a great project as the kids were very involved and really loved both the actual project and the collaboration with a group of students from far away! I highly recommend using MSP2 to connect with other like minded teachers and classrooms. Please feel free to e-mail me to collaborate too.