Collaboration+-+Teaching+and+Learning+with+Others-PBL+Essential+Learning+Functions

Engage Other Learners Hold Virtual Meetings Connect Through Webinars Talk over the Computer Collaboration-Teaching and Learning with Others

Google docs is a ubiquitous product that is built for collaboration. With a Google account, people can access their documents from any computer with Internet access. They can share (documents or other projects such as a simple power point type application or spreadsheet) http://docs.google.com/support/?hl=en to sign up for a Google account go to http://docs.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10773

Engage Experts Twitter allows people to stay connected and to collaborate. sign up for a free account. Answers are limited to 140 characters. Answer the question: What are you doing now? or ask a question of the people in your network. For example: http://twitter.com/

When teaching about projectiles, the class from Florida contacted the missle producer and tester Martin Marietta. At the time, the company was developing the Titan missle. In fact, students were invited to a lecture by the lead engineer of the project. A visual production was made available from the classroom to the actual production site. A question and answer exercise followed the lecture.

 After exhausting local resources such as e-mail, a wiki, or other digital tools the book suggests utilizing a Virtual Reference Desk Ask A Service or the Electronic Emissary. We agree that this a great starting point but challenge the thinking. We suggest "going to where the Expert lives" and that would be Web 1.0 and check their webpage, e-mail, and check other professional websites. We don't think you would find this "Expert" information on a Wikis or Blog. Another assumption in this book is that most participants in our class are proficient in Web 1.0 and that is why we are moving to Web 2.0. We think that most aren't proficient in either.

 Engage Others Never forget to look in your own backyard for resources. Think about who is in your community, field, or the world share that your interest and connect with them.

Hold Virtual Meetings This allows collaboration right within your classroom, in another classroom, as well as on the other side of world.

M.A. We have actually started a collaboration process. In sharing our wip's through CyberCamp TV and streaming it, we are putting ourselves out there for collaboration with others. We are not only collaborating within the room, but offering collaboration to a world audience.

There is a question about how collaboration works for teachers vs. students and the rules that apply to each group. We can easily see the value of collaboration for teachers. Working with other colleagues can help in planning, and implementation of a project as well as give feedback on how things are going. The same can be said for students. However, when using tools on the web such as blogs, wikis, twitter and such there needs to be a set of norms/guidelines that will protect students. These norms need to be decided in advance and pre-taught to ensure the safety of the students. Teacher moderation would also be a key (moderating messages coming in before they are posted).

It would be very cool and valuable to collaborate student to student abroad. The question is how do you start a safe collaboration connection in this manner? Again, we are limited by what we are "offered" in the school district. We have heard of [|ePals], but have not been offered this collaboration tool. We agree that using tools for teacher and student collaboration would be beneficial, BUT these ideas need to be planned out thoroughly before implementation.

Do we have the proper permissions from parents/district to implement these types of communication? Do we need to rewrite the "VrainNet" agreement to include these types of activities?