Communication and Collaboration

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

• interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
• communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
• develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures.
• contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

Scenarios

Select Edit This Page to comment on which of the following scenarios best represents the standard that refers to Communication and Collaboration. How would you modify the scenario to better represent this standard?

Scenario A: Submitted by Bradford Davey
The students were engaged in a documentary film project about sustainability. While they were working on the project, two other schools started sustainability projects of their own. Although digital videography is a great technology skill, it is not the focus of this story. One of the schools we were working with was in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. The students were able to communicate back and forth by way of a chat room we created. On the last day of the project, we had a live videoconference with them. No small feet as they were working with a satellite link and getting their electricity from a portable generator. Just goes to show you that where there is a will there is technology happening. Their critical thinking skills came from problem solving for the other school involved in the project, working to solve the logistics of time zones, and thinking differently about their ability to communicate to a much larger global community. The project truly changed their perspective.

Scenario B: Submitted by Silvia Tolisano
San Jose Episcopal Day School is a small school with big plans to implement a global curriculum. It is our goal to broaden our students’ horizon and educate globally aware citizens. The school was able to send two faculty members to travel abroad. All of our students were taken “along” through technology. Under the motto “Blog your way to China through Time and Space”, we created three age appropriate programs that allowed students to actively participate in a virtual field trip. Pre-Kindergarten - 2nd grade followed “Jose”, a stuffed animal, along on his journey. 3rd - 4th grade took part as China Trekkers. 5th and 6th graders participated in a game, modeled after the popular U.S. Reality Show “The Amazing Race”. Each of their teams had to complete different challenges that coincided with the actual travel itinerary. Through posts on the China blog, the travelers communicated daily with the students and answered their questions through the comments. Movies, photos and podcasts were used to make the virtual experience even more authentic. Classroom teachers, with the blog as an aid, guided the students to explore cultural universals, such as transportation, food, clothing, education, economy and compared and contrasted them to our own lives in the United States. Although the time difference between USA and China made “real” time communication difficult, we were able to video conference through Skype. The entire blog (http://www.sjeds.com/blog/china) is available for other teachers and students to use and learn from, following into our steps –virtually.

I really thought that scenario B was very interesting! It combines all the aspects of the communication and collaboration standard well. It sounds like it is a very good interactive way to involve students in working with technology while keeping them interested in the subject as well. This is something that I would love to try in my classroom one day! ... Angela M., Austin Peay State University

Scenario C: Submitted by Diana Laufenberg
My students are becoming digital storytellers by using video editing software to tell powerful stories in the voice of a middle school student. This year we had an opportunity to meet Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager from Hotel Rwanda. After learning about the impact of that one man, each student chose a person that has used his/her life to positively impact others and relayed the story through images, music and spoken word. Parents, soldiers, humanitarians, musicians and actors were chosen as the focus of the movies.
When I started the project I knew that there was serious interest, but I could not even hope for what I actually witnessed. The level of engagement and interest in the project was electric. Students were making movies at home and publishing to the web on their own. Students were begging to stay late, work at lunch and emailing questions over the weekend. One student that normally checks out during instruction was one of the students wanting to re-record his audio because it wasn’t perfect. His project wasn’t good enough, not because I said so, but because he wanted more from himself. It was a project that transcended the classroom and became about the greater audience. I have known for a long time that the classroom and the students in it were changing. The project allowed the students to delve with more passion into learning and life. For the month of January, the transformation was palpable in my classroom. It was inspiring.

Scenario C’s digital storytellers is an awesome way to represent the Communication and Collaboration standard. This example not only brings with it a feeling of excitement, but it also brings a feeling of wanting to make a difference in our world. Everyone wants to be an inspiration to someone else. Projects like this one allow for extensive interaction and collaboration among peers and adults. Students can communicate at great distances using discussion boards, blogs, email, and etc. via the internet. It also provides a great means of developing skills in publishing a wide of variety of digital media. Through a project such as this, students create a great sense of cultural awareness and understanding. Team work is fostered and encouraged as well. Digital storytelling is an excellent idea that I hope to utilize in my classroom to help implement the National Educational Technology Standards for Students…. Lisa B., Austin Peay State University

Scenario D: Submitted by Tamera Terndrup
My Spanish I students have been using the foreign language tools built within Microsoft Word and a blogging/audioblogging to develop their communication skills in Spanish this year. They have been learning to type in Spanish by changing the keyboard on their computer to a Spanish keyboard which also enables them to us the Spanish spelling and grammar check. After they save their writing samples, they request publishing to the classroom blog through a free site called Blogmeister, which is password protected and monitored by the teacher. If their document needs further editing, it goes back to them with comments within their blog account. Nothing gets published until the teacher approves it for publishing to the web. In addition to writing samples, students are developing their speaking proficiency in the target language by responding to questions in Spanish. All they have to do is make a phone call through a free service called Gabcast to record their voice. It turns their recording into an html code which can be pasted into their blog. The writing and speaking assessments and portfolios of their work have changed teaching and learning to a more differentiated, asynchronous approach which engages the students and motivates them to put forth their best effort.

Scenario E: Submitted by Julie Lindsay
The Flat Classroom Project is a global collaboration using Web 2.0 tools. It stresses responsible, independent learning using online collaboration and communication. The project was an authentic assessment for two classrooms (Dhaka, Bangladesh and Georgia, USA) to creatively explain the innovative concepts presented in The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. This project used a wiki-centric environment for publication and interaction and software programs as chosen by the students. Students were partnered across the world and given the task of exploring one of the world information technology trends as outlined in Friedman's book. Not only did students discuss and interact around their given topic, they were charged with solving the problem of how to create fact-based content and include a perspective that is unique to their side of the world. Multimedia development including individual video production with sections of their video outsourced to the other student. Students used information literacy skills, ethical decision making, and critical thinking skills and displayed effective digital citizenship as they cooperated with students from a different culture. As part of the project students and teachers from opposite sides of the world used current technology to solve the problem of how to communicate between cultures and time zones by using VOIP/Skype, IM chat, wiki discussion forum, blog postings, audio and video files. Not only did this project encourage best practice and creative use of Web 2.0 technology it promoted cultural interaction and awareness of differences and similarities.
Project co-founders: Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis
For more details see: http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com

Scenario F: Submitted by Jamie Pate
The mountain culture in Western North Carolina takes pride in family and the traditions that make the family unique. Students in the second grade wanted learn more about what it was like for grandparents at Christmas when they were in the second grade. Students interviewed grandparents then returned to school to use KidPix to illustrate the story. Once the illustrations were completed, students then imported the drawings into MovieMaker to put together a movie. Students chose effects and transitions and finally added their personal retelling of the story. This project allowed students to get a clear understanding of the past from a primary source. It also required students to think about how to effectively convey to the audience the emotions that went along with being a child at Christmas.

I liked all of the sceanarios above. - Rural Hall School

How do you implement collaboration within your learning environment?

We have our students partner with a class from England around the world to pen pal to share cultural differences. At the end it culminates in sharing candy with each other.
Use Skype to communicate with classrooms across the country to give children the opportunity to compare and contrast education across the country.

We use interactive videoconferencing at Rural Hall School. We visit the state institutions and museums for interactive classes with hands-on materials and artifacts. We also videoconference in projects with classroom to classroom in our state and other states and other countries. We use blogs, email, wiki's to collaborate with other classes/schools across time/space. We use websites and listservs to locate projects and partners for activities and collaborations. Some of these are CILC, //http://cilc.org// ; Global-Leap, //http://www.global-leap.com// ; MAGPI, //http://www.magpi.net/programs/index.html// ; Texas Connect, http://connect2texas.net ; Read Around the Planet, http://www.twice.cc/read/index.html ; Megaconference Jr., http://www.megaconferencejr.org/ ; Ed1VidConf, ed1vidconf@a05jes.ameritech.com . There is also MUSE, http://k12.internet2.edu , a social utility that connects you with Internet2 enabled technologies and educators in your region and around the globe. We learned that the UK has free videoconferencing connections, so connecting with them direct IP is great!

Is there another standard that complements Communication and Collaboration?

What ideas have worked in your classroom in regards to engaging with learners of other cultures?

ePals has been a huge success in some of our classrooms. Global awareness and collaborative communications opportunities have been enhanced through classroom email and teacher guidance. Students from our classrooms were able to meet Australian counterparts and communicate virtually through a classroom blog exchange. Students were able to share information, photos and discuss various topics with their new friends from down under. The experience was highly benificial as it reinforced today's digital literacy skills.

We use blogs, email and wiki's when working with students in other locations (NC, England, PA, Spain); each time we have set it up a little differently as the projects were different. Having a full time technologist at the school level has made the difference in locating and fitting projects to each class.

What role does Web 2.0 play in the role of communication and collaboration? What tools do you recommend to other educators?

Web 2.0 provides the collaboration tools. Google Docs has given our teachers the ability to revamp student lessons to include collaboration. Examples are: Teachers in Advanced Placement European History classes expanded peer edited outlines to collaborative online documents enabling students to not only collaborate but to also access learning 24/7. Also Teachers in World History classes revamped student presentations on Imperialism from in-class Power Points to collaborative Google online presentations accessible from home, school and by the community at large. This enabled students to test their ideas and showcase their work to a larger audience.

We used a wiki to collaborate with a school in Pennsylvania and Spain for Megaconference Jr. in February, 2008. This worked well and was easy to do. We are an elementary school, so we keep it simple and straight forward.

What can you learn in 5 minutes? Well, what can you teach me?
Samantha Penney (Online Director for the Daymar College Group) and I, Kathrine Bailey (Multimedia Specialist for Distance Education at Austin Peay State Univeristy), have been working for two years on research and presentations concerning collaboration with digital media in higher education. Based upon Tapscott and Williams Wikinomics, we have together determined the best practice is, ‘Learn it! Live it!’
‘Learn it! Live it!’ is structured to create lessons using technology that can be used as a collaborative basis in the working world. Lesson examples often use cell phones, PDA’s, laptops with wireless cards, or other mobile devices. Mash ups of technologies such as Flikr, Youtube, and Blogger are also tools for the collaborative toolbox.
An example of a ‘Learn it! Live it!’ lesson?
Subject: Geology
Learning Objective: Students should demonstrate the ability to identify and type geological samples in the field acurately.
Tools: Camera Cell Phones/ digital cameras, Laptop (Wireless optional), Flikr, Twitter, Wiki software or Blogger.
Plan: Send a group of students out with either camera phones or digital cams to a specified location. Have them gather the images of local samples. Using Twitter send (via cell or from a laptop later if you used the cameras) the images to Flikr with tags.
A searchable image database has been created. Now you can create a wiki with more detail and links to the images. You can also blog about the event and talk about what you learned!
Real World: Geologists really do this! It is easier to beam an image back to the office and have someone identify something than it is to dig it out and carry it home. If it is not worth having then you do not want to waste your time.

Overall, your students gain learning of facts and figures as well as the process and results of geological work in a task that can take less than five minutes. Point, shoot, click, send.
Our work can be found at:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/28/08/cd.pdf Page 173

I have used the e-pals in my classroom to connect my Tennessee class with a class in Alaska. Students communicate and discuss differences and similarities between themselves and the "bush" students. Then, we move into projects that students can email back and forth to each other. Students really enjoy interacting with others around the world.
Mary Thomas, Austin Peay State University