Finding Partner Classrooms for Global Collaboration and Project-based Learning

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Finding Partner Classrooms for Global
Collaboration and Project-based Learning
Dr. Rita Oates CUE TIPS session
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Real classes to connect to

• Post your classroom profile in social learning
  network, ePals
• Teachers create own projects or join others
• No charge
• www.epals.com
• 16 million students and teachers in 200 countries
  and territories

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Finding a project to join

• ePals Projects
• Way We Are
• Climate Change
• Water and others
• ePals Forums, such as Book Club
• Book talk on a specific book, age group
• Global SchoolNet (California-based)
• United Nations' Cyber School Bus
• Taking It Global (Canadian)

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Using project ideas from others

• Intel
• Monster Swap How can I communicate so others
  will understand? Gr. 1-3 students give their
  imaginations a workout by creating unique
  monsters. They hone their writing skills by
  writing descriptions for cyber pals who try to
  re-create the students terrible beasts!
• ReadWriteThink

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Monster Swap How can I communicate so others
will understand?Grade 1-3, Language Arts (from
Intel database)

• Primary students give their imaginations a
  workout by creating unique monsters. They then
  hone their writing skills by writing descriptions
  for cyber pals who will try to re-create the
  students terrible beasts!
• http//educate.intel.com/en/ProjectDesign/UnitPlan
  Index/MonsterSwap/
• Elementary students create monsters no one has
  ever seen before. After students draw their
  monsters, they write descriptive paragraphs about
  their creations. The descriptive paragraphs are
  swapped with a partner class through e-mail, and
  cyber pals try to duplicate the monsters, basing
  their interpretations on the written
  descriptions. Resulting illustrations are scanned
  and swapped, and kids get to see how powerful
  language can be. Along the way, students learn
  descriptive writing skills and find common ground
  in the universal appeal of ugly monsters.

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Starquest What can we learn from the night
sky?Grade 6-8, Science, Language Arts

• Students relate our modern view of the night sky
  to that of the ancients. Studying the changing
  views of stars in the night sky helps students
  know more about astronomy and culture.
• http//educate.intel.com/en/ProjectDesign/UnitPlan
  Index/Starquest/
• Help students appreciate how other cultures see
  the sky by organizing a cooperative sky-gazing
  project with teachers and students in other parts
  of the world. Search for a class wanting a
  partner class to study astronomy at the ePALS Web
  site. If none exists, set up a project proposal.
  Do this as far in advance as possible. Have
  students pair with assigned ePALS partners and
  discuss with other students what they see in the
  night sky at their respective latitudes and
  longitudes.
• In this study, students choose a celestial body
  or constellation and study how it has been
  explained and interpreted across cultures and
  time. Students present their learning using
  technology-enhanced displays and dramatic
  interpretations during a culminating star party.

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Posting a profile

• Example from ePals, the worlds largest social
  learning network
• After you post a profile, ask someone to join
  you! (Dont wait to be asked.)
• Look at the roll of newest classes

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Eliminate language barriers with translation
tool!
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English version of the Spanish profile
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A Successful Profile Includes

• Age-range of class (grades are different in other
  countries)
• Language(s) the students speak
• Location of the classroom
• Three blocks from Pacific Ocean
• Location of desired partner(s)
• Southern Hemisphere is starting fall semester in
  late March/early April!
• Number of students

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A Successful Profile Includes

• Collaboration tools (email, postal mail, blogs,
  video conferences, chat, etc.)
• Length of desired collaboration
• March 25-May 15
• Frequency of desired collaboration (twice a week,
  weekly, monthly)
• Topics of desired collaboration projects
• Be sure to update this when you have a new
  project!

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Searching in Project Forums

• Forums
• ePals Projects/Teacher or Student
• Other projects
• ePals Book Club
• IT Administrators
• Hardware

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Loudoun County Public Schools (VA)

• Students in grade 3 learn about communities.
• They contact classrooms from around the world and
  exchange information about their communities. 
• It is great to see children grasp the idea of
  "rural," "urban," etc. as they communicate with
  peers from these areas. 
• Teachers culminate their projects with
  videoconferences. 
• This way students use presentations and Google
  Earth to showcase their own communities.
• Grade 4 classrooms collaborate across the state
  of Virginia to meet some specific state
  standards, using different types of communities
  (urban, suburban, rural).

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San Diego-China exchange

• Candace Pauchnick, language arts teacher at
  Patrick Henry HS in San Diego, has partnered her
  students for the past seven years with an ESL
  classroom in China
• They email, blog, podcast, and also do Skype and
  videoconferencing between the two schools.
• Hear her noon-1 p.m. Saturday
• Smoketree F Room
• See her International HS Literature blog

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Students from the Guangxi School, China
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Collaborating with Their California ePals
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