Creative Classroom Online - Tech for Learning


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	FEATURE: Kathy Schrock's Tech Quest

Kathy Schrock's Tech Quest
How do I create a collaborative, Internet-based project?
by Kathy Schrock

A reader wrote that she wants to better integrate the Internet into her lessons. Rather than having her students simply use the Web for research, her goal was to create an interactive project in which kids collaborate with classrooms around the world. Such projects are highly varied, but usually involve gathering data, written information, or artwork from other schools via the Internet. As "hosts" of the project, you and your students will analyze and/or compile the submissions, and create some type of publication (e.g., an online art gallery or a weather-data map). The beginning of the school year is the perfect time to start. You can look at the topics you plan to teach and determine how such a project will fit in best. Plus, if you start now, there will be plenty of time to plan your project, announce it on the Web, collect and compile data, and reflect on how it went.

To learn how to create a collaborative, Internet-based project, let's go on a Tech Quest together. Each letter in "quest" stands for a step we'll take. Also, each quest is aligned with a standard from the International Society for Technology in Education's "ISTE Recommended Foundations in Technology for All Teachers." (For more information, visit http://www.iste.org/standards/ncate/found.html)

Kathy Schrock, a technology coordinator in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, created Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators on the Discovery Channel school site: http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/

The Quest: Collaborative, Internet-Based Projects

Questioner: Who is going on the quest? It may be a classroom teacher, computer teacher, or library media specialist.

Understanding: What is the purpose of the quest? What are collaborative Internet projects? How can I integrate them with my curriculum?

Explanation: Exploring options for finding an in-depth answer Collaborative, Internet-based projects are a great way for your students to use the Internet to gather submissions from students in other cities and countries and use them in creative ways. For example, your students can learn about weather patterns by collecting weather data from around the world and charting the data on a map. Or they can note regional dialect differences by soliciting slang words from across the country and creating a dialect dictionary. The possibilities are endless.

Coming up with a project idea
Since Internet projects can quickly become overwhelming, try starting small for your first one. Also, be sure to create a project that supports your curriculum standards. You can get ideas by reviewing current Internet projects, many of which are listed at http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/edproj.html and www.gsh.org/pr/index.cfm

Planning your project
Depending on the grade level you teach, you may want to do some of the following steps ahead of time. Save others for your students to do.

Title Come up with a catchy, descriptive name for your project. For example, "Weather Watchers" sounds more interesting than "Collecting Weather Data."