The+Project+Blog

Project Blog
toc Mary had expertise in the use of e-portfolios and I had practical experience of using wikis with students. After a brief exchange of "theoretical" knowledge we decided it would be more beneficial to both parties to apply our knowledge to the benefit of the students we both teach. The first seeds of a collabortive project were sown. 1184310426

The project blog below, (for lack of a better term) charts its development and contributions from Mary and I.

Its Been a While
On the whole, the wiki has been very functional. Just teething problems here and there. Marys students have been able to use is, but as the class is small, Mary and her students have required little support - but thats a good thing. 1193559153

Working on EdTech 5
Still have to write the final task. Mary and I have been a little slower getting this project finished but we will have task 5 ready for when class starts. Its just the cosmetics from there on in. 1186088688

EdTech 1-4 complete.
1185006746 The first 4 EdTech Activities has been completed. We have tried a couple of dummy runs with Mary and subsequently encountered one or two minor pitfalls. More to do with IT then the activities themselves.

I am going to try and recruit one or two Tauntons volunteers to try the activities and provide some feedback.

I have not been able to devote much time to the book chapter, perhaps when the foundations have been laid on the EdTech acitvities I will get to take a good look. In the mean time, Mary continues to provide thoughtful reposts to the EdTech activities. Personally I like activity 4 as it is the best example of our combined ideas.

Profiles
1184881746 Well then....how about you come up with some profile questions?

In answer to your question, we can take a look at it. I have provided some guidance in EdTech 1. 1185006831

Order Chaos
That should work, although I am not sure that the boys will go for question 3. As long as it involves soccer, they would be happy.user:KristianStill

Profile Template for Students
1184807240. General ideas: Name Hometown Career Ambitions Interests/Hobbies Favorite Music/Band Favorite Food Favorite Place

Last book read (ha-ha...should be interesting)

Questions?
 * 1) What would you like to know about going to school in the US/UK?
 * 2) If you were a tour guide for your town, what are some of the sites that you would show/talk about etc?
 * 3) What do you see as some of the most important global issues that concern both cultures and why?
 * 4) What do you want to know about Ohio? What do you want to know about Southampton?

Financial report
I believe I will be able to rid us of our ads soon and even upgrade our site ($200) for the year. I plan to handle this by Friday. In addition, I have added some more materials--not much--but it's getting there.

My "neat" and orderly colleague likes lines
1184791158. Dear K, I will abide by your desire for lines....

EdTech Activities Update
1184595867 include page="span_red"In the nav bar there is a link to the tasks, I have linked the comments made below to the existing tasks. I am hoping that one or two of this years students who are on their summer hols will act as [|wikignomes] to help the Kent University students and us as staff. include page="span_end"

4 dashes creates a line across the page.

Editing Issues
1184419579. The EDTECH page will not let me edit it. It has taken on a mind of its own.

Five Tech Activities
I am trying to figure out some ideas for the five tech activites that we need to integrate into the project that would enable our students to work together. Here is my rough draft-that I am certain Kristian will enhance with web 2.0 ideology.

My students need to build the framework of their e-portfolio in the wiki. I am hoping that in similar fashion, K will have his students build a framework for their portfolio.
 * Tech 1 - Building the student wiki pages**

The wiki-portfolios should include the following elements: Profile - basic ideas (somewhat of a wikipedia entry about the individual--nothing too personal--just general academic related details Reflective Statement outlining goals and objectives for the academic year A section (page?) to showcase artifacts or documents created

All of this can be built on one page or a series of pages. Each of the students then would have a similar template that showcases their "portfolio" of what they have done with our collaborative project.

include page="span_red" That is easy to do Mary. Wikispaces now has its own profile page, so students can add the detail they wish to share about themselves there, perhaps include the reflective statements too. The structure from there on in fairly intuitive, but I agree we should proscribe a basic format. Post text direct is very easy, but the students can also hyperline and use embed tools to put content in their portfolio. include page="span_end"

Our students have general ideas about each others' cultures-yet what do they really know? I am thinking that we can have our students create mini-movies revealing what their interpretation of each other's culture is about--and then showing each other the movies--the students then can comment on the accuracy/reality of the clips-and maybe in response develop their own clips to show what is true and what is not. We could use Micosoft Movie maker coupled with a blog or the wiki discussion board to generate the assesments of each others' clips. I'll let K mull over this idea.
 * Tech 2 - Bridging two cultures**

include page="span_red" I think this would be a great idea for the multimedia Edtech activity. include page="span_end"

Tech 3-5 - work still needs to be done. One of the possible areas is to explore Whyville. I don't have the link handy, but Whyville is an online 2D virtual world that takes less knowledge to manuver than second Life (SL). It may be too simple for our group--but K and I will have to study it well.

In the meantime...I suppose I need to get a good photo of myself because all of K's students will see me as a grey blockhead.

Development of Web2.0 Tech Activities
1184364655-

It is important for us to practice what we preach and so it is best to realize "how we teach will be what we teach." Kristian has pulled me into his wiki-world and I accept realizing that taking risks in learning contributes to my development not only as a learner, but also as an as an educator. If I want my students to learn about emerging technologies then I must also pursue such learning. I must master these skills as well if I am to encourage others to do the same.

One of the areas we will be able to investigate web2.0 technologies is through the development of tech activities. Having students work with us will enhance the experience because we will share in the outcome. Using the wiki as an e-portfolio will also help us coordinate the student content creation so that students will share their learning outcomes.

EdTech Projects
1184334882 The focus is now on the **FIVE** technical activity projects that the Kent University students have to complete and the role that the Tauntons College students will fulfil, whether it be participating as wikitutors, peer reviewers or collaborators. More discussions to be had here with Mary.

This morning I find that Mary has already made a number of additions and the site is almost ready for student connent. One other point, I need to show Mary the discussion functions.

Wiki 101
1184332426 The Educational Technology 101 wiki has been created and its already starting to taking shape. Mary has had a good look over the site and is already finding out the wikis are very user friendly. We have started to define the structure and add a little cosmetics to make the site engaging.

Today I found some simple code that allows me to show webpages within the wiki. I have also had some help from other educators from the wiki community to enable Mary and I to make the site look more professional; coloured text, centre and block quotes. Thats what the wiki community is all about, our thanks to user:Sealwyf

VOIP
1184330426 Our next adventure was in establishing [|VOIP] contact using [|Skype]. Despite some minor technology issues we have managed to talk to one another and bring the project forward. Since then we have exchanged course specifications / syallabuses and began to focus in on PLAN B. We have resorted to using the text messenger until either; a) Mary gets her brand new PC b) The mic issues are solved c) We go to the phones.

Going with Plan B
1184312426 Plan B was the eventual victor, for two main reasons. First both Mary and I are practitioners and it made sense to be practical. Second, somewhere within our conversations and emails we recognised the importance of stretching the students both culturally and academically. It was not only about what the students would learn from EdTech but from the potential of EdTech to collaborate.

Original ideas:
1184311873 A week or so later and following an email correspondence we had a few proposals.

Include page="HTML_blockquote_open""//__Plan A__// //1. Create a wikispace in wikispaces to work on the concept of the project itself (I leave that up to you since you are much more skilled than me in this area--besides it will force me to learn "wikispaces") 2. We can begin by creating pages that emulate a portfolio structure for us - to peer review our teaching. 3. Purpose: Well, self reflective teaching practice - portfolio on a wiki, you and I evaluate each other's portfolio (Now that can be interesting, I suppose).

__Plan B__ 1. Create a wikspace for our students in which they can collaborate on an assignment (seems easy enough) 2. Since you want to go treasure-hunting, I suggest we have them create webquests--I'll send you a few links. 3. The topics for the webquests can relate to Ethics (or another universal topic that meets the objectives of both of our classes--e.g using technology to learn...web 2.0 whatever....the ourcome would be to build a site that other learners could use (emulating the San diego WebQuest project)

__Plan C__ 1.Portfolio building in the wiki for our students 2. Since my students must build a portfolio for one of their assignments, I can have them do so in a wiki (web spaces) and you can have your students do the same. 3. The collaboration is that our students help each other through evaluation of the contents. (maybe?)// Include page="HTML_blockquote_close""

There were a lot ideas and potential pathways the project could go but we had narrowed it down to include both e-portfolios and wikis. However as with any project, ideas were fruitful but we were also trying to recognise the potential pitfalls.

Include page="HTML_blockquote_open""//__Overall Challenges__: Learning the technology, teaching the technology Making this project meet our teaching objectives. Administrative - Since I need to get permissions working with high school students outside of my class (Wait until I tell me chair the class is in the UK). If we cannot engage our students, (most likely because my people are so beaucratic) we may have to begin with Plan A (simple, but reasonable). Given our schedules, this may be one way to start. Time: It takes time to do new course redesign--time to get a new project on. More from my end-- feeling confident enough to teach wikispaces (that's where you will be my mentor of sorts) Finding a name for this adventure -- I leave that up to you because I am absolutely terrible at coming up with titles to things... Had I a wiki already....this could have been the first draft on page 1" (I suppose)//Include page="HTML_blockquote_close"

Email
1184310466 The series of communications can through the network and email.

Include page="HTML_blockquote_open""//I am sending you yet another article to read entitled: An Overview of [|E-portfolios.pdf] This article proves to be a good summary of portfolio projects (including those in the UK). For the class that I teach ITEC 19525, here is the link to the portfolio assignment that my students do (the links not important). I hope this gives you a sense of how I am using portfolios for my students. The students keep everything on our server and can take their materials with them on a mobile drive."// include page="HTML_blockquote_close"

It was not long before we decided a more practical approach to our communications would benefit both ourselves and the students.

Social Networks
1184310426 The project was started following a professional converation through the [|social network]at [|Nextgen]. Although this seems quite some time ago, the project is just 2 weeks old.