Final Project EDT 555 UMO

Activity Three for: Shared Power

2007-12-14T11:43:00.000-08:00

Why We Live Where We Live: A Collaborative WebQuest Project Between High School Students and Fourth Grade Students

Goals:

To familiarize fourth grade students with active learning strategies using electronic formats [WebQuests].
To review active learning strategies with high school students based on their previous successful experiences to navigate/complete WebQuests.
To introduce high school students to the essential elements required when designing WebQuests.
To highlight the relationship between topography, water sources, natural resources (available minerals, forests, oil reserves, etc.) and the development/establishment of urban centers and rural communities to fourth grade students and high school students.

Objectives:

· To provide instruction to fourth grade students on collaborative techniques to generate optimal numbers of potential research questions.

· To provide instruction to fourth grade students on “winnowing” techniques that restrict WebQuest searches to information that provides reliable, relevant answers to the topic/essential question.

· To direct high school student groups to utilize previous WebQuest experiences to design a WebQuest appropriate for fourth graders.

· To assist high school student groups to apply their WebQuest experiences to create a visually appealing and intuitive format appropriate for fourth graders.

Description for High School Students:

· Groups formed (four students per group). Group roles and responsibilities discussed and then posted on an established website. Protocols for appropriate etiquette with electronic communications established and posted.

· Student in each group negotiate a consensus on the topics of interest for the fourth graders WebQuest investigations.

· Group ideas for Essential Question (EQ) investigations are posted to an established wiki site. A single EQ is chosen by group electronic consensus.

· High school student groups initiate web searches to identify relevant and interesting links appropriate for 4th grade students.

· Consensus is reached within groups regarding the WebQuest content and format.

· Editing and revision of the WebQuest content and format is shared among groups.

Assessment for High School Students:

· After the WebQuest project is completed by the younger students, the high school student groups collect formative and summative feedback. Using this data, each student composes and shares a reflective journal essay on the design experience.

Description for Fourth Grade Students:

· Groups formed (four students per group). Group roles and responsibilities discussed and then posted on an established website.

· Student groups come to a consensus on areas to investigate to answer the EQ.

· Questions are developed with group member feedback.

· Student groups begin WebQuest.

· It is understood throughout this investigation that each student is responsible for his/her own work. Sharing is for discussion purposes primarily.

· Consensus is reached within groups on the answer(s) to the Essential Question.

· Editing and revision of researched information is shared among group members who understand the final product is representative of the group as a whole.

· Answers from each group are posted at the designated wikisite. Groups compare answers.

Assessment:

· Student groups complete the formative and summative assessments administered by the high school students.

Activity Two for: Shared Power

2007-12-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

A Computer-Based Exploration of the Native American Communities of Maine for Fourth Grade Students

Goals:

To provide students the opportunity to research the customs, culture, history, and the significant current events for each of the Native American communities established in the state of Maine.
To refine the research and electronic collaboration skills of fourth grade students utilizing the social software platform of an established wiki website.
To provide students an opportunity to combine electronic audio and digital images collected and recorded from local Native Americans into a final product that can be published on an established open access oral history website. (www.voicethread.com)
To encourage students to monitor the oral history website for local and global communiqués.

Objectives:

To provide students with on-line or classroom time to begin investigating the customs, culture and history of the Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliqeet, Micmac and Norridgewock tribes of Maine.
To reinforce the students’ recently acquired access, navigation, editing and publishing skills with wiki exchanges, students will collaborate to produce an oral documentary of a local Native American.

Description:

Assign students to groups. Have group members select their group roles and review role responsibilities.
Provide students with on-line/classroom time to research the Native American tribes in Maine.
Initiate/facilitate electronic communications between each student group and volunteers from local tribes, willing to co-participate with students to record their oral histories.
Provide time for students to electronically combine their audio recordings with selected visual images that illustrate/emphasize key events of their interviewee’s oral history. Students in each group will use electronic communication with the wiki to exchange information and to make final revisions.
Assist students in posting their final product to an established, open access oral history website.
Provide student groups with class time to monitor the suggestions, revisions and queries posted for their individual projects. Provide student groups with class time to maintain electronic contact with their new Native American friends.

Assessment:

· Each student posts a reflection paragraph to the class moodle site that describes a Native American custom that is similar to one that their ancestors recognized or that is similar to one that their family recognizes.

Activity One for: Shared Power

2007-12-14T11:21:00.000-08:00

Think – Pair – Share Activities for Middle School and High School Students

Goals:

To introduce students to the utility of “pre-thinking” prior to a lecture and to present a collaborative strategy that can reinforce basic concepts to be presented in future lectures using electronic communication exchanges.
To engage students to access information on the world wide web, communicate with their partner using an electronic messaging network and to provide social frameworks that facilitate classroom dialogues.

Description:

The teacher poses one or more questions. This is done on the local web or moodle. Each student is required to read the questions and develop a written response to each question. These questions can be simple reinforcement of topics covered in class, such as how scuba diving and mountain climbing affect the volume of air in the lungs using Charles’ Law or the Ideal Gas Law, or can be broad questions designed to stimulate discussion. Examples of broad topics are listed below:

What Determines Species Diversity?

What causes ice ages?

What is all that "junk" doing in our genomes?

How do migrating organisms find their way?

The students are paired and each pair has to produce a single response to each posted question. This can be done via email or as homework during class time. This should be a random pair assignment and the pairs should change every time so that all students get a chance to work together.
Student pairs post their responses to the question set on the designated classroom website/moodle/etc.

The teacher uses the response posts to supplement the lesson or stimulate class discussion on the selected topics. Randomly calling on students to voice their views on the topics during the lecture helps to keep the students engaged and ensures that all students are invested in the process.
Each week’s lecture topics can get a jumpstart by this process. It will take a few times for the students to get used to the process but after doing this type of assignment they will become familiar with what needs to be done. The upcoming week’s topics can be introduced on Friday and the pairs assigned. The material has to be posted by Sunday night for the pair to get credit. Then during the week the teacher can call on the students to add what they discovered at the appropriate times during the lecture. This also allows for more topics to be introduced then can be done in just the lecture time and in greater depth.

Assessment:

· The electronic responses posted by each student pair can be analyzed by a second student pair for a variety of established criteria. These rubrics might include:

o The extent that conclusions/responses are research-informed

o The novelty/creativity expressed in the conclusions/responses

o The application of the responses/conclusions to recent/past classroom discussions OR to new/novel scenarios

Activity Three for: EstablishingTrust

2007-12-14T10:37:00.000-08:00

Exploring the Ecology of the Gulf of Maine with Fourth Grade Students

Goals:

Student groups will gain familiarity with different state and regional organizations that have a research focus on marine ecology/science in Maine.
Student groups will develop an appreciation for the diversity and fragility of the marine ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine.
Student groups will further develop previously acquired research skills so that they can generate thoughtful electronic communications/queries to local and regional marine scientists.
Student groups will design a legacy project that includes research, stewardship and local and global electronic community outreach.

Objectives:

Student groups will gain experience making electronic contact with marine scientists from the University of Maine, Bigelow Labs, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Department of Marine Resources, New England Aquarium, University of New England Marine Stranding Program, and other organizations with connections to the study topic.
Student groups will invite local and regional scientists to access, respond and to update their recently created Gulf of Maine wikis.
Student groups will continue to expand and refine their use of wikis by tracking edits, revisions and the comments posted by the scientific community.
Each student group will design a stewardship project that could be implemented in the Gulf of Maine. Student groups will solicit support from the global electronic community for their Gulf of Maine stewardship project.

Description:

Assign students to groups. Have group members select their group roles and review role responsibilities.
Provide students with on-line/classroom time to research the species diversity and the symbiotic relationships between species in the Gulf of Maine.
Using wikis have student groups develop a consensus on a question set that can be electronically forwarded to the participating scientists.
Initate/facilitate electronic communications between each student group and marine scientists at local and regional research facilities.
Provide time for students to electronically correspond with the research community. Request students and scientists post their queries and responses to an open-access, established wiki.
Assist student groups in designing a unique service project that could be implemented in the Gulf of Maine. Have each student group post their project to a wiki website. Have students democratically determine the project chosen for implementation.
Provide time for students to electronically solicit suggestions/recommendations from the research community for the implementation of their service project.
Provide time for students to electronically solicit suggestions/recommendations and support from the global electronic community for the implementation of their service project.
Request students, scientists and community members post their queries and responses to an open-access, established wikispace.

Assessment:

Students will video record the significant events that lead to the successful completion of the Gulf of Maine legacy project.

Activity Two for: EstablishingTrust

2007-12-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

Monitoring Global Seasonal Changes at All Grade Levels

Goals:

· To introduce students to the collection, compilation and analysis of weather data.

· To assist students with the publication of local weather data, that can be accessed by a global electronic community through the creation of a worldwide webpage.

Objectives:

· In this activity student groups will collect, analyze, compare, and present data about seasonal changes in their area of the world.

· Student groups will compare how the seasons differ in other places around the world.

· The student groups will present their data in an organized and coherent fashion on the web site.

Description:

· Student groups will represent the changes in our environment for each of the seasons. Depending on the age of the students, this can be done using drawings, a digital camera, possibly a video camera, and personal observations.

· Students will write and record narrative descriptions that will accompany their seasonal photojournals. These voicethreads, along with the original pictures will be placed on the voicethread web page (www.voicethread.com).

· Using the internet and email, the students will collect information from people in other parts of the world. This information will include written descriptions and pictures of the seasonal changes in their areas. For the younger grades the teacher, or perhaps parents, would post the emails. Family and friends are a great resource for this part of the project. Additionally, there are also a variety of web cams around the world that can be accessed for this information. One interesting modification is to have allof the electronic sources take a picture on the same day. This “world weather snapshot ” can be used to dramatically illustrate how the seasons differ around the world.

· Students will analyze the digital photos, comparing and contrasting the seasonal changes in different parts of the world. Other classes or schools could be invited to do the same. Seasonal photo comparisons could be expanded to include additional weather variables including temperature, humidity, precipitation, etc.

· A virtual field trip is the culminating activity for this project. Student groups select different geographic regions of the world to visit. A traveler’s electronic slideshow presented to the other student groups serves to highlight the relationship between geographic location and predictable weather patterns, predictable seasonal weather changes.

· A webpage/website dedicated for questions and answers can also be added at this point. Any time you put up this type of data, questions arise. Climate experts can be queried to help provide answers to those questions that may be too technical. The students can also be responsible for answering or finding the right person or web site to answer the questions posed on the web.

Assessment:

· Each student will complete the on-line group evaluation rating rubric, which encourages each student to honestly compare their efforts/contributions to those of their group members. The individual on-line rubrics will post ONLY to the instructor of the course.

· Additionally, each group will compare their on-line product to the other class on-line projects. Each groupwill then complete the electronic project rating rubric, established by all participants at the beginning of the activity.

Activity One for: Establishing Trust

2007-12-14T10:03:00.000-08:00

Enhancing Middle School and High School Student Group Electronic Collaborations Using Creative Brainstorming

Goals:

To provide students with an opportunity that develops creativity and trust building within an electronic collaborative community.
To provide students with an electronic activity that models the brainstorming strategy known as morphological analysis.

Description:

· Students will work in groups of four.

· Students will agree on a time and a chat forum for this first activity.

· Students will determine the order of their posted responses…who will begin typing their first idea, which team member will post their idea second, third and fourth.

· This is a round robin activity…each student must post their idea in the agreed upon order – and no idea can be repeated a second time. Each response is to be unique/original/different from the ideas already posted.

· THE TASK: CREATE A NEW TYPE OF POTATO CHIP! USING “MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS”

· Provided ONLY as an example: To develop a new type of Fritos ® Corn Chip:

o Team members develop a list of attributes/characteristics of the current/traditional Fritos ® Corn Chip:

orange in color

salty

made of corn

rectangular in shape

packaged in bag

o From this list develop a list of general attributes for a corn chip:

Color

Flavor

Shape

Texture

Coating

Packaging

o Each group member contributes at least three novel ideas for each category of attributes

Color: Purple, Blue, Polka-dots

Flavor: Chili, Spaghetti, Pizza

Shape: Stars, Daisy, Triangle

Texture: Ridges, Holes, Pebbly

Coating: Chocolate, Garlic, Jalapeno

Packaging: On a kabob-stick, Pez-like dispenser, frito necklace

o After each group has generated your NEW combinations, select the three best new products based on the following criteria:

Uniqueness

Marketability to your age group

· All group members should contribute to the discussion. All group members should reach consensus regarding the selections…do not leave the chat room until you have done so.

· Post your final decisions to the class discussion board. Determine if any other groups created similar products/potato chips!

Assessment:

· Each individual student will post an anonymous response (short paragraph) that addresses the following two items:

1. Describe a recent assignment that required creativity/imagination where you might have been able to use/modify this technique to complete the assignment.

2. Describe the single most important factor that contributed to the successful completion of this assignment by your electronic community.

Activity Three for: Leadership

2007-12-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

Demonstrating the Physics of Motion to Middle School and High School Students Using Digital Imaging Software

Goal:

To reinforce the concepts of motion while familiarizing students with a variety of web design concepts.

Objectives:

Students will contribute to a web site that illustrates motion and machines as they relate to the real world.
The students will use electronic devices to produce and edit their own digital images of motion to create a finished product for web publishing.

Description:

· Students in this project will create a website that showcases a series of images that describe the physics of human and mechanical motion.

· The class will apply the laws of motion to practical real world examples.

· This web-based activity can be used as a supplement to a series of classroom lectures on motion and machines.

· This activity can be used within one school or could be structured as an activity between schools in the same district. At the high school level this activity could be adapted to become a service project that produces a tutorial on motion for younger students.

· Students will review websites that provide instructions on how to upload digital pictures. For motion, the pictures can be ‘burst’ or still type photos.

· The students in the participating schools will use digital cameras to record day to day motion activities.

· Using digital imaging software, students in their groups will create tri or multiburst creations that demonstrate the physics of motion. These groupings can be organized in whatever fashion the group decides. Some themes that could be used are playground, sports, machines with wheels…or other themes related to motion and machines.

· Students in each group will create audio descriptions that will be posted with the digital images on www.voicethread.com.

· The final website will be created by the students and published on the internet (www.voicethread.com) to share with other schools.

Assessment:

· Additionally, each group will compare their on-line product to the other class on-line projects. Each group will then complete the electronic project rating rubric, established by all participants at the beginning of the activity.

Activity Two for: Leadership

2007-12-14T09:38:00.000-08:00

Protecting Marine Mammals in the Gulf of Maine: A WebQuest and Legacy Project for Fourth Graders

Goals:

· To introduce student groups to the different species of marine mammals found in the Gulf of Maine.

· To facilitate students understanding of the ecological niche marine mammals occupy in the Gulf of Maine.

· To familiarize student groups with some of the environmental and human-induced stressors for different marine mammals in the Gulf of Maine.

· To promote student stewardship for the marine mammals in the Gulf of Maine.

Objectives/Description:

· Assign students to groups. Have group members select their group roles and review role responsibilities.

· Student groups will participate in a WebQuest that introduces and highlights significant information about several of the mammal species commonly found in the Gulf of Maine: Baleen whales, Bottlenosed dolphins, Harbor seals, Pilot whales and the Atlantic walrus.

· Student groups will compose a short classroom powerpoint presentation on one of the species listed above. The focus of the presentation is the ecological niche that the selected species occupies in the Gulf of Maine. After the classroom presentation, each group will post their slideshows to an open access website for classmates to access for future reference.

· Student groups will access videoclips posted on www.YouTube.com that portray some of the natural and human-induced stressors to these mammalian species [tuna fishing, underwater sonar, ocean pollution, global warming].

· Student groups will design and then post to a wikisite their action plan for a legacy project that promotes community education and stewardship for the marine mammals of the Gulf of Maine. Student groups will review all plans. A consensus will be reached on the most appropriate action plan. The action plan will be executed.

Assessment:

· Student groups will collaborate, record and publish [to an established website] the outcome(s) of the class stewardship efforts.

Activity One for: Leadership

2007-12-14T09:27:00.000-08:00

Defining Leadership Qualities for Middle School and High School Students

Goals:

· To initiate an electronic dialog between students that highlights the cultural and historical influences that shape the concept(s) of leadership.

· To initiate a process of collaborative discovery that develops student awareness of the modifications/transitions to traditional leadership that can lead to productive leadership in electronic communities.

Objectives:

· In an online community of four students, each group will generate lists of qualities that true leaders exhibit and compare those to qualities of charismatic personalities.

· Student will collaborate in the same assigned groups, to identify for each century (from 1700’s, 1800’s and 1900’s) three individuals that were true leaders, three individuals that were charismatic personalities and three individuals that were both (based on their definitions of these from the previous assignment).

· Students will post their selections online and will compare their choices with the other groups in their class.

· In an online forum students will discuss how their individual backgrounds (race, ethnicity, gender, religion) may have influenced their selections.

· Student groups will share their lists of leadership qualities and lists of true leaders with students of the same age attending school in another country. Student groups will solicit feedback from their “sister school” contemporaries about their selections.

· Lastly, each individual student will post a reflection on how their initial list of leadership qualities has changed or been solidified based on their exchanges with their classmates and their sister school contemporaries.

Assessment:

· Based on their recent insights into leadership qualities, each student group will develop a “working definition” of the requirements/characteristics necessary for effective electronic leadership. This list will be compared to the grading criteria established by all participants at the beginning of the unit.

Activity Three for: Experiential Learning

2007-12-14T09:15:00.000-08:00

Capturing Changes in Living Organisms at the Orono Bog with Middle School and High School Students

Goals:

· Students are introduced to the concept of change as a comparison of observations separated by some increment of time.

· Students will understand the relationship between time and change.

· Students will understand that within ecosystems, some changes are insignificant and others are more significant.

· Students will understand that within an ecosystem, a change that affects one individual or one species may impact others, as well.

Objectives:

· In the classroom, students will analyze a specific subject for the evidence of visible changes captured by photographic images.

· In the field, students will utilize a camera as the instrument to document visual changes in the organisms they observe at the Orono Bog.

· Students will make multiple observations, so that comparisons can be made between the initial state and the final state of the organism.

· After returning to the classroom, students will post their digital images to the established website so that their current images can be compared with existing photographs.

· Students will analyze the images for patterns of change and will make predictions for the direction and extent of future changes.

Description:

Students are asked to create an electronic photojournal that depicts change. Their selected images should represent a single subject as it changes with time. The time span should be clearly documented by the student. An example would be family photographs that depict the development of the student from first grade through eighth-grade. Students may choose to use magazine photos, web photos, etc. Students should have to describe their subject, the observable change, the time increment represented, the contextual information extrapolated from the photos and an observable pattern depicted by the photos.

In the field, student groups are formed. Each group selects a species common to the Orono Bog at that time of year. Each group attempts to capture on film/on video that species/organism undergoing change(s) during their half-day visit at the bog. Depictions might include a spider spinning a web, birds gathering nest building material, sugar maples dropping their foliage in the fall, etc.

Students process, edit and publish their “change documentary to an established website. Students may choose to either add textual information/labels to their images OR can choose to add an audio narrative to describe the change(s) their group was attempting to record.

Assessment:

Each student publishes a short electronic essay that hypothesizes what impact/changes the mere presence of the student visitors might have had on the organism/species that they recorded at the bog.

Activity Two for: Experiential Learning

2007-12-14T09:04:00.000-08:00

Changes in the Physical States of Matter: A Virtual Lab Activity for High School Chemistry Students

Goals:

· To introduce students to the three physical states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.

· To highlight the processes [evaporation, condensation, sublimation, liquefaction, freezing] and rates of change that occur when physical states are changed.

· To ensure students recognize that changes in the physical state of matter occurs because of changes in temperature and/or pressure.

Description:

· Student groups will participate in a WebQuest for video footage of the changes in the physical states that matter undergoes. [Key words: evaporation, condensation, sublimation, etc.] Each student group will be assigned a different change process to secure video footage of. Group members will select from the several videos they have previewed - the most illustrative video to share with their classmates.

· Student groups will design a virtual laboratory activity that illustrates graphically with real-time photography OR Windows Moviemaker a change in physical states.

· Student groups will present an electronic slide show that depicts a physical change in matter occurring in real-time in the real world.[ Examples might include metal being heated until it liquefies, frozen pond/snow melting, liquefied plastic/rubber hardening, etc.]

Assessment:

· Student groups will be given one class period, to research and present a commercial/technological adaptation of one of the physical state change processes that has been studied in this unit. Examples might include: the desalination of salt water using evaporation, the preservation of certain food items using lyophilization (freeze-drying), etc.

· Student groups will self-evaluate and provide formative evaluations for the other class groups. These evaluations could be administered either on-line or in the classroom, as long as anonymity can be ensured.

Activity One for: Experiential Learning

2007-12-14T08:45:00.000-08:00

Guided Practice for Middle School/High School Students in [Experiential Learning] Scaffolding for Improved Electronic Collaborations

Goals:

To introduce students to the common progression of skill attainment that leads to effective group collaborations.
To encourage students, in electronic group activities, to actively engage in scaffolding strategies that will enhance the quality of the group product(s) and that reinforces the possibility of positive process gains with group collaborations.

Objectives:

Students will be introduced to a process by which, individuals can learn to function as an effective group. The process necessary for group mastery requires skills that are similar to those necessary for individual mastery: motivation, guided practice, authentic assessment and opportunity for improvement.
Student groups will be familiarized with the levels of guided practice: scaffolding, articulation to an expert, independent practice, decontextualization.
Students will learn that scaffolding represents support in the form of prompts, suggestions and reminders between group members in order to achieve group solidarity.

Description:

· Have each student in the class make a written list of three upcoming events/assignments that will occur during the next two weeks.

· Randomly assign students to groups. Each group should have four members.

· Have student pairs within the group exchange email addresses and their lists of upcoming events/activities/assignments.

· Have student pairs send each other a personal email reminder for ONE of the upcoming events on their list at least 24 hours prior to the occurrence date.

· Have each recipient send a personal response email that updates the sender on the progress/anticipation/anxiety regarding the approaching deadline/date.

· Have the original sender return an email response with one suggestion, words of encouragement, etc.

· At the end of the first week, have students within the same group reform new pairings and repeat the “reminder” exercise for the second week of the activity.

· At the end of the second week have each student write and post to the instructor/teacher (articulation to an expert) a reflection paragraph that addresses any changes in:

o acceptance for group responsibility

o motivation for future group projects

o personal achievement with group support

Assessment:

Have each student repeat this “reminder”/scaffolding activity with a family member. (Decontextualization)
At the end of the second week have each student write and post to the instructor/teacher (articulation to an expert) a reflection paragraph that compares any changes in:

acceptance for family responsibility
motivation for future family projects
personal achievement with family support

...with the changes experienced with school classmates.

Activity Three for: Cooperation in the Classroom

2007-12-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

Using Social Software to Investigate the Salt Marshes of Maine with Fourth Grade Students

Goals:

To familiarize students with the utility of electronic collaboration platforms (wikis), which provide each student the opportunity to become a member of an intellectual community of practice.
To introduce students to the different roles and responsibilities inherent with group work.
To develop the students understanding of the diversity of plants and animals found in Maine salt marshes.

Objectives:

To provide students with instruction and on-line practice for accessing, navigating, editing and publishing electronic information on a designated wiki website.
To describe the roles associated with group collaboration: facilitator, scribe, contributing member. To describe the responsibilities associated with each role.
To ensure that each student can describe at least two common plant species and two common animal species associated with Maine salt marsh ecosystems.

Description:

Assign students to groups of four. Have group member select their group roles and review role responsibilities.
Provide students with on-line/classroom time to research common plant and animal species of Maine salt marshes.
Student groups select two plant and two animal species for in-depth on-line exploration.
Introduce student groups to the wiki website. Provide initial directions for access, navigation, editing and publishing tasks.
Students in each group use electronic communication with the wiki to exchange information and make revisions on the selected topics. The final product is published on the wiki for other class groups to peruse. [This gives students opportunity to share, compare and ask questions with of other groups that have selected the same species. It also offers a chance to enhance research skills by querying other students regarding sources of information.
As an extension of this study, groups and classes will research other schools around the country with which to share, compare and learn about other salt marsh habitats.

Assessment:

· Each group anonymously rates their own final wiki product and the products of the other groups, using the assessment rubric established at the beginning of the unit.

Activity Two for: Cooperation in the Classroom

2007-12-14T08:11:00.000-08:00

Primary and Middle School Students Collaborate to Produce a Virtual and a Real-Time Food Web

Goal:

The goal of this activity is to familiarize the students with the interrelatedness between the abiotic and biotic members of an ecosystem.

Objectives:

To introduce the concept of food webs using a concrete, kinesthetic activity.
Students will be asked to communicate their results to the other groups in the class.
The older students will be asked to demonstrate their understanding of food webs through the extrapolation of a presented food web “collapse” scenario to the formulation of a proposed solution.

Description:

One of the hardest things for younger students to understand is the interrelatedness of the world – how a bumble bee can affect our food supply, or why the spotted owl is important. This lesson can also be used to illustrate the effect of species extinction.

First, the teacher prepares a list of the species involved. The list should include predators, their prey and any related species or environmental conditions that play a role within the food web of interest. For example: if a single species eats the fruit of a tree, what species is responsible for pollinating the tree flower that produces the fruit? The teacher can pick several small webs for the younger grades or for a more advanced class have the entire class working on one large complex food web.

Second, each student in the class is given a species to investigate on the web. They are given a list or spread sheet to complete which includes:

A picture of their species;

Habitat,

Food/prey,

Predators

Additional abiotic/biotic factors needed for survival

Third - then comes the fun part - as a group the students assemble their webs based on the information they have collected. This can be done in 2 dimensions on a web page or on a bulletin board. If the teacher is truly adventurous – using 3-D!, “stringing” the relationships between species/students in the classroom or gym. The teacher starts with the producers of the food web – again with an older class you can ask the students to decide the level of entry for each organism. The species picture is posted. The next organism is discussed and the relationship to the first species is discussed. This continues as each species is added, demonstrating the complexity of the interrelationships between web members. By the activity end you can have either a small, simple web or a rather large involved “web”.

For an older class an open-source version of a genealogy program can be used to make the web. This can be placed on a local web page or moodle at the school and can be worked on by multiple students in multiple groups. This opens the project up to multiple classrooms in a single grade level with the possibility for the groups to contain students from different classrooms. This provides an opportunity for students to socialize, collaborate and communicate with a more diverse student population, while building on the community and established trust relationships within thegrade-level.

Fourth - Each group then presents its web to the class. If you want more technology, and less messy webs, the presentation can be done using powerpoint slides. The class can discuss each web and can make suggestions for additions if necessary, via an electronic communication system.

Assessment:

· The teacher removes a species from the web OR changes an abiotic factor (climate, soil erosion, deforestation, water supply pollution, etc.). Students collaborate in small groups to generate a list of hypothesized consequences for each alteration to the established food web. Students post their solutions on an electronic bulletin board, comparing their solutions with their classmates.

Activity One for: Cooperation in the Classroom

2007-12-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

Highlighting the ACTIVE in Active Learning for Middle School and High School Students

Goals:

· To provide students with a learning opportunity that emphasizes the utility of metacognition- thinking about one’s thinking as it applies to the role of active processing, active learning.

· To demonstrate the utility of concept maps coupled with voicethread technology for active learning in the electronic classroom

Objectives:

· Students will be introduced to concept maps as “visual organizers” for related information.

· Students will be introduced to voicethread technology that allows them to couple recorded audio messages/scripts with visual images.

Description:

· Student groups will construct a concept map for the term biological homeostasis. Each group will post their concept map on the voicethread website (www.voicethread.com) with an audio message. The message must describe their collective logic on how each of the nine items embedded in their concept maps is related to homeostasis.

· Student groups will compare their electronic postings. Each student group must identify the group that authored the concept map that has the most items in common with theirs and the group that authored the concept map that has the least amount of items in common with theirs.

· Students from the disparate groups will reform new student pairings, using one student from each group. Student pairs will exchange ideas on the concept(s) related to homeostasis.

· Student pairs will create a revised homeostasis concept map, which is published on an established open access wiki.

Assessment:

· Student pairs will monitor the electronic edits, revisions, comments, etc. to their posted concept map for a specified amount of time (1 week, 2 weeks, etc.)

· At the end of the monitoring period, each student pair will synthesize these electronic comments into an electronic message sent to the teacher/course instructor.

Response to Johnson and Johnson

2007-12-13T21:54:00.000-08:00

Response to J & J:

When you look at a single paragraph taken out of context, it is exactly that – a single paragraph taken out of context. It is too bad this single paragraph touching on the use of electronic-mediated communications for decision making, was chosen to be representative of the author’s viewpoint of electronic communications for learning, which is probably inaccurate. The authors’ clearly believe in the positive possibilities of group membership and certainly acknowledge the fundamental human motivation for interaction with other human beings. Having said that, it would seem their viewpoints expressed on group decision-making via electronic communication (on pg. 281) are part of a larger defense where they are comparing the advantages and disadvantages of group vs individual decision-making. Their primary defense for group decision-making as a more effective process with greater gains, rests on the merits of process gain (two minds are better than one), greater collective recall of significant information and greater probability of identifying misleading or inaccurate information. All of which can be facilitated in electronic encounters as easily as in face-to-face group encounters.

One of the main points the authors make on computer-mediated decision-making is too much information about the other who is, or others who are collaborating, is missing. Visual clues to character traits of the individuals involved in the group process are not readily available to all participants.

Another key point Johnson & Johnson make on this topic is the inherent need people have to make person-to-person contact. It is this contact that sparks innovation and creativity often leading to the dynamic interactions of group work and the attainment of group goals. Oftentimes immediate reactions to body and facial cues which tend to spur heated conversations and controversy can be avoided with electronic communication. While it is true that when compared with face to face interactions you lose some non-verbal communication, you also lose intimidation, fear of group rejection, fear of negative peer judgment, fear of being ostracized, etc., which are precipitated on visual and physical clues. It is difficult to subtly intimidate someone in writing. People are less likely to write slams and textual attacks and more likely to say them in the heat of the moment. Intense human emotions can work both ways. With real-time group collaborations, there is always the risk that the social aspect will begin to overshadow the progress and productivity of the group.

The authors mention the concept of social facilitation as a mechanism for intellectual impairment. On simpler (often rote/practiced tasks) performance can be enhanced by peer evaluation, but this is rarely the case for more difficult tasks unless a high degree of group trust has been established. With electronic communication systems even a low-level of group trust is adequate because of the inherent perception (whether accurate or not) that peer evaluation is minimized in electronic group interactions. The argument can now be made that electronic anonymity can be utilized in a positive way, with electronic collaborations between ‘unfamiliar’ students designed to spark intellectual disequilibrium, at the same time minimizing social impairment or interference. The distribution of perceived and real power is also enhanced in electronic collaborations as it can be designed so that all participants have equal opportunity for contribution to the whole. After all, rejection is easier to take if someone edits your written words as opposed to rejection in front of your peers.

In comparing the group decision-making process to collaborative learning (classroom or electronic), the advantages and disadvantages for group decision-making outlined in Figure 7.1 on pg. 268 of the textbook can be made for collaborative learning as well. There are learning tasks and situations where student collaboration can be highly effective. There also are circumstances where individual student learning is more efficient and more productive. Masterful teachers are those who can make these distinctions. Learning new material for the first time is probably best if undertaken by individual learners. Reinforcement, refinement, and expansion of learned material is best when undertaken by a group of practiced learners. Ultimately in the classroom both methods can, and should be used sequentially to provide the best environment for learning.

If group diversity is one of the factors that positively influences intellectual process gains and intellectual risk-taking, it would seem that most classrooms cannot provide this optimal diversity. This is where electronic educational groups offer the greatest advantage for educational purposes; they hold the greatest possibility for intellectual, socioeconomic, religious, racial, ethnic, gender and geographic diversity. If, in addition, our public education system remains committed to producing students with critical thinking skills, that goal cannot be attained at the level of the individual. Individual learners lack the objectivity necessary to honestly evaluate the merits and deficiencies of their own thought processes. ‘I think therefore I am’ is not enough for today’s learners or educators. ‘We think therefore we change’, and in the final analysis change equates with learning and with survival. We argue that this ‘we exchange’ can occur electronically with greater efficiency and greater productivity.

The ubiquitous of digital media communication requires that educators recognize the powerful momentum it has gained. Online communication is layered in overlapping tiers of "connectedness"from the local level all the way to global dissemination of information. It is becoming a necessity to be facile with online communication regardless of preference.

Face to face conferring is not always possible as groups and individuals interact from greater and greater distances. Video conferences offer a good solution to the concerns raised by the authors; one can read the others in a video conference to a certain degree.

The advantages and gains offered by online community offset many of the disadvantages suggested by the authors. Engaging the use of digital media for cooperative sharing and learning moves the experience beyond classroom walls and outweighs the possibility of misinterpreted exchanges/information garnered from ‘body language’. Children are learning to ‘read’ and respond within online forums, they are mastering digital language and all it's nuances. Portals opened through digital media offer a comprehensive perspective - which has the potential to equalize educational opportunities and to expand the individual learner's personal horizons for global learning.

Computer-supported cooperative and collaborative learning presents opportunities to individuals whose communication-capabilities are circumscribed by handicaps or special-needs. This environment also supports rich, student-centered learning where the child makes the decisions and asks the questions. There is too much at stake to dismiss the opportunity to continue to develop and expand computer-mediated decision-making. Technology is here and creating rich and supportive learning spaces for students will help propel them into a future with the tools to achieve success.

Essential Point Five

2007-12-13T21:53:00.000-08:00

Essential Point Five:

Ensuring Shared Responsibility/Shared Power in Electronic Communities

Ensuring that the power distribution in a collaborative group is equitable and ensuring that no group member feels powerless is not easily achieved in any group setting. Once again electronic communication is an excellent way to equitably distribute power. In most collaborative activities, each member of the group is responsible for a part of the whole presentation. No one member can monopolize the group nor can the group afford to overlook the lack of participation by a single group member. The success of the group relies on each individual contributing in a unique and responsible way. A written forum is an excellent record of each group member’s participation efforts. There can be little dispute of equitable participation when the frequency and the length of meaningful dialogs are electronically preserved. Recently, linguistic experts have begun to examine the gender equitability in electronic responses of middle-school girls compared to the responses of middle-school boys working on math and science-related collaborative projects. Although the number of these studies that have been completed is low, there is accumulating and encouraging evidence that girls may be more engaged and communicative in mixed collaborative groups that are organized in cyberspace compared to their level of engagement and participation in actual classroom collaborations. Although it is too early to predict, the consequences of this newly re-negotiated gender equitability in the math and sciences, facilitated by electronic collaborations could have significant educational, as well as politico-socio-economic impact.

Just for Thought
Mohandas Gandhi’s list of “Seven Blunders of the World” that lead to violence was described in an article in the Christian Science Monitor on February 1, 1995. In his final years, ”...the elder Gandhi kept his grandson close at hand and set aside an hour every day to be alone with the boy.” On their final day together, not too long before his assassination, Gandhi gave this important list to his grandson. Here are the seven—with an eighth “blunder” added by Arun Gandhi, the grandson, and four added by Steven Gilbert that deal with teaching, learning and technology. (Steven W. Gilbert, April 1997)

Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Politics without principle
Rights without responsibilities [Arun Gandhi]
Technology without direction
Connection without community
Teaching without joy
Learning without hope

Essential Point Four

2007-12-13T21:52:00.000-08:00

Essential Point Four:

Establishing Trust in Electronic Communities

The establishment of trust in an electronic forum is a difficult task. It requires the development of a collective “work history”. It is unusual for a group to become cohesive after the first meeting. It takes time and when working with an electronic group the time element can become a crucial factor in group progress. Trust between unfamiliar group members is not inherent and is even less so in electronic groups. The absence of visual cues; facial expressions, body language, and auditory nuances combine to make achieving trust in an electronic collaboration challenging – but not insurmountable. That said, electronic communications are open public records, group members have the opportunity to capture and permanently record their interactions as they progress towards the group’s goals. The public aspect of electronic communications also limits personal attacks and other forms of inappropriate behavior in the group. For the classroom the issue of trust is not as critical, especially in the younger grades. There is a inherent trust in the elementary classroom and the teacher can be more restrictive in how and when electronic groups are used. In addition, there are groups and classes that have been together for significant periods of time, especially in small or rural school districts. Some of the students have spent their entire school careers together and these students are very familiar with each other. In these instances electronic group collaboration allows students some degree of anonymity and an opportunity to break-out of the well-established entrenched stereotypes in middle and high school. The ‘kid who never talks in class’ doesn’t have to remain the kid who never expresses his opinion or shares his work on-line. Students who are literally ‘bored to tears in the classroom’ may be inspired to new heights of responsibility and achievement with on-line collaborations. With electronic collaborations home schooled children may be able to establish trustful, social relationships allowing for intellectual exchanges with peers, minimizing the physical seclusion for these children.

Essential Point Three

2007-12-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

Essential Point Three:

Leadership in Electronic Communities (Managing/Stimulating Electronic Debate)

To focus the efforts of any educational group it is necessary to have strong leadership. The group will flounder without leadership or facilitation of one sort or another. This goes for all types of groups, not just electronic. A good leader/manager is an excellent observer of human interactions, capable of interjecting when necessary to re-direct the group’s efforts or to provide additional seminal information to individual group members. A good leader/manager also diffuses problems and helps the group work through differences to reach compromises.
Historically, in most classrooms, the teacher has assumed this leadership role. However, in middle and high school classrooms where student collaboration is the norm, teachers can begin to relinquish this control to the shared leadership of the classroom groups. Key to successful leadership in these classrooms is the initiation of discussions by middle school and high school students as to what constitutes true leadership, compared to individuals that have charismatic personalities. Secondly, classroom teachers have to help students understand that leadership attributes are often influenced by the historical time period, in addition to geographic and cultural influences. It is electronic collaborations that can broaden this scope of leadership. The possibility for expanded global dialogs between students which foster and expand the definitions of inclusion, and therefore foster and expand the definitions of leadership can become reality easily and inexpensively with electronic communication networks. Additionally this multiplicity of global perspectives introduces the increased possibility for differing perspectives. It is not difficult to be a leader of like-thinkers, all that is required are modest management skills. To truly lead in NEW directions of thinking first requires that not all the group members already think alike and second that the leader can relinquish preconceived ideas and embrace the groups direction, whatever and where ever that is!

Essential Point Two

2007-12-13T21:49:00.000-08:00

Essential Point Two:

Experiential Learning (CSILE, Wikis, & WebQuest)

Experiential learning involves reflecting on one’s experience to generate and continually update an action theory that guides the effectiveness of one’s actions. In contrast, procedural learning involves conceptually learning what a skill is and when it should be used, and then practicing the skill to eliminate errors in its execution until an automated level of mastery is attained. Both experiential learning and procedural learning can be enhanced through group collaboration using electronic communications. Experiential learning in the classroom that utilizes CSILE, Wikis and WebQuests allows students to literally experience instructional materials in ways that were not imagined twenty years ago. Students have moved from the realm of passive “recipients” of information to the active “creators” of information. They are writing and publishing their own textbooks, their own documentaries, their stories. Since students now have ownership of their education, it becomes an authentic and memorable experience. That ownership is reinforced in their educational communities, it promotes trust and becomes an empowering experience for individual students and develops group identity.

Essential Point One

2007-12-13T21:38:00.000-08:00

Essential Point One:

1. Cooperative Learning in the Classroom

Cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals, cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize everyone’s learning. Instruction grounded in cooperative learning embraces communities of practice, where members of an educational community pursue a shared enterprise. “Students participate in a range of practices or activities. It is through engaging in such practices that the group negotiates meanings of what it is to be a member of this community” (futurelab, 2006). Through this negotiated participation, reification of a superior educational product becomes possible.[ Reification: process by which elements of practice are congealed into a ‘thing’.] The boundaries for student participation have recently been expanded with the introduction of user-friendly social software that technologically facilitates group communication. (Clay Shirky, 2003)

And if it is true that necessity drives invention..then one would have to surmise that the recent explosion in educational social software is filling a very real need/necessity…the need to communicate with others, to express oneself – to be heard – to have one’s opinion recognized. Maybe that is happening less and less in public school classrooms as teachers and students try to accomplish more and more to meet some pre-determined guidelines for grade-level learning. The individual voice becomes silenced as federal mandates push for annual yearly progress. Social software possibly fills the need for the individual voice that can be recognized by others through electronic communication. Freedom of expression is amplified as educational control is relinquished.