Helping Students Link Up Together
The National Foundation for the Improvement of Education sponsored teacher-led teams over the course of two years to develop the "Road Ahead"...
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Education
202-822-7840
apscichs@radford.vak12ed.edu
The National Foundation for the Improvement of Education sponsored teacher-led teams over the course of two years to develop the "Road Ahead". The teams learned strategies for connecting schools and students to libraries, museums, and youth centers.
KidLink (gnn) moderates a global dialogue among students in 72 countries. The site displays other telecollaboration projects and lessons.
CUSeeMe is still the most widely used audio-visual, realtime Internet conferencing tool. Global School Net facilitates CUSeeMe activities for schools, such as debates and interviews. Most of the technical requirements are affordable and GSN will provide details. A special listserv for CUSeeMe has been set up with helpful tips about maximizing use of this capability. For instance, Maven software prevents periodic breakup of the audio component. Advance planning is necessary. CUSeeMe, developed by Cornell, is undergoing commercialization and, as a result, will enhance its capabilities. For example, now, about 10 folks can hold discussions but the free version of CUSeeMe lacks online, collaborative publishing; the commercial product from WhitePine is much improved and relatively inexpensive.
Sometimes student exhibits of lab investigations can be hard to see. From October through May students serve as science experts in the Ask A Young Scientist project (radford above). They could be plugged into these other projects.
Annotation
Unfortunately, as a result primarily of a few older students making mischief on the Web, schools and parents are skittish about letting students roam freely with friends across the Web. It is best to develop a policy specifically for this activity and especially for older students, though younger students can be quite inventive also. The sources at this location provide some valuable guidance.
