Is one of your favorite pastimes hanging out with your friends after school - playing, talking, laughing and sharing ideas? Well, imagine hanging out in cyberspace (exchanging files, sharing data, co-authoring a story) with new friends from all over the world! Picture yourself chatting with a NASA expert about the Hubble telescope or tracking marine animals on the other side of the globe. The possibilities are endless when you begin to use the power of the Internet to collaborate with others. (Hey, and they won’t know when you’re having a bad hair day. . .unless you’re videoconferencing!)
What is collaboration? Collaboration is the act of working together with others to accomplish something or to solve a problem. You probably collaborate with friends and family every day. What are some examples?
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Gathering neighborhood friends to organize a game of backyard football or basketball
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Calling classmates for help with math or social studies homework
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Discussing and planning refreshments for a birthday or class party
Communication and teamwork are more important now than ever before! In no time, you’ll be living and working in a new age of global interconnectivity where information continues to change and grow rapidly. Many of the skills you will gain over the next six weeks will be essential survival skills for living and working in the future. You will:
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Work with others as a team to collectively solve real-world problems and satisfy your own curiosity.
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Look at a situation from many different perspectives and draw your own conclusions.
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Act responsibly in regard to information, contributing to your own learning and the learning of others.
Judi Harris, author of Virtual Architecture, describes 3 big categories of thrilling online collaborative adventures with links to many examples for each category. Spend this entire class time reading the short descriptions she gives for each example and exploring only the sites that spark your curiosity. Be prepared to list the Web addresses of three collaborative online projects that you believe would be the most exciting for your class to join.
Look at your list of the three "most exciting online collaborative projects" and place a star by the ONE project you believe your class would enjoy the most. Share the Web address of this project with your teacher.
You’ve been gathering and working with information on your favorite research topic for quite some time now! Is your "cool things" container bulging with goodies? What if you could use all your information to make a difference in the lives of other people or entire communities?
Wow! Look at how other students your age have changed the world by sharing their knowledge with people around them. You can too! Surely you’re an expert on your topic by now. Start thinking of ways you can use all that knowledge and make a difference!
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