Just helped the first group of 6th graders upload their science podcast! Check out the podcast on bacteria on our wiki. The 6th graders are dissappointed that their epal partners haven't written them back. That part of the project is out of my control so that is a bit frustrating. I do like how the 6th graders are getting into the routine of checking their epals email account, then checking our wiki home page for instructions for the day. Most of the 6th graders are doing a great job with their science podcasts; they are creating it in different formats, such as a question and answer format, a news story format, and so on. I like how the podcast media allows them some creativity in their project, while maintaining good content. It makes me feel better knowing that one group is finished, and some groups are almost done. I feel like this project is taking a long time, and I want to move on. For the science podcasts, I put them in groups of 4, which in retrospect is probably too many. Partners worked out great for our practice podcasts; I thought with a science topic maybe they would need more people in their group so that their content would be richer--and in a few cases that might be true. However, for most groups, it seems that 4 was too many. Anyway, I am looking forward to having them finish their podcasts and next, setting them up with a voicethread account. We'd like to create a end-of-the-year voicethread for our Peru classmates, to sort of close out our partnership with them, as their school year comes to an end in December.

Just had 6D's tech class this morning-they are the first in the class rotation to begin working on the next Ensworth-San Jorge project; podcasting in groups on a science topic. While discussing possible science topics, I shared with Gerardo that our students are currently studying bateria and viruses, and he shared that his students are studying motion. After some back-and-forth discussion about which topic we should use, Gerardo suggested we both use the topic of motion of bacteria and viruses-how do they move? I thought that was great, so we decided upon that. I thought it was a cool way to join our studies together on a project. He suggested some interactive sites that show movement in bacteria and viruses (which was helpful to me as I am a bit out of my element in the subject of science), and I expanded upon them by adding some 6th-grade appropriate research sites in that area to my delicious page. We were hoping to be able to Skype today, but the daylight savings time that the US follows threw us off, so we only had about 5 minutes of common time. In the meantime, we watched the interactive links on the home page of our wiki , got our science textbooks, divided into groups of about 4, visited the research sites, began typing our podcast scripts, and created our podcast files. We connected quickly with our San Jorge partners at the end of our class period, and I chose a student volunteer to talk about what we've been studying in science, and one of their students did the same. It was a cute interaction between the students (see below)  When we are finished with the podcasts, we will post them to the wiki, view each other's podcasts, and then have an online discussion about them. I think the students will really enjoy this next project!

Just Skyped into the SAIS conference in Atlanta- Alecia presented there, and asked if I could be available for a quick conversation.  We had no technical problems and it went well.  I talked about starting a global partnership, how it's best to start small and simple and work up from there.  Moving from email, we are now working on a podcast to post on our wiki.  The 6th graders have done a great job with it,  they chose their own topic, and working in partners within our own classroom, they have created vodcasts to post.  The main point of this brief project is to learn the nuts and bolts of podcasting so that when we create a podcast for our Peru classmates, they will already know the basics.  We have had some difficulty connecting with our Peru classmastes due to our schedules; we were on Fall Break, and before that they were on Spring Break.  I'm looking forward to the next few weeks in November when our classes have more common time with each other.

EHS-Santa Rosa Complete Virtual Handshakes and Hugs

So, how did the first SKYPES go?

I was completely unsure while planning for the first Skype session between our classes. For one, I do not speak any Spanish. And two, I didn’t really know ‘what to do’. I have so many icebreaker and group forming activities saved up, but these were all meant for one-on-one interactions and meeting in person, not to mention all members speaking the same language. So my plan was simple. Turn on the Skype account. Cross my fingers that I can figure out how to ‘Skype-in’ without looking like a technology-bewildered person. And hope they speak English.
That morning I realized the students in Peru would only have one webcam and could therefore only be on one computer at a time. So my initial plan to have one student paired with one other student wasn’t going to work. I was going to have to engage 13 students around one computer at the same time. Luckily, I was attempting this with a very mature class.
When I finally got to the classroom and turned everything on, it worked! I introduced myself to Kennedy, and she signaled the Cusco girls to file by and say hello to our students. Instantly, my whole class was up around my computer, saying hello and interacting with the students. Without even asking, one of our young women took over the Skype chat, typing in Spanish phrases to communicate with the girls. It was perfect. For those who grew bored of crowding around one computer screen, we were also on our class Ning at the same time. On the main page of the Ning, we have a little chat area set up. So the class figured out how to chat with each other and the entire Cusco class at the same time. It was a bit circuitous but it was interesting and they were engaged the whole time. I also heard them pick up on some of the different cultural idioms right away- for example, they pointed out that the girls used “TMBN” to mean “tambien” just like we would use “lol” to mean “laughing out loud.”
Another funny moment was trying to explain to them that it was Homecoming week and everyone was dressed in ‘spirit dress’. We lacked the vocabulary and translation ability to explain that US high schools usually have some sort of Homecoming week events to get ready for the ‘big game on Friday night’. Even better, our main typist tried to explain this was a ‘week of spirit’- and one of our students was dressed as a ghost for the Ghostbusters theme day! They were so confused, we were all laughing… it was fun and memorable.
I felt great after the first Skpe experience. I also felt like I hardly had to do anything! The students practically taught themselves… and no worry about icebreakers. I think the technology was the icebreaker, as they could independently interact with the webpage and to each other at the same time.

My second Skype experience was quite different. Though it was with another class, so they were meeting for the first time, the focus was no longer introductory. At that point, each student had completed his or her ecological footprint analysis- a calculation of how many planets would be needed if everyone lived like the person filling out the calculation. Our numbers ranged from 4-8, and we posted this information on the Ning to share. When we met them the second time through Skype, they asked us what our numbers were. We told them around 6… and they replied their averages were around 0.4 and 0.41!! I couldn’t believe it. This instantly led to a rich discussion about the differences between our cultures. Why was their number so much lower? Where did they get their electricity? Do we recycle? EACH ONE OF US OWNS OUR OWN CAR?!?! (obviously a major cultural difference). We have talked about this particular interaction several times during class and I believe this information could have been learned two ways. First, I could have stood in front of the class and presented it through notes. “Did you know the ecological footprint of Peru high schoolers is only 0.4?”… Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Or the second (which is what actually happened)- they shared this information with each other and had an emotional reaction to it, making the learning much more meaningful and long-term.

So far I think each interaction was ‘success’ and ‘success’. It was also fun and the students talk often about our Peru friends. I think the class interactions are going so well but this has created additional work for me as a teacher. I just have to be more prepared, well ahead of time, for the days we will Skype and not only have our activities put together, but also completed and shared/translated to Soledad (my partner teacher). So I would say this has been the biggest challenge so far, and the fact I have no Spanish abilities. It’s hard when I get an email from Soledad and I cannot translate it at my school (due to blocked sites) and then I have to try to remember to translate it when I get home, and then write back, etc etc. In the end though I do think I’m already getting more out of this than I initially thought I would. I’m interested to see how our group progresses together and what we learn with our next topics.

Backchannel Chat

I've seen "backchannel chat" at a lot of conferences. I always thought it was kind of rude until I was a chatter. Now I realize that it allows more than one person to be involved in a whole-class dicussion via Skype. Here's a sample of our chatter with the Ensworth High School--Santa Rosa High School meeting:

6th Graders Partner Up

Last week, our 6th graders emailed their Peru parter classmate for the first time, using Epals addresses. They were so excited to learn their partner's name and to get a chance to learn more about them! In their first email, they told their partner about themselves, and asked some questions, as a first introduction to each other. It's interesting to note that before beginning a collaborative global project, introductions and dicussion of culture are a necessary element to beginning a successful partnership (see also Kim Cofino's blog post on the Flat Classroom conference).

Monday we had our first Skype meeting-it was brief since we only had about 10 minutes of time in common due to our schedules, but the students really enjoyed seeing each other. In the month of November, we have more common classroom time, so we will definitely Skype more then. For the next few weeks, Gerardo and I have planned for the students to create classroom podcasts on a variety of science topics to post on our wiki to share. We're also planning on using Voicethread for another project soon (the idea is to start with more simple projects and work up to more complex ones). I'm really enjoying teaching students the web 2.0 tools in the context of this global partnership!

First Real-Time Chat

I'm so excited I am almost vibrating. That might be the 3 cups of green tea I had this morning, but I think it's mostly because in 9 minutes, Anna's science class at Ensworth is meeting Soledad's science class at Santa Rosa. They're using Skype to conduct real-time introductions with a "backchannel" chat ocurring live on the group Ning discussing our favorite childhood memories. It's hardly content related, but as I always remind my new partnership friends, we have to go through the "getting to know you phase" just the way that all humans do in real life. Soon after, we're starting activities related to population, and then to pollution.

Communicating and translating has been a challenge, but I don't think we've had too many problems. We tried using Google Translate, but it turns out that it's blocked at Ensworth because it's a way to get around the school's webfilter. So, I found another translation tool and we're going to try to use it this morning during the chat.

Fingers crossed.