Charley+N.+&+April+S.

** Inquiry Learning Project (ILP) Written Report  ** The two of us, April Scott and Charley Norkus, decided to choose a lesson that would exemplify new literacies and the concept of TPaCK, i.e., the intertwining and integration of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge into a thoughtful and engaging lesson. Our compelling question: How can students use Penzu (digital journaling) and virtual global workspaces (e.g., epals.com) to problem-solve, collaborate, and improve writing skills within the content context of global warming? (or share solutions? April - share solutions might fall under collaborate; what do you think? - cn) In addressing new literacies skills, students would access and navigate web sites, and otherwise engage in online reading comprehension as they explore digitally published information on global warming, write and reply to their digital journal, email foreign students, read and reply to blog entries, and publicly post (publish) their work. The culminating piece, if we could pull it off, would be a video-conference on global warming with our cooperating class from Colombia. Regarding TPaCK, first consider the technology employed. (I know this sounds really clunky. Any ideas?) As for hardware, students utilized three different computer lab settings at Athens Drive High School. In the first, approximately 30 students paired up to use 15 desktops in the NovaNET Lab; in the second, a computers-on-wheels cart (COW) provided each of the students with a laptop in their own classroom; and for the third, students each had their own desktop in the spacious Computer Lab. As for software, students first accessed a Weebly page April had created ( [|http://globalwarmingcollaboration.weebly.com]) that included all of the instructions, online tools, and web sites that the students would need. From there, students accessed the ePals [|Global Warming Project] (http://www.epals.com/projects/info.aspx?DivID=GlobalWarming_overview) to begin their research. After visiting various web resources regarding global warming, students then digitally journaled the information they had found and their opinions at [|http://penzu.com]. Students also visited and posted entries to the ePals [|Global Warming Student Forum] (http://www.epals.com//forums/128.aspx). Teachers entered digital comments to the students’ journal entries, and students could see them when they visited their journal log. We used a digital camera to capture still images and a flip camera to video the students while they were engaged in the project. For our final piece, we had hoped to video-conference with our Colombian partners using a webcam and Windows Live Messenger. Our pedagogical approach was a blend of traditional and 21st century strategies. Leigh Ann Frazier, a Social Studies teacher at Athens Drive High School, volunteered her Civics & Economics classes and a Law & Justice class to participate in the global warming project. For both subjects, the project fell under their curriculum objectives for considering the role of the United States as a leader within the global economy and in providing solutions to global issues, and also for developing students into global citizens by enhancing their global awareness. We met four different days with at least one of these classes. The daily agenda was laid out in the weebly, but each meeting started with a didactic explanation to the students as to what would be expected of them and included other segments such as our progress with our foreign partner class (classes, as it turned out), an oral discussion with students regarding how they were feeling about the process, about using a digital journal, their expectations re: interacting with foreign students, and their opinions on global warming. During the majority of time spent with students, they were expected to be conducting online research, digitally journaling, and reading and responding to emails and blog posts from foreign students regarding global warming.
 * ECI 546, New Literacies & Media **

** 7  ** ||  See how students could use Penzu and ePals to collaborate, problem solve, and ___. (?)  || **  7  ** ||  We “borrowed” a Civics & Econ class and an ePals GWP and sought a foreign partner with which to collaborate. || ** 3  ** ||  Colombian class falls – must find new partner: Russia. Video-conference w Skype not allowed: troubles with webcam drivers and Windows Live Msgr. TONS of emails (893) forwarded from Penzu entries. Our cooperating teacher tripled our commitment (3 classes instead of just 1). || ** 2  ** ||  I fret too much (I hope). April cool and calm; keeps me sane. First time for doing the foreign gig, so very anxious about it, and small problems loom larger than reality. We both attempted to make foreign connections, then April took on the infrastructure (plan to follow) while CN sought and gained a teacher to work with us and with her classes. We both then interacted with her 1st pd class, presenting the project and teaching the lesson, modeling for Leigh Ann so she could do the same in the other 2 classses. || ** 1  ** ||   ||
 * ** Rubric Elements  ** || **  Desired Points  ** || **  Earned Points  ** ||
 * ** Lesson Rationale  ** (Briefly discuss how your lesson connects with new literacies, TPACK, a literacy/learning theory, a new tool, and student learning.)  ||
 * ** Lesson Implementation  ** (Briefly describe the lesson and how you implemented it.)  ||
 * ** Challenges & Success  ** (Briefly describe any challenges and successes you encountered as you implemented your project.)  ||
 * ** Collaboration  ** (Briefly describe the collaboration process with your partner. What did you learn about yourself as a collaborator?)  ||
 * ** Length of Report  ** (Make sure your report is 1000-1200 words and that you post it to the Moodle forum.  ||
 * ** TOTAL  ** || **  20  ** ||   ||

Comments: AT THIS POINT, AND FOR THE FUTURE… TENTATIVE PLAN FROM HERE: 1. Meet with Leigh Ann’s class on Thu 11/11: emailing the Russians, processing what we’ve done so far, and encourage them to create a product of their learning and to present that to us in one final meeting, tentatively Mon 11/15, possibly Tue 11/16 or Wed 11/17. ############################################################### . . Mon 11/15 5:00 am - Hi, April - still no word from the Russians. - cn. . Wed 11/10 4:00 am - I just checked, April, and still no emails received from the Russians. Maybe by the time we get to school today (8 hours behind them), Tatyana will have had them write and the emails posted. Frazier is making it a little hard on us with today's schedule; thanks for being so flexible. We should also be able to meet with them for wrap-up on Tuesday. Frazier really wants the video-conf. piece; I promised that if it doesn't happen this time, that I will follow it through for them before the end of the semester. Thanks for creating today's lesson. When the students are posting to the epals forums, help me remember to steer them toward replying to existing threads rather than creating new ones, and to concentrate on replying to foreign participants - see you at 7:30 am. - cn. . Mon 11/8 8:20 am - Good morning, April - My ePals mailbox had reached 983 monitored emails! Apparently, I jammed up the system - they told me I had to delete the emails before I could send or receive anything else. I think my mistake was allowing Leigh Ann to expand from just one class to three - even so, 300+ emails for us to read, approve, and comment on would have been a lot. There's got to be a better way :o) Let's hope that our kids hear from Tanyusha's students today. See you at 4:00. - cn. . . Fri 11/5 5:45 am . Hi, April - We lost our Colombian class, but have you made a connection with one in Russia? I will check your update to the weebly to see what you included for this morning. you can call me during the day at 919-210-8821 or use Windows Live Messenger - my cell ph connection in the lab is bad, so may need to rely on WLM. - cn
 * Video-conference would be AWESOME, but highly unlikely.
 * Receiving an email from Russia and writing them back is likely.
 * To meet 2 more times with Leigh Ann’s class, 1st class: pull it all together.
 * We’d like to video several interviews with students about their insights
 * We’d like the students to create a product of learning (& video that) that leads to action. 2nd class: students present their product.
 * We hope that the interaction between Leigh Ann’s class and the Russian students will continue: topics – government, free enterprise, freedom of speech, terrorism...
 * Hope to set up more collaborations with other teachers at Athens using ePals.
 * Hope that students will continue using Penzu either teacher-directed or otherwise.

and thanks for Tanyusha@epals address - I will send her Leigh Ann's students' email addresses this morning. . . Storyboard Ideas: -We both have Windows Media Maker? - "Genre"-Report in the form of a story--a fairytale or fable perhaps? -One of the first parts can be of us preparing for the project? -We are in the beginning phases of working with the students. A great tale is sure to unfold...

Mon. 11/1 11:25pm Good meeting today! I have updated the Weebly. I will comment on kids' journal entries before I go to bed. See you tomorrow bright and early. ~A.S.

Mon. 11/1 8:41am: Looks like you got off to a wonderful start with the kids! Sorry I missed it. I thought that it might be later in the morning or in the afternoon. I will be there next session for sure. Do you want to meet at 4:00 at the FI this afternoon?

Mon, 11/1 7:31am: Here's an __additional__ Weebly that can be used to introduce Penzu //**before**// we actually get to the global warming Weebly: [|Journaling with Penzu]

Mon, 11/1 6:34 am: The Weebly has been edited...

Mon., 11/1 5:38 am - I am planning on coming to Athens. Just let me know what time and day(s). It's fine with me if we start everything tomorrow--Just let me know if we are starting today or .... Concerning the first session, we are introducing Penzu before even presenting the Weebly, right? I thought that as part of the Penzu introduction that we could have them write in their Penzu journals about their perceptions of journals and if/how they have used journals before...

Mon, 11/1 3:00 am - Hi, April - crazy weekend and now i'm playing catch-up. your weebly looks great! couple of small typos - colombia not columbia in line 2 and entry 2, and in entry 1 the word 'about' should be inserted. when i first saw your weebly, i thought it was a professionally made part of the epals site - way to go! i think the students should still be able to do their penzu journal entries today, and if not today, tomorrow. i am still not clear with leigh ann which class she is going to use - she is still mulling it over, but i will press her today. it will take me that long to set up their epals email accounts. if you can make those small corrections on the weebly and let me know when it's done (and i apologize for not getting back to you sooner on it; was definitely the wrong wknd to go out of town), i will then make it available to Leigh Ann. do you want to come to athens to interact with her class and/or observe what they are doing? it would facilitate with videoing our process for the digital story, although i can most likely get teachers to fill in for me some while i go to her class. let me know when you'd be available. thanks, april!

Sat., 10/30 --Note #2: I believe I have posted enough on the Weebly for our first session with the kids. Click HERE for our Weebly. I'll have to look back over it for typos. Also, as you look over it, could you see if it's on the students' level. I was thinking that you told me that they are seniors (and I am mainly used to working with elementary students or adults; so....).

Sat., 10/30 - Note #1: You've been busy! Great! I will be working on the lesson plans/Weebly today. Looks like you already contacted Leydi about the IM...? Are we still starting with the students on Monday? If so, what time?

April - -

Fri, 10/29, 6:00 am: Hi, April - Well, a few glitches... and now I'm upset, feeling very angry... (just kidding) Although I think it would be a (much) better match-up for Leigh Ann to use her Civics & Economics class for the project, she is really worried about the time it will take to do it because of her !#$%&*?!! NCSCOS pacing guide and EOC (Well, bless yo haht, thank you very much!). Even though global awareness is a part of the NCSCOS for C&E (and every other course on the planet these days), it's just lip-service b/c the EOC does not measure a project like this in any way. She wants to use her Law & Justice students for the emails (no EOC, thus time to be more creative) but then the Civics & Economics class for the video-conference. I told her that I was concerned about the relationships/lack thereof the kids would have formed emailing each other prior to the video-conference, and that her L&J kids are two years older, and that the C&E kids share a common age, class, and time slot. (The v-c would be during her L&J class' lunch time, so she doesn't want to interfere with that - ouch!) I'm really beginning to hate (no I'm not, I've always hated) the EOC and what it's done to our teachers. Who suffers? The kids. The other problem is that I am still struggling with the video-conference process. Finally got the webcam working (just for future reference, know that Microsoft's WebCam Cinema is a PITA, that Logitech makes a much easier-to-install webcam - Mr Jobs must have had something to do with the Logitech), but then we found out that WCPSS blocks Skype. (Why do Colombian schools get to have Skype?) Kristy and Erika Woodard (WCPSS Technology) have been great about helping me find an alternative - Kristy tried numerous times Wednesday and Erika on Thursday to hook up with me to try out the best option - Instant Messenger, and it works (of course it works; the question was whether or not WCPSS would allow it), but my schedule was too hectic yesterday to make the video part of it happen (btw, the fight i broke up is probably on youtube; the kids were all videoing it with their illegal cellphones/droids and probably had it uploaded before we got to the principal's office, and that took up most of the day... before the Baby Jags (our on-campus day care center) came by for candy and after my one-day-of-the-year guest speaker showed up - LOTS of fun...), and we don't know if Leydi has an IM account - need to email her, but I was trying to wait to make sure IM would be the vehicle. Should probably go ahead and contact her. (Would you ask her? My sense of humor may not translate :o) Leigh Ann still has to set up her students' email accounts too - I may do that for her with a block registering for the school, but her students could each do it on their own too. To top it off, I'm leaving for the mountains this morning and won't be back til it's time to hijack the children's candy Sunday evening. (I don't actually hijack it; I just scare the crap out of the little tykes when they come to the door so that they throw their bags up in the air and run away... and then I just sweep the porch. Just kidding....?) By Sunday night 9:00 I hope to be back online and focusing on the webcam, and if Erika or Kristy can help me Monday, doing the same. Then I want to contact Leydi for a test-run before the real thing on the 9th. - Chucky (only call me that on Halloween) . . SCHEDULE OF PROJECT: Mon, 11/1: Introduce Project: Take students to Penzu site; each student registers. Explain concept of the project and give expecations and schedule. Pre-survey questions to write about in Penzu: 1. How do you feel about global warming? 2. How do you feel about working with students from another country? Do you have any previous experience in collaborating with foreign students? Describe. Students will then write their Penzu journal entries and email them to April and Charley. We (do we include Leigh Ann?) will divide up the entries and respond to each individual that evening.

Tue, 11/2: We will first comment on their entries. Next, introduce the Weebly with all of the ePals GWP information including their first task - emailing a counterpart in Colombia. (As much as possible, each student in the U.S. will pair up with an individual student in Colombia.) Specific email assignment at the ePals GWP site mirrors pre-survey questions, thus our students have had a chance already to put those thoughts into writing. That evening and the next day, students conduct their research on global warming as expressed in the rest of the GWP on the Weebly.

Wed, 11/3 Students continuing their research and planning their presentation on global warming, something on the order of how to reduce GW, or perhaps why you do not believe in GW, with evidence.

Thu, 11/4: Start by asking students to share the responses they received from their ePals. Look for common threads. Assign next email for students to send to their ePal and continue their research and planning their presentation.

Mon, 11/8: Start by asking students to share the responses they received from their ePals. Look for common threads. Assign next email for students to send to their ePal and continue their research.

(NOTE: DATES THAT WORK FOR LEYDI RE: VIDEO-CONFERENCE: 11/2, 11/3, 11/4, ... SO TAKE THAT INTO CONSIDERATION IN THE SCHEDULE.

Wed, 11/10: SKYPE (ALTHOUGH SEE ABOVE - SKYPE NOT POSSIBLE ON THIS PARTICULAR DATE) Students from US and Colombia will video-conference at mutually convenient time (or whatever we can arrange). At that time, students will introduce themselves to their counterparts, We will pose the next "email question" for them to discuss live. Conclude video-conference (conf will last approx 45 mins) with giving final assignment to both classes, including writing in Penzu any thoughts generated or inspired by the video-conference. Will encourage students to email their counterparts after submitting final assignment, which can be as simple as a Penzu entry to anything else students would like to create, e.g., Weebly, Animoto. (We will check out how the final presentations might possibly be posted on ePals. If not, we could use our wiki, whatever - to PUBLISH. . . Mon 10/25 11:00 am - Hi, April - I saw that our Colombian partner replied to your email with times and dates that they could meet - that's great. I'm still having trouble getting my webcam to be recognized. Tried several things this wknd - uninstalling, reinstalling, drivers, etc.; still no luck; I'm going to see if Kristy can meet me early to suggest anything. If not, I'll try some other computers (just thought of that! my wife's! yeh - but it may be the camera, not my laptop). See you this afternoon.

Fri 10/22 2:00 pm Hi, April - I met again with Leigh Ann and went over the timetable for the project. She may decide to use her Law & Justice class instead of the Civics class b/c they meet 1st pd facilitating computer use (my NovaNET Lab is free then) - logistics! I wrote a letter describing our project for the parents and am having it run off with the WCPSS permission form to be distributed to the students on Monday. I now have a Skyp account - no problem, but I am experiencing some trouble in getting my webcam software to load - it's made for Windows 7 and I'm on xp - that seems to be the problem. I'm going to let my son-in-law look at it this weekend to try and resolve that issue. I will be back on line late Saturday and/or Sunday afternoon/evening. I also have permission to check out a flip-camera here at Athens so I can start shooting some video clips here that hopefully we can use in our digital story. - charley . . Mon, 10/18 7:00 pm Action Points: (See below under April's point 4. on 10/17's ILP Ideas.) . . 10/17 9:00 pm April - Way to go! I just got back from a wknd in the mountains - lots of fun. As you suggested, let's go with Ledydi's class from Colombia - a good fit for us. (Were you able to contact her?) The Colombian class sounds similar to Civics & Economics, and the time zone in Colombia is only 1 hour earlier than our own. (We can keep the Russian 14 yr-olds on stand-by.) If the Colombians don't speak English, I can make sure that my son and/or his wife (who are both bilingual) are there to help out; can also check with Leigh Ann to see if she has any bilingual students. She has read through the Global Warming project and seen that there are (I believe) five postings/assignments for them to do. I told her that we might decide to modify the project as it is stated, depending on how we are doing on time. She is enthusiastic. Woo-woo! We also have flip cameras I can borrow from school for videoing the process. Thank you so much for summarizing for us. See you tomorrow! - Charley . .  10/16 9:37pm Charley, I have tried to summarize what we've been working on below. I have included information that needs to be posted by Sunday's end. Of course, feel free to make any changes. [Be sure to see my previous notes from today and yesterday as well if you haven't already.] Enjoy the rest of your weekend! I'll see you Monday in class. ~April

=** ILP Ideas – 10/17/10 **=

1. Compelling Question: How can students use digital journaling (Penzu) and epals.com virtual global workspaces (epals.com) to problem solve, collaborate with global partners, and share solutions concerning the issue of global warming?

2. Target Age Group: 10th Grade Economic and Civics Students

3. Overview of Objectives and Activities: CLICK.

4. Timeline

October 18-23: -Begin planning with partnering teacher(s). -Assess need for permission slips; develop and **distribute permission slips** accordingly. -Tell Leigh Ann Frazier that we have a partner in Colombia - that teacher's name is Leydi Ceballos. -April will email Leydi and let her know we want to do the project from Nov.1-12, asking about their schedule, online capabilities (email, video-conference, etc.) -In the meantime: -April free during the day except Thu from 1:00-5:00. -Plan with Leigh Ann which class (what time), schedule research time in library/computer lab -Find out from Leydi what time her class meets so we can coordinate. -Try the work-around re: downloading Microsoft WebCam 3.0 s/w and establishing Skype account. -April's ph no. is 919-957-9383. Establish Skype acct, webcam (if possible) and call her. . . October 25-30: Work on lesson plans. Gather materials. Finalize plans with partnering teachers.

November 1 – 12: Conduct project with students, including plan for and implement face-to-face meeting via Skype. Be sure to video parts of sessions and conduct pre- and post-surveys.

November 13-22: Write up project.

November 22: Submit Part I of project.

November 23-December 6: Work on Part II of project.

December 6: Submit/present Part II of project.

5. Resources: epals.com (global connection tools National Geographic Global Warming Project); Penzu (online journal), digital presentation tool, websites for student research, Weebly.com (to house/organize instructional and learning materials), Skype (for face to face communication), Flip camera (for Part II of project), movie-making program (for Part II of Project)

10/16 4:47 Two classes are interested in collaborating with us: one from Columbia and one from Russia. I was thinking that we could work with both classes so that we don't "put all of our eggs in one basket", but a by-product could be that our students get to see a couple of different perspectives. If I had to choose just one, I would go with the the Columbia one. It seems like it's a good fit, e.g., the teacher seems flexible and the class seems to be a civics/economics class like ours. What do you think? I plan to respond to them tonight..

FYI: Here are the actual responses to our post: **[|Re: USA high school class seeks Global Warming Project partner]** By Leydi C in Global Warming Teacher Forum Hi My name is ledydi, I am a geo-politics teacher in Colombia, I am looking for e-pal friends for my high school students to share information about social issues

**[|Re: USA high school class seeks Global Warming Project partner]** By Tatjana T in Global Warming Teacher Forum

My students are from Russia. They are 14 years old. We are also interested in partnering with any foreign school class on the ePals Global Warming Project. You may email me, Tatjana Teterina, at .... We are looking forward to hearing from you. Tatjana ~April

10/15 3:17pm That's WONDERFUL, Charley! So glad you did that! I have recevied two responses to our own request, but I can't get into the epals' email to see what they actually say because I have to wait until my "class profile" gets reviewed and cleared. Epals said it would take 24-48 hours; so hopefully we'll hear something by tomorrow (Saturday). Note also that there is an epals' student forum where students can read and respond to the posts of other students. So using the student forum to connect globally could be our Plan B (or even part of Plan A).

Like you've said, this whole process of learning how to use epals to make global connections is interesting/useful for us! It would be cool to teach students how to use epals to connect in whatever way they wanted globally. I think that would tie in nicely with the club you said that you wanted to start at your school. But those are projects for another semester! :-) ~April  - - 10/13 8:45 pm - April, I talked with Leigh Ann Frazier today and she said that her Civics & Economics class could partner with us for the Global Warming project, that it would fall under 'emerging issues' or 'emerging problems' in their curriculum. Now all we need is a foreign class to join us. No response yet from our first inquiries, so I will contact some of the new classes listed at the ePals site. . . 10/12 9:00 am - April, below are comments from Kristy. No time for Wimba so will pursue UStream and Skype. Got replies from epals - just the epals domain, not from any foreign teachers. epals changed our email addresses to their @epals.com. Was interesting - for you, they changed aascott to aprilarletha - now, how did they get //that// information? Below are the links:   To Graham (Great Britain) [] (@epals.com) To Maria (Russia) [] (aprilarletha) To Akindele (Nigeria) [] (just me on the re:) . . From Kristy: Charley and April, you both have some exceptional ideas! I love the way April explained her thinking with a screencast video! Way to use web resources! I just love the thought and energy you are putting into this. Charley, you can use WIMBA to broadcast to another classroom - but there are other options too. To use WIMBA, WC requires you to participate in 3 (half day) classes. Take a look at UStream as a tool - and SKYPE is good too! . . Great start on all this. Talk with Jim and Leigh Ann to see if one of their classes would be interested. Learn more about Wimba How about Skype? Let's hear from one of our posts Make more posts Review epals Global Warming Project Consider how to DST our process and project Start lesson plan Create pre and post surveys for students How about assessment? . . Greetings, Akindele - April and I are graduate students in New Literacies & Global Learning here at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, USA. We are working on creating a project with a local high school class that mirrors the Global Warming Project described at the ePals.com site. Our students here in North Carolina are not very good recyclers and do not really have a sense of global awareness. Do you know of a high school class there in Nigera that might want to do this project with us? April and I are brand new ourselves at this kind of collaboration, and we would like to start very soon. You may email me at cnorkus@wcpss.net and/or April Scott at aascott@ncsu.edu. . . Greetings, Maria. April and I are graduate students in New Literacies & Global Learning here at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. We are working on creating a project with a local high school class that mirrors the Global Warming Project described at the ePals.com site. Unlike your students, our kids (to be very honest) may talk a good game (or not) when it comes to caring about the environment, but their actions (or inactions) speak loudly. They are not very good recyclers and do not really have a sense of global awareness. Could you tell us about a high school class there in Russia that might want to do this project with us? April and I are brand new ourselves at this kind of collaboration, and we would like to start very soon. You may email me at cnorkus@wcpss.net and/or April Scott at aascott@ncsu.edu. . . Greetings, Graham. April and I are graduate students in New Literacies & Global Learning here at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. We are working on creating a project with a local high school class that mirrors the Global Warming Project described at the ePals.com site. Unlike your students, our kids (to be very honest) may talk a good game (or not) when it comes to caring about the environment, but their actions (or inactions) speak loudly. They are not very good recyclers and do not really have a sense of global awareness. Would you or do you think your students would be up to the challenge of motivating our students to care more about global warming? April and I are brand new ourselves at this kind of collaboration, and yes, we are under a time crunch (of course, we're Americans! :o) What do you say? You may email me at cnorkus@wcpss.net and/or April Scott at aascott@ncsu.edu. Charley Norkus, Athens Drive High School, Raleigh NC. . See you at 4. . . 10/11 11:45 Hi, April - we have a faculty meeting today, so I'm going to miss the first part of the wikiwebinar anyway, so no problem - I'll just watch it later. I still hope to be at the FI by 4:00, so I'll see you then if that still works for you, and I can be there until 6 or 7 if need be. See you then. . . 10/11 10:27 Charley, we can meet at 5:30 if you would like..... . 10/10 12:00 noon - Hi, April - great stuff! Really enjoyed your screen recording - very slick :o) - did you do that through odeo.com and the imbed Widget feature here or some other way? Let's go with the global warming idea - my reasons for choosing this one are 1.) much of the work is already done for us, and 2.) it is a less sensitive topic. After thinking more about it, using the atomic bomb idea for the first meeting with a group is probably a little too heavy, sensitive, and possibly (if we collaborate with Japanese students) too close to home. Thank you for posting an outline for us. Re: getting together tomorrow, I will be at the FI before 3:30 - Kristy is doing a webinar from 3:30-5:30 on wikis, so I'll just go there and be listening to that until you get there. (I'm sure she'll save it so I/we can access the whole thing later.) I agree with you @ the tough part being how we'll link up with another class. I have ten (high school) students that would be willing to start an ePal relationship but don't know if they'd want to participate in a global warming project - maybe I can entice them by allowing it to replace their lowest test grade :o) I can also check with the Social Studies teachers to see if one of their classes might be interested in collaborating with a foreign class - probably Sociology b/c the US History and Civics teachers (both have EOCs) will say they don't have time to take a detour on global warming. Once again, great job! I'll see you tomorrow. - Charley 10/9 10:15 I think that we made a lot of progress today, Charles. You are a great person to work with. We have to have certain things posted by Sunday's end, so I am going to go ahead and try to summarize what we came up with in blue in a decent format. __**Feel free to change anything**__. And, of course, I have left all of our notes from today. They are below the blue part. And we will meet face-to-face Monday at 4 at the FI, right?

** ILP Ideas as of 10/10/10 ** 1. **Compelling Question:** How can students use Penzu (digital journaling) and virtual global workspaces (e.g., epals.com) to problem solve, collaborate, and share solutions? I like your project! In your compelling question can you make the last part of the question closer to the content goal for the lesson? Is there a specific content you will target? From Hiller  2. **Resources:** epals.com (global connection tools and perhaps one of their global projects); Penzu (online journal), digital presentation tool, websites for student research and/or literary evaluation, Weebly, print materials for research and/or literary evaluation, photographs, primary sources (such as diary pages and interviews) 3. **Lesson Ideas:** -//Content/Learning Outcomes// - Students will develop and present an informed opinion about a topic (the use of atomic bombs or global warming) through collaborative research, literary analysis, and/or discussion. The research partners may be of a different culture, thereby, helping the student develop an appreciation of ideas/point of view of someone from a different culture. Furthermore, the student may use these ideas to inform his opinion. The student will present his information in hopes of helping others make informed decisions about the topic and/or persuading others to assume his opinion. -//Pedagogy and Technology// - Through collaborative work and explicit/guided instructional techniques, including techniques like those discussed in the Baildon and Baildon article, we will help students navigate and critique/analyze a variety of media, including online and/or offline nonficition and/or literature, and, relatedly, develop informed opinions about the topic. Digital journaling and epals.com's global communication tools will be the primary ways students will make notes, communicate, and form, clarify and extend ideas. Students will use a simple digital tool to share "final" opinions. -Thus, through this project, students will gain knowledge/skills in the areas of technology, content, and collaboration. Relatedly, students will also develop an appreciation for others ideas/viewpoints.

4. Place/Context: High school students in a small group setting with ready access to computers/internet

3:33 __After__ you check out the note and screenrecording below, you can check out the actual web pages: [] Note that some classrooms are already interested and setup for this project so it should be relatively easy to get going IF we decide to go with this. 10/9 2:42 I like the way you think! How about we use one of the broad English objectives for our main objectives like the ones that focus on researching/forming opinions and then incorporate social studies or whatever. Your ideas are very cool! Before I saw your ideas I saw a project on epals that was already setup. I like this project because it's problem-based. Also, though we would definitely have to tweak some things, __a lot__ of the work is done for you, allowing us to focus on incorporating Penzu, making sure we connect with another classroom, perhaps some instruction in online and offline research strategies, etc. The other thing I like is its __format__. So whether we decide to use the epals' project or use your ideas, the basic format would fit well. I think the trickiest thing would be connecting to a class.

I made a screen recording of what I am talking about. Click on the link below.

[|Click HERE.]

 10/9 3:00 - April, I really like the photographs of Yosuke Yamahata at the Nagasaki Journey  site - to have students "read" these images and write of their impressions in Penzu will be great - the whole idea of 'new literacies' - cool.

10/9 2:39 - Hi, April - I went to SAS Curriculum Pathways (.com) and found some resources we can choose from to get us started. The Nagasaki Journey, Kaleria site, and Hiroshima Archive look really good for what we might want to do.*

-Provides information on the bombing of Hiroshima. -Provides an in-depth analysis of the U.S. decision to use atomic weapons in World War II. --Contains "The Photographs of Yosuke Yamhata," a powerful photo essay taken only a day or two -after the devastation caused by the bombing. [|http://www.soundportraits.org/on-air/witness_to_the_atom_bomb/] -Features the only known Hiroshima eyewitness English-language interview. //**Trinity Atomic Web Site**// [|http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/] -Provides information about nuclear testing and events leading up to the use of the atomic bomb in 1945. //**Hiroshima Archive**// [|http://legacy.lclark.edu/~history/HIROSHIMA/] -Includes photos and links to other sites dealing with the nuclear bomb.
 * //The Manhattan Project//** [|http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/hiroshima.htm]
 * //The Decision to Drop the Bomb//** [|http://www.dannen.com/decision/index.html]
 * //Nagasaki Journey//** [|http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/mainn.html]
 * //Kaleria Palchikoff Drago, Witness to the Atom Bomb//**
 * Above resources from [|http://sascurriculumpathways.com]Project 393: World War II: The Holocaust and Hiroshima.

10/9 1:38 - Sounds good, April. I'm happy to limit ourselves to history, but shouldn't we include English too, at least reading? Or maybe we can stick with history as our "class", probably World History since we want to also consider global work spaces, but US History will work for that too, e.g., it'd be interesting to consider collaborating with a Japanese class in considering Truman's decision to use the atomic bombs... Ok, our compelling question is: How can students use Penzu (digital journals) and/or virtual global workspaces (e.g., ePals.com) to problem solve, collaborate, and share solutions? What about using Penzu and ePals, etc. to attack that very idea? With an emphasis on reading, say, some primary source material from both point of views on that very topic, i.e., decision to use the atomic bombs? Kids could read the sources, say, e.g., a diary pages from Japanese who were there at the time, an excerpt from that great book about the girl who became a geisha right before WWII, and maybe an excerpt from Elizabeth Edwards' book Resilience in which she describes a geisha who was injured from the blast in Hiroshima and who later taught her and her sister how to dance, and then also I can find some sources that support using the bomb to save American lives, etc. Kids could break into groups and be responsible for a particular reading, read it online, and then use Penzu to record their thoughts on their particular reading. We might even be able to arrange a web- (or dare we, even a video-) conference with a sister class in Japan.... What do you think?
 * problem solving
 * collaborating
 * sharing solutions

Hi, Charles! 10/9/10 1:15 - Trying to decided on an objective. Any ideas? You said that you taught history, right? I am going to check out the NC Standard Course of Study History objectives for some ideas.

April - Fri 10/8 3:00 pm - Tomorrow I plan to be working in this space during the afternoon. If there's a specific time that works for you, let me know so we can bounce some ideas off each other. - cn

Hi, April - Thu 10/7 9:00 pm - Tonight I'm reading our articles to post along with our thoughts fr Ch4 of DST, but I'll be doing more with ePals and Penzu tomorrow. - cn

April - Thu 10/7 3:05 pm - I joined ePals today and have been tooling around their site - emphasis is on collaboration across the ponds, so looks really interesting. I have ten students who would like to ePal up with someone from a foreign country, so I'll be exploring that aspect as well as the video-conferencing capability available to WCPSS employees - Wimba ([]). - cn

April - Thu 10/7 6:00 am - Today I'll be exploring ePals, Games for Change, and some of the other recommended sites for facilitating global collaboration that we may want to refer to in our project. - cn

Hi, April! Guess I'm learning how to use this space. Actually, this will be pretty cool, won't it? Think I'll try to upload an image - oh well, it didn't work. Okay, so what are we going to do? (I'll be back around 10:00 tonight (Tue) for about an hour.) - cn