SIG Proposal for CEP 812

Technology Assistance for Global Collaboration in

Education

By Stephanie Peterson and Kristi Galoci

SIG Group Focus

• Learners - Secondary students studying all disciplines, but for this project specifically, French and Science

• Teachers - Secondary teachers who use technology to improve their teaching practice, and collaborate professionally

• Context - Video conferencing/podcasting, wikis/blogs, Web 2.0 applications, etc.

• Subject Matter - Teaching with technology with a focus on international collaboration and communication to improve learning

Addressing Student Misconceptions about Seasonal Phenomena

By SIG member Kristi Galoci

Project Overview

The purpose of this TechQuest is to use technology to effectively address student misconceptions about seasonal phenomena. A combination of assistive communication and collaboration technologies will provide a dynamic platform for learning. Students will gather and record data using Web 2.0 applications, journal on a blog or wiki and then convene on certain occasions, face to face via teleconferencing. The objective is to get each geographically isolated group of students intimately connected to classes from similar latitudinal locations in the northern/southern hemispheres and in the opposing eastern and western hemispheres. Teachers will be able to directly confront student misconceptions about what causes the seasons using inquiry and constructivism as students collaborate with a global learning community.

The Misconception• Most students understand Earth’s orbit

as an exaggerated ellipse

• Students often base seasonal changes on Earth’s proximity to the sun

• Students often merge misconceptions with reality forming unique and often complicated theories

What can Technology do?

• Web 2.0 applications such as– Blogs or Wikis will be used for collaborated student journaling

of day to day weather related activities, shared lessons and projects

– Zoho or Google applications will be used to collect and share meteorological, climate and astronomical data from experiments

• Virtual communication technology such as– video conferencing for collective group interactions– Podcasting for weekly weather and sky forecasts – Instant messaging or chat for collaborating on group projects

The Global Context

• Students will gain an understanding of geography based weather and climate differences based on first hand reports from global peers

• Students will better visualize the relationship of the Earth’s tilt to the Sun when comparing their data with that from their global peers

• Students can model and chart shared data from the different geographic locations

• Students will collaborate with global partners on self designed inquiry based investigations

Increasing Oral Proficiency Through Podcasting

By SIG member Stephanie Peterson

Project Overview

• How can podcasting increase oral proficiency and pronunciation for foreign language learners?

• Goals for students: understand spoken French, specifically phonology, analyze and mimic those sounds, connect orthography to phonetics, and speak with a comprehensible pronunciation and accent

How Podcasting Can Help Listening

• Ear acclimation: examples of meaningful, authentic, and contextualized speech to increase listening skills

• Teachers and students can download podcasts to practice on their own or in class

How Podcasting Can Help Speaking

• After acclimation, students can begin to reproduce sounds themselves.

• Students can create their own brief podcasts using a microphone and recording software

• Students can witness their improvement from one podcast to the next

• Teachers can assess oral skills outside of class (previously difficult due to class size and time restraints)

Using Oral Skills Internationally

• Teleconferencing - Once a student speaks in a comprehensible manner, teachers can provide opportunities to communicate with native speakers using technology

• Podcasting Pen Pals - Instead of writing letters, students can narrate a letter orally to send digitally to an international “pen pal” student

SIG Resources

• International collaboration project guides• ePals and similar global communication

host websites• Blog and wiki host sites• Content specific web resources• Software and application tutorials• Podcasting resources

Current SIG resources housed athttp://del.icio.us/stephnkris