The network is so incredibly powerful.  Not only do I depend on twitter, blogs and conversations for my own personal learning, it also provides me with opportunities to leverage these personal contacts for student projects.

On the heels of an in initial french-second language pilot project between students at Nashwaaksis Middle School and the American School of Bombay last year, we moved ahead with a more involved project this year.  While the overall core idea of the project remained the same – students would share stories of life in their hometowns using their second language – the demands would increase.

Last year, students shared with text and pictures on a wiki.  This year, they have to add a video component to their presentations.  Last year, students procured pictures and video from whereever they could, mainly from the web.  This year, all content is required to have copyright clearance, and 75% of all video/images must be original productions by students.  So far, it’s a hit!

As we moved into the Christmas break, most students were able to complete their introduction videos.  Keep in mind that while sharing information about themselves is important, the primary objective is to have students use their emerging French language skills to communicate in a variety of forms.  After Christmas, the project will move to students researching, connecting and communicating information about the culture of their communities.

The students, led by two amazing teachers in Andrea and Heather, are motivated and mature in their approach.  They are excited even now for their upcoming video-conference in March when they get to meet.

Now the neat part.  I showed this project to two French language teachers at another school that I was assigned this year.  They immediately loved the idea and wanted to do their own project.  However, that require a school to work with.  That’s where my network worked so efficiently.

I knew that Vietnam was a former French colony.  I also was familiar with Adrienne Michetti from Twitter.  Adrienne is a Canadian who is working at the United Nations International School in Hanoi.  I messaged her, looking for help connecting with French teachers at her school.  A week later, we had all signed on, a plan was in place, and off we went.  The project is modeled on the success of the project with ASB, and they are about a month behind on their timetable.  This will allow us to use the other project to work out the kinks, while this project – with teachers newer to the global scene – benefit from the experience.

At Nashwaaksis Middle, global collaborative projects are part of what we do.  At Albert Street Middle, this has a huge profile, with other teachers inquiring as to how they too can connect globally for learning.  Another school caught in the web, thanks to the network.

Technorati tags: technology, education, whipple, learning

Continuing on with the conversations about the virtues and perils of free web tools from the cloud versus DIY or paid services, of course, there is always Google and their Google Docs tools.

The Google docs model, of course, is the future.  In a very few years, all our software and personal content will no longer reside on our hard drives, but will be stored remotely on the web machine.  They’ll be able to be shared and accessed with ease by any number of users.

Google’s blogging platform, Blogger, is the best known of all the blogging services.  It does offer free blogs for everyone, including educators / learners.  It does have the “Next Blog” link, which does cause some concern for educators, but that can be quickly removed with a simple insert of 3 short lines of html code.  Believe me, I know next to nothing about coding, but have managed to master this exercise.

However, the real gem for educators is the ever-popular Google Docs.  These on-line tools feature word processors, spreadsheets, presentation tools, forms (surveys, data, etc) and Google Pages (simply editable web pages). Frankly, I am beginning to think that – given Google’s relatively stable status – this is a suite that we need to start exploring and exploiting for learning.

In fact, some teachers already are well on the way.  Google has released their new Google Docs for Educators page, where they share some of the best ideas on how Google Docs can be used to support collaboration and sharing for learning. Some of these ideas rock, especially how some have used the tools to develop and manage student projects!

Can they fly in your class?

Technorati tags: technology, education, whipple, learning

Photo Credit: Google Docs Paper Airplane, uploaded to Flickr on April 1, 2008 by colin_n, Creative Commons Licensed