Communication and Collaboration


Collaboration is the most compelling resource on the Internet. The ability to work with othersÑstudents, experts, community membersÑand extend the boundaries of learning beyond the walls of the classroom presents new possibilities to teaching and learning. Careful planning and good communication with participants ensures successful projects. Below are some suggestions on how to join or create collaborative projects, and how to choose between the software titles in this kit which facilitate collaboration.

How To...Participate in a Collaborative Project

To be successful, a collaborative project needs focus and structure. Here are some suggestions for joining existing collaborative projects:

Make sure the goals of the project fit with your curriculum and schedule.

What are the expectations for participation? Clearly indicate to the project leader the amount and type of participation you can offer. For example, we can send three group e-mail messages in the next two weeks; or we can be online with you for two lessons a week for four weeks; or we can gather information from our school and send it by the end of the month.

Create a standard method for communication between the teachers. Is e-mail the best way to reach you? Telephone? Let your partners know how to reach you.

If you and your class are going to be away for any extended period of time, perhaps for a vacation, let your partners know.

Set up a system to save all the messages you receive in a folder that also includes the name and phone number of the project director in case your connection goes down.

How To...Create a Collaborative Project

Plan a project that has broad interest beyond your school so others will join and get something out of it.

Write a description of your project (you may want to use the Unit of Practice format using the Interactive Planning Template) including a timeline for its completion. Test some of your project within your classroom before going online with another group.

Participating partners should take a role in planning the projectÑthey will be more enthusiastic and get more out of it.

If your collaboration requires data collection which students then share, be very clear on procedures for collecting data. Experiment with collecting data in your classroom or school before going online. Then, adjust your questions to elicit the data you want.

Set up a reasonable schedule and stick to it. Many good projects become burdensome when they begin to lag behind schedule. Offer to help or use a bit of humor to remind partners that you are waiting for their contributions, if they are late.

How To...Find a Partner

A critical challenge is finding a partner or partners to share in your project. Your partners may be full-fledged collaborators in a major project, keypals, experts online, or a combination of any of these. Finding partners who match your needs is important to the success of your project. There are a number of places to look for collaborative partners on the Internet:

This kit includes a subscription for Scholastic Network. The Teachers' Center link on the main page will bring you to a page full of choices, including a link to Partner Classes. Clicking on that link will give you an extensive list of classrooms looking for keypals and partners in projects. You can respond to the groups on the list or post your own request.

Apple Global Education has both a list of ongoing collaborative projects and a searchable database with over 300 international and American schools. When you sign onto the AGE main page, click on a project title to learn how to join the project, click on the Join AGE link to add your name to the database, or click on the Members link to search the database. Membership in AGE is free: its costs are covered by Apple as a public service to schools worldwide.

E-mail Classroom Exchange gives you the chance to search for schools in a specific area or to search for schools studying a particular topic. You can add your school and comments to the database.

CU-SeeMe Schools Directory provides a searchable database of schools using videoconferencing technology for collaboration:

Pitsco, Inc., sponsors an "ask the expert" site. This site allows students to search for and contact experts in many fields.

Global SchoolNet Foundation sponsors a site where you can search for partners and register your own projects seeking partners.When you get there, select "Teachers and Parents" and go to "Projects and Programs."

Classroom Connect, Inc., sponsors a site where you can find teachers ready to partner with you. They also have a searchable database of over 4,000 schools with Web sites.

The International Education and Resource Network (I*EARN) sponsors a searchable database of international projects and contacts that focus on helping students make a meaningful contribution to the health and welfare of the planet and its people.

In addition, there are many collaborative projects organized by schools and commercial companies. It is not possible for us to list them all. However, here are three which you can look up:

Monarch Watch is a collaborative network of Monarch Butterfly enthusiasts including students, teachers, volunteers, and researchers.

Global Grocery List is a project that gathers prices of local grocery items and makes the information available to all students.

ThinkQuest is an organization that sponsors an annual contest challenging students all over to invent Internet-based educational tools and materials.

 

How To...Choose Software for Communication and Collaboration

ClearPhone

Features: ClearPhone is an Internet-based telephone used for synchronous communication. You can use it with only the audio to place conference calls between multiple parties, or connect a video camera to your computer and stage videoconferences. To support the collaborative activityÑaudio or videoÑClearPhone also has a "shared whiteboard" so that participants can share and see drawings, photographs, pictures and text files while they conference. ClearPhone also has an e-mail function for participants. This can be used to send questions and comments between participants "in the background" while the dialogue proceeds.

When to use Clearphone: Using ClearPhone requires prior planning and perhaps the help of your technical coordinator to set up. If your project is enhanced by seeing and hearing in real time, use ClearPhone. Some activities found in the UOPs in this guideÑthose that "show and tell" ("Inventions," for example)Ñcannot be executed any other way.

Don't forget: ClearPhone only allows you to communicate with people who also have ClearPhone. This software does not "see" people using other videoconferencing software products. If you would like to conduct a videoconference with a classroom which does not have this software, direct them to the ClearPhone Web site where they can download a fully functional 30 day demo of the software which they can purchase if they choose. (A Windows version expected in early 1998.) When the Windows version is ready, schools using different kinds of computers will also be able to conference using ClearPhone.

HotLine

Features: HotLine is a server/client product which allows you to set up point-to-point (private) online chats for multiple participants, as well as point-to-point file sharing. Unlike public chat rooms on the Internet which are on the World Wide Web (anyone can pop in), collaboration and communication with HotLine is private because you set up the server and it does not appear on the internet unless you choose to list it with a special tracking software (See the HotLine manual.) The ability to set up your own collaborative server gives you the power to structure any kind of collaboration you wish, with anyone you wish.

When to Choose HotLine: When you want to carry on a discussion between students in several different places, when you have files to send to each other, when you have important news and schedules to share, and when you have files that you want available to everyone in your collaborative group, you can set them all up with HotLine.

Strategies for Using HotLine

News: HotLine features an area where you can post messages to members of your project, called "News." Participants in a project can post messages about the next meeting time, progress they're making on the project, or important announcements to the group. This is a convenient method of communicating and managing a collaborative project especially if someone does not have e-mail. Use this feature of HotLine to organize and manage all collaborative projects.

File sharing: HotLine features a very fast file-sharing feature. Participants can set up folders and upload and download documents. Perhaps you are working on a collaborative project which requires that you exchange drafts of student work. If you have 25-30 documents to exchange, or large files containing multimedia images (photos, movies, graphics), HotLine is a more efficient method of transferring files than attaching them to an e-mail message.

Chat: The chat feature allows students to conduct point-to-point chats with others in the project. All the participants in the project sign onto the host server by telling their client software the Internet (IP) address of the server. Unlike chat rooms on the Internet, these chats are completely private because the only participants involved are the ones in the project. Once signed on, pairs or groups of students can create their own chat groups (see the HotLine manual). Chats can be used to stage debates, roleplays, impersonations, or discussions. They are a valuable form of communication between students. The text of a chat can be copied and pasted into a text document, and used by students as notes for the project's assignments.

Don't Forget: Everyone participating in the project must have the HotLine software. Therefore, you must set up your projects with people who have HotLine. If you would like to set up a collaborative project using HotLine with a classroom which does not have the software, a 30-day, fully functional version of the software is in the HotLine folder. You have permission to distribute this demo client as many times as you wish. If your collaborative project extends beyond 30 days, your partners can get HotLine by purchasing this kit from Apple, or by purchasing the client software directly from HotLine Software, Inc. (A Windows version is expected in early 1998.) Schools using different kinds of computers will be able to collaborate once the Windows version is available. (See HotLine Communication's Web site for purchasing information.)

Aspects

Features: Aspects allows two people to work on the same document across the Internet. It also has a chat feature which allows the collaborators to discuss the work they are doing. Aspects collaborations can be focused around a text document or a paint/draw document. Aspects provides a great way to do collaborative writing and peer editing.

When to Choose Aspects: Aspects is ideal when two students have the assignment to peer edit a story for tomorrow's class and they have no time to get together physically. They can paste the document into the Aspects window and edit it together. Opening a chat window is easy and allows them to send comments and suggestions back and forth.

The tricky part of Aspects is that you have to know each other's IP addresses. You'll find your IP address in the TCP/IP control panel. This is the number that you enter as you get ready to call the other member of the group.

Don't Forget: Both collaborators must have Aspects on their computers. If you wish to collaborate with a school which does not have Aspects, direct them to the Group Logic Web site where they can download a demo version of Aspects. Note that the demo version will not allow users to save or print their work. Your partners must purchase Aspects for a fully functioning version.

E-mail

Your Macintosh computer comes with several e-mail clients. Claris Emailer Lite is a dedicated e-mail client. Both Internet Explorer and Netscape can send and receive e-mail. E-mail is a form of asynchronous communicationÑ there is no immediate response to a message. Most collaborative projects use e-mail as their method of communication between classrooms.

Strategies for Using E-mail: In many schools, students do not have their own permanent e-mail accounts. If your school does not have e-mail for students, you may wish to transmit student messages using your personal e-mail account. Keypal projects can be conducted this way by writing several long e-mails with each student's entry. While this is not the most desirable way to communicate 30 keypals per class, it does work. Use your personal e-mail address to send messages to experts online.

Another class e-mail strategy is to see if your network administrator would assign your students temporary e-mail accounts for the duration of the project, and remove them when you are done. Or, you can also assign students to small e-mail groups, and get a few new accounts for these groups. This way, the network is not overburdened with 30 or more new names, but students have more direct access to their e-mail messages than they would if they all came through your personal account.

NetCard is a program that creates "electronic postcards." Students write their text message on "one side" of the card, and allows students to attach text, sound, images, and video to e-mail messages, enhancing a keypal or collaborative learning partners.

Personal Web Sharing

Features: Personal Web Sharing is a control panel built into the operating system of your Macintosh which allows you to create a Web server from any desktop computer.

When to Choose Personal Web Sharing: If you are conducting a project where students are working on HTML-based documents, and different classes or groups need to see each other's work, you can place their documents into the Web Pages folder and students can easily access those files. See the "Getting Started" section of this the Internet Curriculum Connections Teacher's Guide for instructions on how to turn on Personal Web Sharing.

Combining Software for Communication and Collaboration

HotLine and Aspects make good partners for collaborations. Students working on a project together can use HotLine to exchange documents. Then, they can get online together using Aspects to edit the documents simultaneously.

The News area in HotLine can be used by teachers to post intructions, meeting times, or changes to the project in combination with any of the collaboration titles in the kit.

Myrmidon and Personal Web Sharing are very powerful tools for collaboration because student documents can be converted to HTML and posted to the Personal Web Sharing folder for others to work on and view.

How to Set Up a ClearPhone VideoConference

You'll need five things for a videoconference:

1. A Macintosh running Mac OS 8 with video input and a microphone
2. A video camera
3. A fast and reliable internet connection
4. ClearPhone software installed on the computer
5. Someone to confer with, who has the same setup

The first thing you need to do is connect the video camera and the microphone to the computer. The microphone plugs into the jack with the microphone icon, on the back of the computer. The video camera connects to the video input, which on most Macintosh computers is a yellow RCA jack. Connect the "video out" jack of the camera to the video input jack on the computer.

Next, test your Internet connection. Open a Web browser such as Netscape and make sure your Internet connection works by connecting to a distant Web site that you have not been to before. At the bottom of the Netscape window, look for the transmission rate, which is expressed in kilobytes (K) per second. A good Internet connection should give you at least 2K per second. If your transmission rate is consistently less than this, your connection is not fast enough for videoconferencing.

You should also determine your computer's Internet Protocol (IP) number at this time. Open the TCP/IP control panel. In the first box you will see your computer's IP Address, which looks something like 128.197.190.184. Copy this down, because you will need it later.

Open the ClearPhone software. When Clearphone opens, it connects to the CearPhone "Pub" on the Internet. You will see several windows, including a list of other ClearPhone users who are currently online. If the video digitizer window is not open, open it from the menu bar. You should see the output from your video camera in the window. Adjust and focus your camera so that your subject(s) are in clear, close-cropped view.

Check your microphone by speaking. The microphone icon blinks as ClearPhone picks up the sound.

Double-click on one of the other ClearPhone users in the Pub list and make a connection. It may take almost a minute to make the connection, so be patient. ClearPhone will show you are connected, and you will hear the other party speak. Ask if they have a video connection, and if so ask them to turn it on. It may take 30 seconds for the first frame of video to come through.

The video you see with a typical school internet connection will not be full-motion. A frame every five seconds is typical. That's enough to see what the other people are doing, but not enough for immediate feedback.

Now that you know your video conference setup works, you can contact your ClearPhone partner. Call and ask them to set up their ClearPhone software as described above. Also give them your Internet Protocol address. They will need this to initiate the connection with you.

How to Register and Find Other Kit Owners

In order to find other classrooms which have some of the proprietary collaborative software in this kitÑlike HotLine and ClearPhoneÑwe strongly recommend that you register yourself at the Internet Curriculum Connections Web page. Similarly, you can search this site for others who teach the same grade or subject and send them an e-mail message to establish a collaborative project. The success of this site depends on every kit customer's registration and participation. We look forward to seeing you on the list!