Online Community Project

     The goal of this project is to introduce elementary school students to the global community through telecollaboration with peers across the world.  Classes will submit original work to share with the global community.  Based on the original work submitted, students will be able to identify how the common characteristics of community can be different and how communities depend on each other. 

Curriculum Related Goals

     This activity correlates with the Harford County, Maryland, Third Grade Social Studies curriculum.  This project will help students identify common characteristics of "community."  These characteristics include: clothing, food, stories, art, music, language, recreation, businesses, education, groups of people, housing, transportation, and special events. This project will also incorporate technology, reading, and writing standards. This project will also include opportunities for cooperative group work and provide opportunities for higher level thinking and discussion.

Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum Standards met by this project:

     - Grade Three Social Studies Content Standards- 2.A.1; 2.A.2; 3.A.1.c; 3.B.1; and 4.A.3

     - Grade Three Reading Content Standards- 1; 2; and 4.

Activity Structure

     This activity will create a global classroom through information exchanges.  Classrooms around the world will be able to register and exchange information pertaining to the characteristics of their community.  Information will be posted to a website so that students across the world can view the collected information.  Teachers will then be able to complete extension activities with their class. 

     The main characteristics of community that are going to looked at in this project are climate, clothing, food, stories, art, music, language, recreation, businesses, education, groups of people, housing, transportation, and special events.  Each participating class will be asked to submit original work to illustrate each of these characteristics of their own unique community.  This work will be posted to a project Website so that all participants can view all work.  This means that all work should be submitted electronically.  Pictures and illustrations should be scanned in and uploaded and written work should be posted as a Website or Word document.  If it is impossible for a class to submit work electronically, I, as the project coordinator, will gladly accept work via postal mail and scan the work in myself.  I do not want technology resources to be a project inhibitor. 

     All participants must register through myself.  I will send out confirmation emails to participants who successfully register.  There is only one deadline for the project, November 30, 2006.  No work will be accepted after that date.   Participants are free to use the work posted to the Website as they please.   I will encourage classes to submit ideas for extension activities to the discussion board.  This will allow the project to be beneficial to all who participate. 

     Click here to view the Telecollaboration Planner for this project.

Similar Online Projects

     There are many online projects on the Web that could be valuable to teachers and students.  Because I could not find exactly the project that I wanted and would fit my curriculum, I decided to create my own project.  In doing this, I have not found any projects that mirror my design exactly.  However, I have found a few that have some similar characteristics. 

     City Quest! created by Joan Goble-   This is a world wide project with three hosts- one located in the U.S., one in the Netherlands, and one in Japan.  The three hosts ask participants to submit original work about  historical and interesting sites in your city.  This is designed to be more of a tourism type of project than is mine.   The goal of this site is to promote students' understanding of communities around the world and foster collaboration of people across the world. My goal is very similar to this. City Quest! uses many of the same technologies and information from participants that my online community project includes.  My project goes more into the characteristics of community than does City Quest!  The hosts of this site have been doing this particular project for many years is very in-depth. A lot of time and effort has gone into creating and maintaining a great online project.  

     My Community created by Cheryl MacLean- This project has a very similar objective to the objective of my project.  My Community focuses on different aspects and characteristics of community.  The project requires participants to share their findings about their own community. This project is fundamentally different from my own project insofar as it requires collaboration with only one partner class.  It also requires synchronous communication during the fourth week of the project.  Other ways that this project is similar to my online project is that students create the work that is shared and extension activities include sharing findings with a larger group, i.e. other non-participating classes. Participants also register via email, as to participants of my project; however, their project has been running for more than two years.  This will be my pilot year. 

     The Chronicles of Travelin' Ted created by Tammy Geiger- This site encourages the understanding of community through a stuffed teddy bear that is passed from one classroom to the next.  Students and teachers take pictures and provide information about their state to post on the Travelin' Ted Web site and then pass him to the next class.  This is different from my project in ways such as being limited to the United States and passing an object from place to place.  Travelin' Ted does have  his own Web site where anyone- participating or not- can view the information posted.  The Web site for my project will be set up in a similar format.  This project does encourage the understanding of community and creates an engaging aspect in following the bear across the country.  This could possibly be something that is woven into my project at a later date and if the first year is successful. 

Advertising Plan

     In order to advertise my project, I would begin by posting it to Global SchoolNet's Internet Project Registry, KIDPROJ, and The Connected Classroom.  These three online project databases will allow my project to be viewed by interested educators.  They can be viewed across the world and could generate interest from areas that I have no other way of reaching.  I will also post my project in Harford County Public School's Info Track.  This is a free newsletter that is distributed monthly to teachers.  Info Track will allow my project to be seen by my peers within the county.  I also have associates across the state of Maryland in different counties that I would contact.  It would be beneficial to my students to see how different communities can be within a short distance.  The first year will be a trial run for the project.  More advertising may be necessary in the future to ensure the success of the project.

Interest Action Plan

     Participation in this project will be first-come, first-served.  As I begin to receive registration emails, I will organize them according to date received.  Before I begin to send out confirmation of registration emails, I will try to make sure that I have a variety of regions participating in this project.  For example, if I receive 10 emails from other third grade classes in Harford County, I will have to turn away some of the interested participants because 10 classes from Harford County would not provide students with a vary broad sampling of different communities.  All interested participants will be thanked for their interest and either accepted into or declined from the project.  The only two reasons I would decline a class from participating would be too much interest resulting in over 25 classrooms participating or too many classrooms from the same region interested in participating.  I would keep the information on all interested participants for future use.  If the project is a success and more classrooms can be added in future years, I would invite the educators, whom I had turned away originally, to participate.   I will keep track of all interested participants in database to help keep my information organized. 

Communication

     On-going communication throughout this project is critical.  Group and individual emails to the project's participants will be used to update, inform, and answer any questions.  On the project's Website, there will be an area that is set up as a discussion board.  This way, instructors, teachers, and students will be able to post questions, comments, and suggestions throughout the project.  This will create constant communication and allow the project to be revised as necessary. 

Closure

     The closure of this activity will invite all participants to give me feedback on the project.  This feedback would include positive and negative opinions of the success of the project, improvements to be made to the content and implementation of the project, and interest for future participation in the project.  Every participant would receive copies of all communication about the future of the project.  This would allow open discussion about the efforts of the project.  This communication would be through the project's Website discussion board and group emails. 

     Classes would be invited to share the information gathered with other non-participating classes.  Students would be able to share what they learned about communities around the world with other classes in the school who have not had the opportunity to participate in the project.  This is also a way to generate more participation in the project in the future. 

      This Online Community Project goes beyond the minimum grading criteria in many ways.  One way is that I will actually pilot this project this coming semester with my third grade students.  I have thoroughly outlined the details of this project, beyond just the telecollaboration planner.  I have even outlined what I will do at the completion of the project and the tone of how I will accept or decline interested participants. I have created a very clean and neat Web site that is easy to navigate.  Should the implementation of this project prove too difficult for me in the Fall, I have three other projects that I could participate in with links to their Web sites.