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From: "Keith Mack" <kmack@mackzone.com>
Subject: [MWprojects] Organization & Possibilities
Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 09:57:11 -0700
Reply-To: MWprojects@NS.SREB.ORG
I have recently been granted a leave of absence from my 8th grade LA/SS
assignment for next year. This is a leave w/o pay so not sure what I'll
be
doing in the fall - could be a TOSA doing professional development and
curriculum work for another district. Could just end up freelancing and
begging on the streets!?!?
Anyway, I've done quite a bit of on-line collaboration on projects and am
pretty good with web stuff. This last year I work with about 30 people to
put up a set of five on-line professional development modules for the
Learning Space www.learningspace.org . This "virtual process"
is no easy
chore and having gone through the experience, I'd like to suggest a couple
things to this group.
1. Concept: I'd suggest we come up with an overarching
question as a first
step. Perhaps our exulted leader and keeper of list threads could help us
do
this as we rework, narrow, and vote on an overarching questions. We WILL
find a question that will work for ALL disciplines. The more I've worked
with these the easier they get. It is also a great process for a group as
members tweak ideas and wordsmith.
2. Key questions: Once the overarching question is established,
there will
be key questions that will emerge. These could be content/subject specific.
After this point we can continue working "backwards".
3. Teams: I think it will be essential to identify a small
team of "leads"
for the project. Once this is done then the leads will have a smaller team
that works with them on certain elements of the project. In the project
this
year, leads reported to me as web designer and to CEO. In our 8th grade
team, we'd each take on certain tasks for the curricular project, share
with
team, and then team reviews and revises.
4. Structure: I think it's really helpful to have a similar
structure to
each component. We do this with projects in our 8th grade, this way it's
the
same for every student in every classroom. Doesn't matter if it's science
or
social studies, projects all look the same and have same elements. This
relates to procedure things that are so important to our age group.
5. Virtual Space: The may be a need for a 'virtual' space
for people to
interact. I've tried a few out (they are free!) and they may be something
to
experiment with. Right now I'm at home and don't have URL's, but can find
them and post (OK, I didn't say how much I used them!). They will allow
users to chat, post notes, send e-mail, upload documents, etc. This might
be
an easier system than working through a bunch of e-mail threads.
6. Software standards: this might be tough, but we probably
should have standard
software. Our teams all used Word and I'd suggest this as there are some
pretty powerful and collaborative tools. Don't know what that would mean
to
those of you without this. Also, we will need to think about the final form
for this curriculum project. I would think we would want a web-based
curriculum? What I would suggest we do is create everything in Word (or
RTF)
and then just copy/paste into an HTML editor.
7. Meetings: It would be neat if we each could make a short
page along with
picture of ourselves once this gets off the ground. This would be on the
project web site.
I don't think the task is overwhelming, but the initial work should have
a
path laid out to guide us along the way. What do we envision the end looking
like? I can see from the early threads in this group that we'd be trying
to
work with 30 people at once and that probably won't be very productive.
Possibilities:
I'd encourage everyone to not get too specific at this time. Trying to fit
in a certain novel or math concept will not be of value right now. Those
big
overarching questions or "themes" will allow all subject areas
to
contribute. We used one this year: "How does change create conflict?"
It got
to be really cool towards the end of the year as I'd look at students and
we'd all be thinking this question. A question like this works great for
science as well as social studies. From my experience these two subjects
are
the ones that "drive" projects. Other disciplines like arts, writing,
reading, math, etc. are incorporated as vehicles that help us on the road
to
creating answers to key questions.
Anyone in this group going to NECC in Chicago later this month? I'm teaching
a class there and then will be on the exhibit floor in the Learning Space
booth.
Keith Mack <kmack@mackzone.com>
Educational Consultant and Web Design
The MackZone http://www.mackzone.com
Journey America http://www.journeyamerica.org