This project aims to build student awareness on adolescent socialization outside of their world experience, and the role technology and social media plays. After having studied their own local social issues and technology impact, students will design and engage in a Q & A experience with students outside of their school. They will have the opportunity to ask and respond to questions on the topic and share their experiences while reflecting on the experiences of others. The students will then develop a product that outlines the major similarities and differences between the groups and will make recommendations for ways to enhance or alter social interactions to improve communication.
This project is an extension of the digital life and social media components of a middle school Digital Citizenship course. Prior to this project, students will have already studied the advantages and cautions of living a "digital life", including their digital footprint, online safety, securing personal information, and the like. They also will have completed inquiry into the impact of social media and its affect on students' interactions, "status", time, and overall well-being. Following these units, this telecollaborative project will provide students with insight into whether and how the same issues they face are faced by other students in other schools, whether elsewhere in their state, their country, or the world.
Guiding Question: How do students in other schools interact, socialize, and collaborate and what impact does technology and social media play?
Goal: Students will gain perspective on general social and social media issues of students outside of their school, be able to relate those issues or concerns to their own, and develop strategies or a plan of action to help resolve or improve student social issues, social media use, and, or communication.
Objectives:
Students will first need to complete the "Digital Life" and "Social Media" components of the Digital Citizenship course. This will provide students with the background, knowledge, and insight into their own experiences that will allow them to have informed, intelligent, and well thought out discussions on the topic.
This project can develop in two phases...
Teachers will need to identify and connect with a teacher from another school who is teaching the same or similar content, at about the same period of time. In this first phase, it is recommended to connect to someone within the same school system. In larger systems, it is likely the course content will be offered in the same marking period or semester and will follow the same sequence and therefore it will be easier to ensure both classrooms are well prepared for this project. Making contact with a curriculum coordinator for Digital Citizenship is an easy way to get contacts and make connections with others teaching this course within the system. If a teacher is in a small system and needs to make a connection outside of their district, the curriculum coordinator may also be able to help in making those connections.
Once that connection is made, the teachers involved will need to set a project timeline. This will include when to complete the digital life and social media components, and when they want to begin their class interactions. Once the timeline has been set, teachers will need to determine the methods and extent of the project. The "how" will be determined by the resources and time available. At a minimum, there needs to be a medium by which the students in each class will introduce themselves, ask and respond to questions, and follow up. The teachers will also want to collaborate on their targeted goals, objectives, and assessment criteria to ensure they are on the same page and that their outcomes are met.
At the conclusion of the project, both teachers will need to discuss the project, review their students' outcomes, determine any changes that should be made, and if desired, start making plans for future collaboration.
In this phase, the teacher will want to look for possible collaborations outside of their local area. It is recommended to use their professional networks, specifically their online connections to reach out and find other educators interested in this project. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, are places where a lot of educators look for inspiration and ideas and may be good resources for finding collaborators. The challenge in this phase will be findings someone who is teaching this topic at around the time period. In reality, the project as described above may need to be altered and adjusted to fit specific needs, but the overall goal and experience can still be achieved. All of the preparatory requirements above will come into play here as well.
*Regardless of where the connection is made, teachers need to be vigilant in protecting student identities, personal information, and academic information when collaborating with other educators and students in order to protect the educational rights. Teachers engaging in this project outside of their school system should contact their curriculum supervisors for advice on the best practices and safeguards recommended by the school system.
There are many ways a teacher can manipulate this project to meet their individual needs. Below is one method that incorporates a variety of concepts and technologies.
It is important for the students to provide some basic information about their class and to obtain like information from their partner class.
After being introduced to one another, each class will work independently to create a series of questions for the other class on topics ranging from social issues, to technology use in school and home, to social media use and issues. The teachers can guides the questions in a particular direction depending on any specific desired outcomes, or they can let the students question more openly for a more casual discussion. The process of generating the questions should be done asynchronously to allow students to create, review, and revise quality questions in order to receive specific, relevant responses. The teacher should guide, scaffold, and ultimately review this process and the question outcomes.
Students will then share their questions with their partner class. Again, there are many avenues for this to be completed. If all the technology and timing lines up, have the students get into small groups (2-3) and video conference with a small group in the other class and conduct live interviews using their questions. Students would take notes on the responses they receive. This strategy incorporates live interviewing skills for both sides as an additional practical skill set to practice. If this is not feasible, students can still answer questions in small groups on a shared document, or answer questions on a shared website page. Students could also answer the questions in a recorded video or audio file to then share with their partner class. The Q&A process can also be extended to allow for follow-up questions or even check-ins at a later date if desired.
Once the Q&A process is completed. The students, either in their small groups, or as a class will aggregate their results and being to analyze the responses. They will take note to make comparisons in the similarities and differences between the two groups. Teachers should lead the class to identify a common issue, problem, or concern between the classes. This could be done separately at each individual school, or to continue the collaborative process, have the students do this work with their partner groups. Students will then develop an easy way to show their comparisons (e.g. Venn diagram, chart, info-graphic, etc.)
Once students have identified a common problem, they will work (again, either locally by group or class, or collaboratively with their partner group or class) to come up with ideas, suggestions, plans, etc. for solving or improving the problem or issue. They will develop a product (e.g. video, poster, radio show, PSA, infographic, etc.) to show their combined issue, to define the problem, and to outline their solutions. Students will share their product with their own class (if completed collaboratively) or share with their partner class (if completed locally).
Students will be assessed at three various stages of this process, their Q&A activity, their product development, and a reflective component. Informal, on-going formative assessment will be conducted by the teacher throughout. The project activities can be assessed using a general rubric, or content/skill specific rubrics can be developed. Students will be graded on the quality of their questions and their responses, thus the teacher must ensure all students are accountable for any group work. Student products will likely be graded as a whole group activity, but individual accountable can be incorporated as needed or desired. Finally, students, will write a summative reflection on the process, on the benefits, advantages, and challenges of working with or communicating with students from other schools and locations, and detailing any major themes or learning points they gained in their interaction.
As mentioned above, the cooperating teachers will want to have a conversation at the conclusion of the project. The use of a plus-minus grid is one way teachers can identify where their plans went well, where they faltered, where there were surprises, good or bad. This will allow the teachers to adjust expectations and procedures for future iterations. If the teachers want to expand the project, they may work together to located other classrooms with which to collaborate and then share their results after each project, building the project from classroom to classroom as they go. It will be important for the teachers to evaluate all aspects of this collaboration from the technologies used, to the quality of the questions and student interactions, to the quality and expected results of the final projects. Depending on the academic strengths and deficits of their students, teachers may need to further structure and restrict the topic(s) used, or may need to allow the student additional freedoms to run with their projects or engage with their partner school peers in additional or on-going activities.