Lucy Gray

1
Take the Plunge!

• Lucy Gray
• Middle School Computer Science
• The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools
• lgray_at_ucls.uchicago.edu
• http//www.ucls.uchicago.edu/People/faculty/Lucy_G
  ray/index.html

2
The Laboratory Schools

• Home of John Dewey
• Affiliated with University of Chicago
• Hyde Park neighborhood
• Nursery school through high school
• Highly motivated, diverse student population

3
My Projects

• The Friday 5
• Computer Ethics
• Computer Club / Multimedia Mania
• End of the Year iMovie Project
• Programming with MicroWorlds
• Project Exploration Extras
• Third Grade Teachers Take on the Collaboratory
• ePortfolios

4
The Collaboratory....

• Supports Labs philosophy of learning
• Provides an ideal format for projects
• Helps teachers focus on the development of
  quality projects
• Provides great tools and document organization
• Improves communication for teachers and students
• Offers collegial connections
• Gives students easy access
• Motivates both teachers and students

5
Philosophy

• Authentic
• Creative
• Collaborative
• Innovative

6
Project Format

• Areas for describing projects promotes thoughtful
  planning
• Resources are used in context of the projects
• Teachers instruction, resources, and student work
  tied together in the same online location

7
Quality

• Teacher can easily edit and revise projects
• Projects remain current and responsive to the
  learners
• Projects can be developed by teams of teachers
  working collaboratively

8
Tools

• The Survey Resource
• Kids are able to design surveys
• Students work with real data
• Surveys are excellent sources of feedback
• Cybrary Resource
• Use of File It is great for capturing sites
• Students can contribute approved links

9
Organizing student work

• Helps teachers make documents available to
  students
• Students can keep work with them for access
  when needed

10
Communication

• Not software or platform dependent
• Allows for spontaneous communication between
  teachers and students
• Kids may have preferences in how they communicate
• A larger audience can be reached with the
  communication tools such as messaging
• Safe environment
• Kids think of their own ways to use messaging

11
Collegiality

• Informal way to meet like minded teachers
• Teachers do not need to feel awkward about
  reaching out to other teachers and projects
• The Friday 5 is intended to facilitate this

12
Access

• Kids are accessing and working from home
• This kind of communication is vital to kids
• For teachers, visiting the Collaboratory becomes
  as fluid a process as checking email

13
Motivation

• Common language between students and teachers
• Kids LOVE to write each other
• When something is publicly published, it
  motivates teachers to refine their work

14
Food for thought NetDay survey

• 29 of K-3rd graders have email accounts
• 45 of 4-6 graders
• 79 of 7-12 graders
• 70 of students in grades 7-12 have 1-3 IM screen
  names
• 18 have four or more
• 54 of these students know more of their friends
  screen names than their home phone numbers

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More Food...

• 78 of students in grades K-3 know what the
  Internet is
• 73 of kids in grades 4-12 enjoy using technology
• 97 of students in grades 7-12 believe strongly
  that technology is important to their education (
  95 4-6 , 82 K-3)

16
Another tidbit....

• If students had to write a report on a unfamiliar
• topic, 67 of students would first do an Internet
• search or visit a bookmarked web site over
• visiting the library to find a book on a topic
• (10), asking the teacher for help (9) or
• looking for information in their textbook (5).

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Finally....
Netday calls todays students ultracommunicators
Students want to expand their active online
communications lives into their school
environment. If they could change one thing about
technology at their school, students in grades
7-12 would allow students to use IM and email at
school. That response outpolled having online
classes and online textbooks by almost 31.
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Advice for Getting Started

• Pick one unit that you have already developed
• Allocate time to train your students
• Give students time to explore
• Plan activities within your project. They do not
  have to be technology based or complicated.
• Utilize the calendar feature.
• Think about how you can use resources in new and
  different ways.

19
Evangelize

• Advertise eCourses to your colleagues
• Plan after school time to assist teachers
• Demonstrate the many features of the
  Collaboratory for teachers during grade level
  meetings
• Bring Collaboratory staff in for a visit
• Create accounts for students to eliminate this
  administrative task for teachers

20
Future Goals

• Explore and use the Nexus community
• Develop ePortfolios
• Design some projects that are not just
  collaborative within my school, but with the
  community as a whole
• Offer more support to colleagues