1. Collaborating and sharing at a
distance, through virtual and web-
mediated approaches
Dr. Eileen O’Connor, Eileen.oconnor@esc.edu
Empire State College, State University of New York
(USA)
June 2012
The 5th International Scientific and Methodological
Conference on "Information and Communication
Technologies in Linguistics, ELT and Crosscultural
communication“ Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area
Studies of Lomonosov Moscow State University.
http://conf.lingvograd.ru/en
2. Agenda
• Reasons for collaboration – educational /
research underpinnings
• Approaches to distance / e-mediated
collaborations
• eTools for collaboration
– A selection of the many available tools
• Examples
3. Call for Presentations (and Posters)
On August 22-24, 2012, SUNY—Empire State College will be hosting a virtual
conference on open education. The conference is global in scope and will be
occurring over multiple time zones; therefore, the event will be conducted in
Second Life. The modality will be a synchronous/asynchronous mode—
participants can attend sessions as they occur, or session presentations will
be recorded for play back at later times. Currently, we seek individuals to
participate in the conference.
The OP*EN Virtual Conference Abstracts/summaries/battle plans or other
treatments should be emailed to open@esc.edu by June 22nd, 2012.
4. New levels of thinking and planning
• Think outside the “tradition” of the present
class / course / program
– What are the REAL goals for your educational
endeavors? What does an “educated” person in
your area look like? act like? talk like?
– How could more collaboration and use of
emerging e-tools facilitate the achievement of the
educated person?
5. What is the value of educational
collaborations? What aren’t you doing not?
Creating &
expanding
content &
Create & knowledge
develop (ALL)
“open”
resources too
6. Ways of thinking – generating & valuing
new outcomes in classrooms & programs
Implement research
on learning
(constructivism)
Start small (part of a
Value more than
course) evaluate
just papers
improve
Evaluate both
collaborative &
individual work
7. Ways of thinking – expanding scholarly &
committee work
Initiate a collaboration
within your content area
or committee
Determine governance
Structure store (web
& maintenance;
resources), scheduling,
consider publication &
meeting locations
sharing
Create criteria &
evaluation for materials
to be saved
8. Internet
based
Open to text,
Free, for
image, video,
basic
often
Available to
With settable
other users,
permissions
as an option
Interactive, Easy-to-use,
often sort of
13. Tags can help to keep track
of the content of the
bookmarks
Share good resources with
others
http://www.diigo.com/user/eoconnor1
14. Google applications can really
enhance collaboration – lets
consider several of these outlined
below
15. GOOGLE DOC: SHARING A DOCUMENT,
SPREADSHEET, POWERPOINT (PRESENTATION)
Keep notes for yourself on different computers –
at home & at school
Share with colleagues and students
Track the revisions
Check progress & participation
Make attractive materials using internet
Helpful when funding is limited
Similar to Microsoft, but less
An example within a Google Site that is public
https://sites.google.com/site/teachingscience2011/
19. Nothing new here;
but very useful
Determine who One way
Establish levels communication
can see & who of permissions & info storage
can edit the
website -
interactivity
You can review who is
submitting work Ensure that all are
participating –
accountability &
assessment
20.
21. And who can do
what – thereby
setting controls
& limits
https://sites.google.com/site/teachingscience2011/
26. Video lets you share best practice . . . &
observe your students’ work too
An unlisted video on a
research project
A public video on a
project
A teaching exemplar
This student made a video to go
along with a project on mining
All are viewable except the first one; click the blue terms next to the video image
27. Create virtual spaces
• More advanced in terms of setup
• But can be used like a webinar too
– But the context, setting, and “persistence” of
these features can make virtual a good way to
collaborate
28. Using / creating virtual spaces
• Download and visit www.secondlife.com –
visiting is free
– Many good educational materials here (link to past
Moscow slideshare)
– Rent your own island too – but this is getting
expensive
• Learn how to create your own island
– Available through open source – such as
http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page
– However you need more tech expertise
• What follows are some examples
29.
30. Have meetings with guests &
administrators, such as this
meeting the Dean
31. Use as a class meeting space – here
students share their science
projects from across New York State
32. Embed websites & YouTubes in virtual
spaces – have peer or student
discussions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz1ld2AUTUQ
33. Create conferences too – in this poster session
students presented science projects to “judges”
(former students); they then e-voted on best
using teacher-developed criteria
34. New ways appearing for peer
assessment valuing and extending
learning (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges)
35. Use badges to
make web-
evident learning
more valued
and identifiable
and to ensure
quality work &
governance
without
constant
supervision
36. Have students find
the relative location
of the “foreign”
language country
using Google Earth
(free download)
37. Have students find websites related to the foreign
country, culture, and language save & share
with e-bookmarking
38. Also, have students make YouTubes of the
cultural background and of their speaking
the language
39. Have students make a class website for
saving, sharing, & later extending their work
40. Motivate student performance &
enhance learning-from-others
• Have students review each others work
– Ensures learning from others
– Strengthens evaluate skills
– Provides additional assessments & peer
review
– Make “good contributor” a badge-able area
too
• Have students suggest areas of study for
future classes
– Strengthen ownership
– Gain insights into student learning and
areas in need of improvement
41. Overview of a possible e-mediated
collaboration in language education
Google YouTube – YouTube – Badge –
Diigo – save
Maps – video of video of Class peer
& share
locate cultural students website – assessment
language &
country aspects of speaking for sharing & review &
cultural
with the the all projects encourage
websites
language language language ownership
42. Keep it Test with
simple, for Use in only part of
a course or project
colleagues before
bringing to students
starters
Apply
outside the Spreadsheet as a
calendar
Website for cultural
celebration
box
Have them
Ask a They want to help –
& often know these
participate actively
in making a
student tools learning
community
Try Try Try
43. Timing / Saving Ownership /
scheduling – interactions and governance –
when will materials – how what will make
interactions will you save the the
occur? results collaboration
achieved? efforts
sustainable?
Notes de l'éditeur
As the boundaries of time, geography, and even “reality” are blurring, how can educators put the tools of distance collaboration and sharing to work in their courses and in their greater communities of learners and practitioners? What tools, techniques, approaches, and examples can guide an educator looking to branch into distance teaching and collaboration? This presentation offers highlights about readily-available internet-based and virtual technology tools and will suggest ways that educators can plan to learn and then integrate collaborative and distance approaches into their courses, thereby enriching their own instruction. More details and references are in the associated paper.
On August 22-24, 2012, SUNY—Empire State College will be hosting a virtual conference on open education. The conference is global in scope and will be occurring over multiple time zones; therefore, the event will be conducted in Second Life. The modality will be a synchronous/asynchronous mode—participants can attend sessions as they occur, or session presentations will be recorded for play back at later times. Currently, we seek individuals to participate in the conference.Call for Presentations (and Posters) The OP*EN Virtual Conference welcomes presenters and posters that integrate one or more of these themes, as they relate to the concept of open education. As the aim is to cover open education for a world-wide audience, we would value a range of presentations, challenges, and discussion-starters around these areas: Philosophy: what conceptual, sociological, institutional, and educational underpinnings separate open education from other forms of teaching and learning? What are the core issues in defining openness, and what other forms of openness are required for open education (open leadership, open science, etc.)? Are there related concepts, constructs, and paradigms that serve or enhance openness as a concept?Process: what ways can a resource, course, learning experience move into the process of becoming “open”? How can current courses and resources be moved from behind ivory towers into open educational areas? How can current post-secondary institutions transform themselves into open universities? Projects: what are the examples of projects within your experience, personal, institutional or within your learning sphere that you would like to offer as a model or best practice? Policy: are there institutional issues that surround Open Education within your educational sphere? Have projects and ideas been brought forward within your institution and what organizations, governance groups, unions, or professional organizations have spoken to these issues? What areas do you expect might influence policy within your educational and learning sphere? What public policies effect openness (regulation, legislation, grants, accreditation)?Practices: in what ways have you or your colleagues begun to consider and develop open resources and practices? We encourage a variety of presentation styles as well as topics. The only common element we ask from all presentations and posters is that it should in some way challenge your audience to take openness to the next level.Abstracts/summaries/battle plans or other treatments should be emailed to open@esc.edu by June 22nd, 2012.