Collaborative


 * UPDATE Final Wiki Activity** - (Due May 6) Please download and read the Educational Technology WebQuest. It explains the WebQuest activity. Your job is to evaluate the WebQuest activity and make suggestions for improvement on the collaborative page. I modified the assignment so you can spend additional time on your websites. I like how you started and hope you can give me suggestions for improvement. I can use your descriptions in the WebQuest as well.
 * UPDATE Final Wiki Activity** - (Due May 6) Please download and read the Educational Technology WebQuest. It explains the WebQuest activity. Your job is to evaluate the WebQuest activity and make suggestions for improvement on the collaborative page. I modified the assignment so you can spend additional time on your websites. I like how you started and hope you can give me suggestions for improvement. I can use your descriptions in the WebQuest as well.


 * Assignment:** The Wiki Starter will be the editor for this assignment and get the ball rolling. Your work is to continue the story from the first paragraph I have written. Each Wiki member should take a turn and continue the story with a new paragraph that will be consistent with what has been written before it. Once the group goes around the starter will either finish it or continue for another round if the story is robust enough or there are only three or less Wiki members.

The teachers at //Connecticut City Elementary School// (CCES) finally got what they wanted. While the principal, Mr. Burns, has given them enough technology to fill two schools, most of the teachers are not able to use it and have been calling for training to finally learn to use this stuff. Mr. Burns has relented and hired a group of grad students from CCSU to come in and provide workshops and training for a week.The pay is good, $500 per day per trainer and the group, Kerri, Michelle, Nicole, Patrice and Solomon were expected to make significant changes in how technology would be used after the training week was finished. However, the group immediately identified several problems they had to deal with.

(Patrice) First, everyone in the building seemed to have differing abilities when it came to using any kind of technology. Second, because the school houses grades from Pre-K through fifth grade the teachers' needs differed greatly. Third was an issue of desire. Not every teacher wanted to change or adapt to new thinking, never mind new technology! A decision had to be made as to how to conduct workshops to benefit all teachers and encourage the use of the technology they had available to them.

In addition, the principal threw them a curve when he told the group they had to put all the training online! What to do?

(Kerri) Mr. Burns called a faculty meeting for his staff. He heard all the concerns his staff had and wanted to make the online training meaningful for each grade level in his building. Mr. Burns asked all grade level teams to meet and generate a list of technology each grade wanted additional training on. The teachers all wrote that they wanted training on how to develop lessons using Smart Boards. Each classroom has one, but only five teachers in the building use them to instruct their students on a regular basis. Many of the teachers use them for projection purposes only and some don't even use them at all! The teachers also voiced their concern that they wanted the training at their school, possibly in small groups focused on their grade levels. Mr. Burns had to make a decision quick whether to have the training online or to change it to onsite!

(**Solomon**) Mr.Burns felt the most prudent way his teachers could get hands-on training on Smart Boards, and improve teaching and learning in the school was to invite the graduate students from CCSU to come over and organize inservice training for all the teachers in the school. He immediately convened another faculty meeting to schedule a date for the group to come and administer the training on Smart Board. All the teachers were glad that the training will take place at their school so as to afford them the hands-on training they are craving for.

(Nicole) With all the computer programs teachers learned they could use in their classroom, they didn’t know how they would incorporate this into the lessons they have been using for years. Now they have to change the way they have been teaching for so many years? What is Mr. Burns doing to them? The faculty quickly became overwhelmed when they learned they would need to be creating a class website. Using the Internet is hard enough, but creating a webpage seems almost impossible. Mr. Burns will probably need to spend a fortune on all the time these grad students will be spending with training the faculty. The faculty knows how good all this technology can be for their class, but they feel like learning how to use it all will take forever!

(Michelle) Due to the uproar, Mr. Burns had the graduate students incorporate building a class website within the next training session. The graduate students helped the teachers create the main site and discussed what types of things that would be useful on a class site. They also had time to help make tabs for all the material they would like on their websites to help the teachers stay organized. They showed them that putting resources on the website was not very different than sending an email, and they could do that! Building the website showed the teachers that even though it seemed like a lot of work at first it was really very manageable.

They realized that their initial ideas probably pertained to the Smart Board as well. It seemed overwhelming at first because it was different, not because it was more or less work just in a different medium. Most of the teachers already had great resources on the computer that they can now share with the whole class instead of rotating students on the two computers in the classroom. The teachers decided that they would start sharing Smart Board ideas during their team meetings to help each other develop their skills.

(Patrice) When all of the training was completed the teachers formed a collaborative wiki to share ideas amongst themselves as well as at staff meetings. Mr. Burns also afforded each teacher some in-service time to visit each others classrooms to observe and share. The teacher's eventually came around to enjoy the various technology provided to them and found their time on tedious tasks was considerably lessened. The final outcome was one that pleased not only Mr. Burns, but the staff as well.