Gold Quest-Classroom Collaboration: The Issue
Steps
As a classroom or in small groups:
- Explore problems or issues in your school, community, or world regarding any of the following: environment (examples: climate, drinking water), endangered animals (example: Northern long-eared bat), health (examples: smoking, drugs, alcohol), safety (examples: internet and social media), social (examples: hunger, homelessness, disease), literacy, poverty, gun safety, racism, immigration, or identify another problem your classmates may want to review.
- Look at several of the resources provided in the classroom collaboration resources section on the right.
- Identify an issue or join in one that another school is working on that is also of value to your group or class.
- Once you’ve identified your issue, your teacher will set up a collaboration session with another classroom working on a similar issue.
- You will connect with a collaborating group and introduce yourselves
- Use a shared working environment (Google Docs, Office 365, wiki, blog) to share your questions, concerns, and possible areas to focus on as you work through the problem
| Website | Brief Description |
ePals: Be sure to check out the different exploration opportunities each year. | |
iEARN Global Collaboration Projects, check out the different challenges that occur each year. | |
National Geographic Citizen Science Projects | Collect and share your classroom data. Citizen Science projects allow students to collect and share data seen by others around the world for a common purpose (monitoring water quality, for example). This is not a classroom to classroom connection but an opportunity to practice global science. |
Global Read Aloud Project (6 weeks) - The premise is simple; we pick a book to read aloud to our students during a set 6-week period and during that time we try to make as many global connections as possible. Each teacher decides how much time they would like to dedicate and how involved they would like to be. Some people choose to connect with just one class, while others go for as many as possible. The scope and depth of the project are up to you. |
The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration sponsors lists of collaborations available. Examples: teachers seeking classroom penpals, school mascot exchange, cross-cultural, international penpals, and more. |
Competencies & Standards
MITECS Michigan Integrated Technology Competencies for Students, and
3. Knowledge Constructor
a. Plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits
b. Evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources
c. Curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts or solving authentic problems
d. Build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions
6. Creative Communicator
c. Communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations
d. Publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences
7. Global Communicator
a. use digital tools to connect with learners from a variety of backgrounds and cultures
b. with guidance from an educator, students use technology tools to work with friends and with people outside their neighborhood, city and beyond
c. contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal
d. Students explore local and global issues and use collaborative technologies to work with others to investigate solutions