Tutorial Home C Making Projects 1. Design a Project 2. Advertise your Project 3. Prepare for your Project 4. Conduct your Project 5. Quickstart Projects 6. Resources Next Section Previous Section

C. Making Collaborative Learning Projects

1. Design a Networked Project

Your first networked project can be fairly simple, and the steps are not complex. This section gives you guidelines and ideas for managing your own project. You may also want to review project management tips provided by your project-using colleagues. 

Identify a Project Idea

	Read Judi Harris new book,Virtual Architecture: Designing and Directing Curriculum-Based Telecomputing, http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jbharris/ Virtual-Architecture/
	NickNack's Telecollaborate! http://www1.minn.net/~schubert/ NickNacks.html

• Look at Project Examples
  Feel free to adopt and adapt good project ideas. Conventional etiquette suggests that if you use a project idea you credit its source by noting the original author somewhere in your project announcement.
    
  • GSH Project Registry
  • Hilites mailing list Archives
  • Judy Harris collection of 236 exemplary network-based educational activities.
  • GSH TeleSensations Quickstart Projects
      
• Identify a Project Idea
  Based on a subject you must teach, a product you want your students to create, an outcome you desire (We suggest that you define specific project tasks and outcomes rather than rely on "sister school" or "pen pal" projects.)

Design your Project

• Set Goals, Tasks, Outcomes
  • Design a project with specific goals, specific tasks, and specific outcomes. What do you want your students to learn? What do you want them to do? What will the final product look like?
      
  • Align your goals and objectives with required instructional objectives and curriculum standards (see Putnam Valley Central School at http://putwest.boces.org/ Standards.html ).
      
  • Be sure your project has "payback" for the participants so they will be co-learners with your students. Don't just ask for information and contributions to your project... look for ways to involve your partners... even if it's only sharing the final product you create.
      
  • Plan to involve 3 or more other classrooms. If one or two teachers fail to meet their obligation the project can still be successful with the remaining partners
      
  • If possible try your project out with a close colleague first, on a small scale. This can help you troubleshoot and solve both technical problems as well as problems with the basic project design.
      
• Set Timelines
  • Set specific beginning and ending dates for your project, and set precise deadlines for participant responses.
      
  • Make a time line and provide lots of lead time to announce your project.
      
  • Avoid defining dates by holidays or seasons... different countries have different holidays, and different hemispheres have different seasons.