Building
Learners
Project

The folks at TRintuition and TeachersFirst have been talking about this project and the fact that many teachers and students are just getting their feet wet (while some are still scanning the waters from the hill above). We have therefore decided to EXTEND the Building Learners Project timeline through the end of the 2008-2009 school year (until your school ends in May/June).

 Our hopes in extending the project:

• More students and teachers will be able to produce more projects- or decide to get started!
• Students will become more familiar with all the tools and possibilities, producing more sophisticated or better projects after the “bells and whistles” phase passes by
• Teachers will discover more of the tools to manage groups
• Classes may be able to collaborate on a project with another school (post on the blog if you seek such a contact)
• The project can document the best ways to support teachers in this three-way collaboration of teachers/web tool/teacher resource site
• This documentation can lead to a “model” that we can share with others at conferences, etc. And we might ask you to join us in presenting (teachers and/or students!).

TeachersFirst’s promise to you:

We will award prizes to the most effective projects completed by students (and teachers) involved in the Building Learners Project. Bells and whistles are not nearly as important as evidence of learning. The name of the project is, after all, Building LEARNERS. Keep the prize possibility in mind, but know that learning is the best prize of all.

If you have a teacher-colleague who is not involved with BLP but would like to join you in the project, email me. We have room to add some others. Perhaps there is a classroom down the hall or across the community from you with a teacher-friend you would like to invite to collaborate. Just let me know: cshively(at)sflinc.org

I have just finished a quick tutorial ( using the workBench, of course) on using images from the Flickr photosharing site in your workBench projects. You can see it two ways.

1.  I have shared it with all the project members within the workBench( go to Manage My Resources  to see it under Shared With Me and click to Make me a Copy).  Feel free to change the version I made to better suit your needs with YOUR students ( ex. change the requirements or permissions for WHO is allowed to search on Flickr- see below).
2. You can view it from this URL: http://tf.trintuition.com/cshively/UsingFlickronWB . I will also add it on the sidebar of this blog for quick access by you and your students when you forget how to use it!

Some thoughts about using Flickr images:

• You can teach much more than technical how-to when you use images from Flickr. You can also talk about giving credit to those whose work is shared there. Note that this How-to shows you how to ONLY use images where the photographer has granted Creative Commons licensing. That means that you are using it with their permission for a specific type of use. Teach ethical use of web resources, even if you just think aloud as YOU do it in front of little ones.
• You may want to limit student access to Flickr, since the images are shared by the general public and can include content NOT appropriate for the classroom. We know that middle schoolers will immediately search for body parts or naked women. Avoid this by adding Flickr images (the SAME way as the tutorial shows) to My Resources, then sharing them with your class. At the very least, spend some time talking about appropriateness and consequences of poor judgment by students using Flickr in class. Many teachers believe it is better to teach and guide than to completely protect and avoid. It is up to you.

I just read and approved a new application for this project, and it pointed out something all of us should “talk up” as we tell folks around our schools what BLP is doing. One very helpful feature of this project is the SAFETY of it. Since the workBench is designed for education and TeachersFirst is a non-profit here to help teachers, we are able to offer this collaboration without interference or concerns about “bad guys.” You are free from concerns about filtering in your school blocking the tools or violating policy by using student email access. And you will always know what students are doing (and WHICH student did what).

In researching for our recent article on web filtering (also created using the workBench- check it out as an example!), TeachersFirst’s editorial staff confirmed what we knew to be true: many schools simply do not allow access to some very powerful online tools. They are not being cruel (though the results may seem that way). They are simply interpreting laws and local concerns very protectively. There are varied philosophies about how to handle web safety concerns, and many U.S. schools come down on the more conservative side. In five years, who knows…

So it is gratifying for TeachersFirst to be involved with a positive group of teachers who do not need to worry, even under the most restrictive policies. So welcome to all of you…we truly are glad to see you here! Check out the project members page to see who else is among us.

As I register two new members for this project, I am also preparing to leave later this week for NECC, the National Educational Computing Conference. I will be presenting there about “Spanning the Gap Between Web 2.0 Developers and the Classroom.” This project is an outgrowth of the efforts TeachersFirst has made in spanning that gap, so I will certainly be telling teachers and educational technology professionals from all over the world about this project. I hope we will see some new members as a result. As the summer progresses (northern hemisphere) and winter deepens (southern hemisphere), this is a great time to play with the tools on the workBench and become more comfortable. I spent some time with it last week, creating a project of my own, and I wish I were in a classroom again with some kids to see what they would do with it.

I think about things like creating a visual story prompt or cooperative story: The class and I make the first screen on our interactive whiteboard (thus demonstrating the tools) and “pass it on” by sharing it with the entire class. I’d have to be sure to show them how to COPY an existing screen!  Those in each group could add the next step (illustrated, of course) or branch off a la Choose Your Own Adventure from any previous turning point within the story . The result? A story web that could lead many places. Simply by sharing the project with multiple authors, everyone gets a chance to spin in their own direction yet try to develop narrative lines that might converge at some point. Now add a layer: make the story historical fiction set in a time period you are studying or ABOUT to study (or a parallel story about a minor character from a novel you are reading, or set in the laboratory of a scientist you who is part of your curriculum: Gregor Mendel and His Plants??). What a way to determine prior knowledge and weave new understanding in as your study goes along. The teacher could pepper the Shared Resources with links and images and ask students to determine how they “fit into” the “story” of colonial Boston, for example. As students find other good resources, they can share them among themselves, as well.

And that was just ONE idea that popped in my head. What are you thinking of doing to Build Learners?

In the true spirit of collaboration (or “emailaboration”), Jonah from TRintuition and I have improved the look and user “feel” of this blog to make it more useful for everyone involved in BLP. Jonah did all the work. I just responded, suggested, and cheered as his changes made it easy for all of us to find what we need and share what we have to say. Then, in the wee hours of this morning his time, Jonah breathed life into the new look by moving it onto the “real” servers. This is the stuff that true geeks and techno-designers thrive on.

So may your students. Never underestimate how much they may be willing to do so their projects have the right “look and feel” to communicate what they want to say. If you ask them to articulate why they are making the changes, you may find that there is far more understanding of the science or social studies or language arts concept they are SUPPOSED to be demonstrating. The visual is more than window dressing, though academia has often forgotten this in its preference for text. Really visual kids need really visual means, and the workBench is a great place to find the tools. That’s why TeachersFirst is happy to be working with them — and with you — to build learners.

If you have joined the project and have not had a chance to play in your new workBench space, take a look at the Tips and Starters here on the blog to get you going. Then tell us what happened by commenting here!

If you are a Building Learners Project teacher and received an email from the BLP blog with an odd alphanumeric password, IGNORE it. The tech folks accidentally sent some of these out. Try logging into this blog with the same email address and password as your TeachersFirst membership. Note: you only need to LOG IN to this blog if you wish to POST or COMMENT . But we strongly encourage you to do both!You will be receiving log-in information  for the TRIntuition workBench (subject line: BLP workBench account) within about 24 hours either side of any email from this blog. Registrations are being done manually (SOOO low-tech!) , since we are trying to monitor the “balance” of the 100 teacher spots. It is looking good that we’ll be able to match you up with another teacher for “cooperative projects,” as well, if you have asked for them.  Stay tuned as we receive more registrations!In the meantime, why not post an introduction on the blog so you can become comfortable with this tool. Maybe you want to tell us a little about some of your terrific ideas…or lack of them.

Hello, everyone!

Is it appropriate for us to introduce ourselves, since we will be in this experience together for the next few months?I am the Technology Coordinator at a preschool through grade 8 school. I teach technology classes to students, provide inservice training for teachers, plus coordinate anything else that relates to technology in our building. I also teach a Computer for Teachers class at a local college. For the last year or so I have been wanting to involve my students (and myself) with using Web 2.0 tools. I am really excited about the opportunity to try the workBench! Thanks TeachersFirst and TRInituition! I’m also new to blogging, so feel free to offer me any tips you see I might need (like what to do with the blue boxes I see on the right side of this page).

Welcome to the Building Learners Project, a pilot project offered jointly by TeachersFirst.com and TRIntuition’s workBench. This blog serves as the “home base” for this project, giving teachers a place to ask questions, share successes large and small, and document the progress of the pilot as they pass through. The project began in April, 2008, with an offer for 100 members of TeachersFirst (a FREE membership) to share TRIntuition’s powerful creative tool, the workBench, with their students. Learn more about the Building Learners Project on this blog. If you would like to join the project, simply read the agreement and complete the quick application. We’ll send you an email within a couple of days, telling you how to log in and get started.