How teachers use the Internet to create learning …...6 Learning & Leading With Technology Volume 26 Number 1 How teachers use the Internet to create learning projects for their students

Learning & Leading With Technology Volume 26 Number 16

How teachers use the Internetto create learning projects fortheir students depends a lot on

the tools they have at theirdisposal. In this feature

article, the first of the newvolume, Judi Harris describes18 major “activity structures”that can be used by teachers

when they design theirclassroom projects. She alsopoints out some of the best

uses of these activitystructures in projects that

already reside on theWorld Wide Web.

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September 1998 Learning & Leading With Technology 7

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Activity structures are design tools.Teachers can use them to help theirstudents “telecollaboratively” use theInternet to accomplish curriculum-related learning goals. The nature andreasons for using activity structureswere introduced in an earlier “Miningthe Internet” column (“Wetware: WhyUse Activity Structures?” December/January 1997–98). Here I discuss all18 activity structures, which have beenupdated since their last appearance inThe Computing Teacher in March,

April, and May1995. More in-formation abouteach structure isavailable in mybook Virtual Ar-chitecture: Design-ing and DirectingCurriculum-BasedTelecomputing(ISTE, 1998).

How werethese design toolscreated? Whileanalyzing thestructures ofthousands ofeducationaltelecomputingactivities thatwere shared byteacher-designersvia the Internet,I was able toidentify threemajor categoriesof student action,

each with five to seven activity types.I labeled these categories according tothe dominant type of learning act thateach activity class used: (1) interper-sonal exchange, (2) informationcollection and analysis, and(3) problem solving. In thisarticle, I provide an overview ofthese categories and structures.See Virtual Architecture’sWeb Home for more examples.

Interpersonal ExchangeInterpersonal exchange is the oldestand among the most popular typesof educational telecomputing activities,one in which individualsor groups “talk” electroni-cally with one another byusing electronic mail(e-mail), asynchronouslarge-group discussiontools (such as Web confer-ences, bulletin boards, andnewsgroups), or real-timetext or audio- and video-conferencing tools (such as InternetRelay Chat [IRC] or CU-SeeMe).Six activity structures are nowassociated with interpersonal exchangeprocesses: keypals, global classrooms,electronic appearances, telementoring,question-and-answer activities, andimpersonations.

Structure 1: Keypals. Keypal projectswere the first commonly used tele-computing activity structures; theyare similar to moretraditional penpalactivities. Studentstypically work in pairsand communicatewith each other elec-tronically, often sug-gesting their own dis-cussion topics.

For example, fourth-year studentsand teachers at the Hobart School inTasmania produced a beautiful Website, the Hobart-Malang ElectronicMail Project, to chronicle their richyear-long exchanges with peers attend-ing the Malang School in Indonesia.By electronically sharing messages,photographs, and artwork, thesestudents helped each other understand

their respective cultures,customs, and everydaylives as they discussedsuch topics as nativeanimals, traditionalfolktales, homes,religions, school cur-

ricula, and what it “feels like” to beAustralian or Indonesian.

Keypal-like interactions also canoccur with real-time text-chat tools

such as IRC. For example,students at the Leo UssakElementary School in RankinInlet in the Canadian Arcticcommunicated with childrenin Hawaii and two adults whohad just completed a dogsledtrip from Manitoba to theNorthwest Territories. (Youcan learn more about using

IRC at IRC Users Central.)Unfortunately, student-to-student

keypal exchanges often take moretime to manage than teachers typicallyhave. Sending and receiving manye-mail messages through a single classaccount (or monitoring many messagesif students have their own accounts)can make keypal activity structuresdifficult to justify for the time andeffort required.

Structure 2: GlobalClassrooms. Group-to-group exchanges—or globalclassrooms—especially thosethat emphasize a particularcurriculum area, can befascinating yet manageablecollaborative explorations.With this activity structure,

two or more classrooms in differentlocations can study a common topictogether during an agreed-upon timeperiod. Global classroom structuresare much more common than keypalstructures, probably because theyare logistically easier. Their activitiesalso seem better for focusing onspecific content, which may bewhy teachers often see them asbetter fits for the curriculum.

The simplest type of activity thatuses this structure creates a virtuallearning space, usually as one classextends its own discussion of a topicto other classes studying the same topic.The Instructional Technology Develop-

Image courtesy ofWhite Pine Software

Image courtesy of the Hobart-Malang Electronic Mail Project


ment Consortium in San BernardinoCounty, California, for example, coor-dinates literature study through itsRead to Write Project, which sponsorsactivities according to literary genres,such as historical fiction or biography.

Some global classroom projects arestructurally simple and short-lived,while others are quite complex and caninvolve students from many countriesfor one or more semesters. Theseprojects are often conceptualized asboth interdisciplinary investigationsand thematically organized inquiries.For example, Hannah Sivan and DavidLloyd (both in Sde Boker, Israel) co-ordinated several such projects, includ-ing Desert and Desertification andEarth’s Crust and Plate Tectonics.

I have been using both activity andproject to describe what can be designedwith activity structures. Although bothwords are probably used interchange-ably by educators, we’ll use activity hereto denote something of shorter dura-tion and project for something longer.Usually, though, activities combine toform a single project. The activity struc-tures described so far might best beconsidered projects. The next structurewould probably help us build an activity.

Structure 3: Electronic Appearances.Interpersonal exchanges can also hostspecial guests who can communicatewith students either in real time orasynchronously. The typical electronicappearance is a one-time visit from asubject-matter expert, or SME; someguests or experts might even be famous.

Although electronic appearances arecertainly possible with e-mail and asyn-chronous computer-conferencing tools,most are done with real-time text-chator videoconferencing programs suchas CU-SeeMe. This gives the session’sparticipants a “telepresence” (Riel &Harassim, 1994) and accommodatesthe short-term nature of this kindof activity.

The Women of NASA project hasone of the best-developed electronic

appearances on the World Wide Web.The site acquaints visitors with thespecializations, histories, and daily livesof more than 50 female NASA scien-tists, mathematicians, engineers, andadministrators. For each woman, anautobiography and “day in the life”documents are available. MonitoredWeb chats with individual participatingscientists are scheduled each month;during these sessions participantsdiscuss “math, science, space, technol-ogy, and gender equity,” according totheir interests and preferences.

Such Internet-assisted connectionsof SMEs with students for synchronousor asynchronous inquiry-based dialogueis an exciting but underused aspectof global telecommunications.Electronic appearance activitiesusually allow only relatively shortperiods of communication be-tween students and other people.

Structure 4: Telementoring.When exchanges with SMEsbecome more extended, and a“teleapprenticeship” (Levin, Riel,Miyake, & Cohen, 1987) forms,the activity structure can be

described as telementoring. With thisstructure, Internet-connected specialistsfrom universities, businesses, govern-ments, or other schools can serve aselectronic mentors to students whowant to explore specific study topicsin an interactive format. For example,Hewlett Packard’s E-Mail MentorProgram helps individual U.S. studentsin Grades 5 through 12 who are inter-ested in math or science find mentorsin the company’s international centers.

The Electronic Emissary (undermy direction) is a service that matchesvolunteer SMEs from around the worldwith teachers and their classes. A data-base of information on the Emissary’svolunteer experts can be searched byteachers and students according to cur-riculum topics. The service helps a newteam of SME, teacher, and studentsstructure a mentoring project that fo-cuses on students’ curriculum-relatedinquiry in the SME’s field of expertise.Students and teachers then communi-cate with the SMEs, often using e-mail.All communications are monitored andfacilitated by Emissary staff members,who are experienced educators andonline project facilitators. After theproject has ended, team members sharewhat they learned with other visitors tothe Emissary site; they create searchabledocuments for other Internet-connectedstudents and teachers to use in theirown project planning. A sample ex-change, Lanier Middle School’s Elec-tronic Emissary Project, is availableonline; it addresses journalism and in-

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Images couresy of the Quest Project,NASA’s K–12 Internet Initiative

Image courtesy of Hewlett-Packard’s E-Mail Mentor Program


Image Courtesy of Ask an Expert

volves students from Lanier MiddleSchool in Houston, Texas, and JamesDerk, the computer columnist forThe Evansville (Indiana) Courier.

Structure 5: Question-and-AnswerActivities. Another activity structurehas recently emerged in which students’contacts with SMEs are the briefestpossible. As the amount and varietiesof online information continue to growexponentially, so can the difficulties infinding answers to questions that meetour needs as learners. For students whoeither cannot find the information theyneed to answer a question or do notfully understand the information theyhave found online, a question-and-answer activity might be appropriate.

By far the most common question-and-answer activities on the Web are“ask-the-expert” services. Pitsco, Inc.,for example, has organized more than300 services into its Ask an Expertindex; the company has made it mucheasier for learners to find answers totheir questions. Ask an Expert dividesits growing index of services into 12subgroups (e.g., science and technology,health, arts, and law), and a search en-gine helps visitors locate the best expertservice to answer a particular question,whether it’s “Ask a Volcanologist” or“Ask a Veterinarian.”

Structure 6: Impersonations. In everyactivity structure we’ve examined so far,participants have shared informationthat directly pertains to their work,their lives, or their learning. With theimpersonations structure, however, atleast one participant in an online groupcommunicates as a character. These vir-tual performances are popular for both

the actors and theother participants.In an imperson-ation project forstudents in Vir-ginia, for example,Robin Gabriel, theeducation directorat Monticello,

Thomas Jefferson’s home, has imper-sonated that president by answeringstudents’ questions using e-mail. Awonderful archive of sample questionsand responses from this project is avail-able through the online Gopher siteSearch Letters to Jefferson.

This kind of activity also caninvolve students as online characters.Harold House, a social studies teacherat North High School in Eau Claire,Wisconsin, devised a rich role-playingproject, County of Wurtz, in whichhe and his students interact in charac-ter. The scenario occurs in a medievalland ruled by King Harold RagnarOne-Thumb. Mr. House plays theking’s scribe, and the studentsbecome inhabitants of the villageof Melzar or the town of Draakmar,both in Wurtz County.

Clearly, impersonations providea rich and motivating way for studentsto use telecomputing tools to helpthem explore curriculum-relatedtopics in dynamic and interactivecontexts.

Information Collectionand AnalysisThe most successful educationaltelecomputing activities frequentlyask students to collect, compile, andcompare different types of information.With the World Wide Web and itsresources increasingly available in K–12classrooms, this type of educationaltelecomputing has become quitepopular. Please note, though, thatthese five activity structures—information exchanges, databasecreation, electronic publishing, tele-fieldtrips, and pooled data analysis—

are essentially telecollaborative.Teleresearch is used only to supportstudents’ and teachers’ learning.

Structure 7: Information Exchanges.Sharing information that is intrinsicallyinteresting to young people on aninternational scale is an excellent wayto engage students in authentic culturalinterchange. A great example ofcurriculum-related informationexchange is David Warlick’s yearlyGlobal Grocery List Project. Partici-pating students around the worldfind and share the prices for items ona common, virtual shopping list.Classes then use the resulting pricelists to discover which items are moreexpensive in which places. Once thesepatterns are identified, the studentscan begin to research and discuss thereasons for these differences in cost.

Information exchanges can involvemany classes without overwhelmingteachers with time-consuming manage-rial tasks. Projects such as these are par-ticularly appropriate for telecomputingtools because participating students be-come creators, consumers, and criticsof the information they share.

Structure 8: Database Creation.Some projects involve both collectingand organizing information into data-bases that project participants and otherscan use for study and analysis. Successfulinformation-exchange activities can“grow” into database-creation activities.

One long-running database-creationproject is Kidlink’s MulticulturalCalendar. Since 1994, students from

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Reproduced courtesy ofMidLink Magazine

many different countries have contrib-uted database information about holi-days celebrated where they live. Theserecords are searchable by month, holi-day, country, user-supplied keywords,and author. Entries for September,for example, include Father’s Dayin Australia, Teacher’sDay in Argentina,Independence Dayin Mexico, and harvestfestivals in South Koreaand Israel. This richand well-organizedcollection of student-produced informationhas many possible usesin the classroom.

Structure 9: Electronic Publishing.Information-collection results can beanalyzed in other ways. One of themost popular is through electronicpublishing, which includes electronicperiodicals (e-zines), report repositories,and online galleries. High-speedInternet access and the proliferationof HTML-authoring tools have made

electronic publishing projects possiblefor the primary grades and beyond. Theappeal of an international audience forstudents’ work is powerful, and manyexamples of electronic publishingprojects can be seen online.

One of the best known examples isMidLink Magazine, a quarterly e-zinecreated by and for students ages 10through 15. Each issue organizes pupils’graphic creations, poems, essays, andshort stories around several themes. Forexample, in February and March 1997,contributors encouraged readers tothink about dreams for peace in honorof Dr. Martin Luther King. Other sec-tions in the publication included an egghunt, a haiku exchange with studentsin Japan, and a virtual quilt project thatinvited visitors to “curl up by the fire …and drink a cup of hot chocolate withyour cyber-friends.” The quilt was vir-tually created with student-contributed

squares and storiesthat representedtheir countries,states, and territories.

Structure 10:Telefieldtrips.Although the activitystructures that helpstudents collect andanalyze informationdiscussed thus far

have emphasized comparison andcontrast (information exchanges)or collaboration to create a commonproduct (database creation and elec-tronic publishing), information-collection and -analysis activitiescan also help students experiencetelepresence; this is the case with whatAl Rogers has dubbed telefieldtrips.

Local fieldtrips can be engaging andbeneficial educational experiences, butmoney and geography sometimes keepschools from using them. The tele-fieldtrip is a popular online project thatcan open virtual doors to field experi-ences that even the wealthiest and mosturban students would not be able to

have. These rich multidisciplinary andmultimedia virtual experiences offermany exciting possibilities.

So far, this type of online project hastwo variations. In the first, which is alsothe easiest to organize, students in onelocation take a local fieldtrip and sharetheir experiences directly with otherstudents who are interested in similarcurriculum-related experiences. Thistype of project also can let remoteclasses send questions to fieldtrip par-ticipants, who try to find answers dur-ing their excursions. Excellent examplesare the Hong Kong InternationalSchool’s Virtual China week-longtelefieldtrips in which one group ofseventh-grade students visited southern

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Reproduced courtesy ofGlobal Grocery List Project

Image reproduced courtesy of KIDLINK.

Reproduced courtesy of Global SchoolNetFoundation

China by bicycle and another studiedin the ancient Chinese capital of Xi’an.The travelers kept in touch with pre-registered classes using both e-mail anda question form at the KIDPROJ site.The travelers were grouped into studyteams, and each team focused on a dif-


Design and HTML by Paul D. Colombo,EnviroNet Direcor

or gather, compare, and contrast infor-mation in different forms. The finalactivity structure in this category en-courages learners to pool similar datafrom different locations and then ana-lyze the patterns that emerge from thecombined samples.

These sorts of information exchangesare particularly powerful. In the simplestof these activities, students electronicallyissue a survey, collect responses, analyzeresults, and report their findings to allparticipants. Many of the electronicpublications at the National StudentResearch Center (Mandeville MiddleSchool, Mandeville, Louisiana) areexcellent examples of such reports.

ferent aspect of the Chinese peopleand their culture. The students sharedphotos from their trips, their itineraries,and copies of messages that theyexchanged with virtual participants.

The second, and by far the mostpopular, type of telefieldtrip is essen-tially a virtual expedition. It is usuallyundertaken by adults who are research-ing scientific relationships or historicalsites. Online participants are invited toexperience the expedition, which is usu-ally presented in multimedia form onthe World Wide Web, and sometimesparticipants can remotely join the in-quiry process. One of the best knownand best developed examples of virtualexpeditions is MayaQuest, which hasfrequently followed archaeologists andvideographers as they travel by bicyclethrough Mesoamerica, exploring rainforests and Mayan ruins. Classes thatsubscribe to this project have interactedwith the explorers and helped themsolve problems in their work. Richinformation was provided on contem-porary Mayans—especially children—and their towns, lives, and experiences.Classroom Connect will offer similaradventures with AfricaQuest inOctober 1998 and GalapagosQuestin spring 1999.

Structure 11: Pooled Data Analysis.In all of the information-collectionand information-analysis structuresdiscussed so far, students eithervicariously participate in an activity

to report the numbers, types, andlocations of animals killed in thestreets between the students’ homesand schools. Dr. Splatt, the fancifulproject facilitator, then helps partici-pants observe, explain, and predictseasonal and incidental patterns ofroadkill. EnviroNet also sponsorspooled-data analysis projects that helpstudents track ozone emissions andwild bird species, among others.

Clearly, this type of project caninvolve students in large-scale researchefforts that use mathematics and scien-tific methods to answer complex andinteresting questions.

Problem SolvingProblem solving is one of the bestlearning opportunities we can offerstudents of any age. The Internet canbe used to support problem-basedlearning around the world throughinformation searches, peer feedbackactivities, parallel problem solving,sequential creations, telepresentproblem solving, simulations,and social action projects.

Structure 12: Information Searches.Problem solving online can be competi-tive or collaborative. In the simplestproblem-solving activity, students aregiven clues and must use either onlineor more traditional resources to answerquestions. These information searchesare usually structured as competitions,with the winning students or teamsbeing those who correctly answer themost questions by a common deadline.

Probably the longest-running andmost well-received information searchactivity on the Internet is GlobalSchoolNet’s Geo Game, which wasoriginally developed by Tom Clausetof North Carolina. Classes that partici-pate in this geography game send in10 pieces of information about theirschools’ locations. The project’s orga-nizer then scrambles the submittedinformation to produce two informa-tion lists (one of clue sets and the

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Image reproduced courtesy of KIDLINK

© MayaQuest

Pooled data activities have alsoincluded projects in which studentscollect environmental data at manydifferent sites, then combine and ana-lyze it to reveal patterns that help ad-dress current scientific challenges. Al-though many such projects are offeredon the Web, EnviroNet-sponsoredprojects are among the best-designedand best-supported. One of the mostpopular in the United States isRoadKill ’98, which asks students


other of locations) that are then sentto participating classrooms. Studentshave approximately two weeks to useinformation resources to match clueswith communities. The winners areannounced by e-mail.

Information searches also canbe longer and require extensive andsophisticated research, analysis, andcommunication activities for participat-ing students. Typically, though, thisstructure supports deductive andconvergent reasoning.

Structure 13: Peer Feedback Activities.In peer feedback activities, participantsoffer constructive responses to others’ideas and their expression. The Writersin Electronic Residence project, forexample, helps young Canadian writersrespond to each other’s poems, essays,and short stories through a nationalcomputer-conferencing system. Profes-sional authors work directly with par-ticipating classes, adding telementoringto peer feedback and making this col-lection of activities especially exciting.

Peer feedback activities also canbe set up as electronic debates. TheHow Far Does Light Go? project,sponsored by the University ofCalifornia–Berkeley,is a good example.The project’s organiz-ers suggest thatmiddle or high schoolstudents use relevantinformation they findon the Web to pre-pare position papersabout the scientific

properties of light, as well as critiqueother students’ statements accordingto what they understand about light’sproperties.

Peer feedback activities also can besuccessful with young children. In theMindsEye Monster Exchange Project,for example, children draw originalmonsters and use words to describethem. These descriptions are thene-mailed to students in other schoolswho read the descriptions and then

creative and best developed parallelproblem-solving projects around.In this collection of related challenges,students use eggs to solve severalproblems. In the “Bundled Egg Drop,”for example, participants must createa holding crate for a raw egg in 30minutes from a collection of previous-ly assembled materials. The crate issupposed to protect the egg frombreaking when the crate is droppedfrom a standard height. In the

“International Egg Toss,”teams of students create pack-ages to protect raw eggs whenthey are sent by surface mailto other participating classes.

Such rich and variedproblem solving and discus-sions of multiple problem-solving methods are becomingquite popular among tele-collaborating classes.

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Copyright © Global SchoolNet Foundation

Reproduced courtey of Philip Bell and theKIE Project (NSF and UC Berkeley)

Reproduced courtey of MindsEye Monster Exchange

draw what they think the describedmonsters look like. Both sets of picturesand the descriptions are then displayedin the project’s “Monster Gallery,” andstudents communicate with each otherabout the similarities and differencesbetween the first and second drawings.

Structure 14: Parallel Problem Solving.In parallel problem solving, a popularactivity structure, students discuss eachother’s problem-solving processes.A problem is presented to and explor-ed by students in several locations

before they cometogether online tocompare, contrast,and discuss theirseparate problem-solving methods.

The ElectronicSchoolhouse’s Inter-national Egg-a-Thonis one of the most

Image reproduced courtesy of KIDLINK

Structure 15: Sequential Creations.Students can also interact by col-laboratively creating a common work.This is the purpose of sequentialcreation. This intriguing activity struc-ture, a type of artistic problem solving,has participants progressively creatingeither a common written text or ashared visual image. The structure thusfar has been used with a variety of ex-pressive media in support of intriguingcollaborative creative efforts.

Kidlink’s MIDI Music Relay,coordinated by Stefan Gustafson inStockholm, offers a good example.The project invites students to add tosongs that are progressively built with30-second MIDI segments as the filestravel from person to person on theInternet. In another project, children


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create sequentially illustrated stories onepage at a time in Write and Illustratea Children’s Story, coordinated byDeborah Falk of Duck Bay, Manitoba.

Another good example of the se-quential creation activity structure isRosa Gunnarsdottir’s heart-warmingBenni the Bear Around the World.This project follows a stuffed bear fromhis packing in a box by Rosa’s class inIceland through his travels from class-room to classroom around the world.As each class receives Benni, the stu-dents explore the mementos that previ-ous classes placed into his box, as wellas take photos and write short piecesfor display on the class’s page atBenni’s Web site.

Structure 16: Telepresent ProblemSolving. Telepresent problem-solvingactivities bring together participantsfrom different geographic locationsand time zones either asynchronouslyor in real time to participate virtuallyin a computer-mediated meeting, touse remotely located robotic tools,or to engage simultaneously, withoutdirect electronic contact, in similaractivities at different project sites.

Creativity Café’s KidCast for Peace,for example, shows student artwork andsponsors periodic CU-SeeMe audio-and videoconferences, helping young

people from all over theworld create and share waysto “make this a happier,healthier, safer and peacefulworld.” Each Saturday at18:00 hours GreenwichMean Time, members ofthe international Kidclubuse IRC text chat to discusscurrent topics that ofteninvolve solving such globalproblems as endangeredspecies, hunger, and pov-erty. Telepresent problemsolving can take manyforms and use various types

of multimedia to connect students witheach other and help them solve real-world problems.

Structure 17: Simulations. This activitytype offers students the chance to solveproblems in simulated contexts. Onlinesimulations require the most coordina-tion and maintenance of all the projectsdesigned with activity structures, butthe depth of learning and task engage-ment that are possible may convince aproject’s organizers to spend the extratime and effort needed to make a simu-lation work well.

Brian McGee’s Electronic UnitedNations project, for example, invitesclassrooms to “become” countriesand interact with other participatingclasses in a simulated United Nations,discussing issues, creating and complet-

ing surveys, and crafting and votingon proposals. Participating studentsand teachers can learn much aboutglobal issues, politics, debate, andsocial ideas. In another simulation—Leni Donlan, Jory Post, and LeslieChristman’s Taking Stock—classescan develop and monitor the progressof stock portfolios.

Structure 18: Social Action Projects.Social action projects help learnersunderstand and take action to helpsolve authentic global challenges.As many educators know, theInternet can serve as a venue for“humanitarian, multi-cultural,action-oriented telecommunicationsprojects” (Ed Gragert, I*EARN) thatinvolve the future leaders of our planet:our children. Social action projectsfocus on real and immediate problemsand often propose that students takeaction to help solve a problem, ratherthan simply stop learning once theyunderstand it.

Many examples of social actionprojects can be found online. Some aresponsored by I*EARN, such as the mul-tinational Holocaust/Genocide Project,which explores the Holocaust in Europeduring World War II among other geno-cidal incidents in history. Students aged12 to 17 are guided by mentors as theystudy genocide and participate in tele-conferences. Through these conferences,the students publish An End to Intoler-

ance, an annual magazine.They also have the optionto take a two-week studytrip to Poland, the CzechRepublic, and Israel,an annual event occurringeach spring near thePassover holiday.

I*EARN also sponsorsThe Rope PumpProject:Clean Water for Nicara-gua, a long-running ven-ture that provides rope-operated water pumpsto villages in Nicaragua,

Reproduced courtesy of Eggmeister StewartClements, The Great International Eggathon

Reproduced courtesy of Ivan Grbin


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using money raised by U.S. classes.After a pump is installed, childrenfrom the village communicate withthe students who bought the pump,describing the way village life haschanged as a result.

Many social action projects focuson environmental issues. The annualEarth Day Groceries Project, forexample, coordinates the efforts ofthousands of U.S. elementary studentsto decorate grocery bags with imagesand text to increase environmentalawareness. These bags are filled withgroceries and passed out in thechildren’s communities each year onEarth Day (April 22). Nina Hansen’sannual international Save the Beachesproject, which is supported by theUniversity of Hartford in Connecticut,helps students who live in coastalcommunities clean their local beachesand generate data on the quantitiesand types of litter found. Project par-ticipants share the data and try to de-tect general patterns. After analyzingthese patterns, the students share theirsuggestions on how to reduce excessamounts of particular types of litter.

PotentialsThe potential in these projects formultidisciplinary, forward-thinking,and truly collaborative learning isawesome. Many of the more sophisti-cated projects—by being interdiscipli-nary, authentic, and active—focusparticipants’ attention on the problemsrather than on the telecommunicationstechnologies used to share informationwith distant collaborators. This clearemphasis on curriculum-based learn-ing, rather than technologies, is one ofthe characteristics that makes all typesof telecollaborative projects so poten-tially powerful. ■

ReferencesLevin, J. A., Riel, M., Miyake, N., &Cohen, M. (1987). Education on theelectronic frontier:Teleapprentices inglobally distributed educationalcontexts. Contemporary EducationalPsychology, 12, 254–260.

Riel, M., & Harasim, L. (1994).Research perspectives on networklearning. Machine-Mediated Learning,4, 91–113.

Judi Harris, [email protected]

Images courtesy of the Earth Day Groceries Project


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INTRODUCTION

Virtual Architectures Web Homeccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jbharris/Virtual-Architecture/

INTERPERSONAL EXCHANGE

Structure 1: Keypals

The Hobart-Malang Electronic Mail Projectanfi.pacit.tas.gov.au/fahan/Compute/indo.html

IRC Users Centrallight.lightlink.com/irc/index.html

Structure 2: Global Classrooms

Read to Write Projectwww.itdc.sbcss.k12.ca.us/projects/kreider/index.html

Desert and Desertificationenvironment.negev.k12.il/desert/desert.htm

Earth’s Crust and Plate Tectonicsenvironment.negev.k12.il/platline.htm

Structure 3: Electronic Appearances

CU-SeeMewww.indstate.edu/msattler/sci-tech/comp/CU-SeeMe/index.html (free version)

www.wpine.com/Products/CU-SeeMe/(updated version)

Women of NASAquest.arc.nasa.gov/women/intro.html

Structure 4: Telementoring

Hewlett Packard’s E-Mail Mentor Programmentor.external.hp.com/

Electronic Emissarywww.tapr.org/emissary/

Lanier Middle School’s Electronic Emissary Projectwww.rice.edu/armadillo/Schools/Lanier/EEP/

Structure 5: Question-and-Answer Activities

Ask an Expertwww.askanexpert.com/askanexpert/

Structure 6: Impersonations

Letters to Jeffersongopher://pen.k12.va.us:5000/11/Pav/SocStudies/Jefferson/Letters

County of Wurtzwww.ecnhs.org/dept/socstudies/wurtz/Wurtz.html

INFORMATION COLLECTIONAND ANALYSIS

Structure 7: Information Exchange

Global Grocery List Projectwww.landmark-project.com/ggl.html

Structure 8: Database Creation

Kidlink’s Multicultural Calendarwww.kidlink.org:80/KIDPROJ/MCC/

Structure 9: Electronic Publishing

MidLink Magazinelongwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink/

Structure 10: Telefieldtrips

Al Rogerswww.gsn.org/who/team/ar.bio.html

Virtual Chinawww.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/VChina97/

MayaQuestwww.classroom.com/

PROBLEM SOLVING

Structure 11: Pooled Data Analysis

National Student Research Centermembers.aol.com/nsrcmms/NSRC.html

EnviroNetearth.simmons.edu/

RoadKill 98earth.simmons.edu/roadkill/roadkill.html

Structure 12: Information Searches

GeoGamewww.gsn.org/project/gg/

Structure 13: Peer Feedback Activities

Writers in Electronic Residencewww.edu.yorku.ca/WIERHome.html

How Far Does Light Go?www.kie.berkeley.edu/KIE/web/hf-description.html

MindsEye Monster Exchange Projectwww.win4edu.com/minds-eye/monster.html

Structure 14: Parallel Problem Solving

Electronic Schoolhouse’s International Egg-a-Thonwww.eggathon.com/97/eggathon_home.html

Structure 15: Sequential Creations

Kidlink’s MIDI Music Relaywww.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/Midi/

Write and Illustrate a Children’s Storywww.mbnet.mb.ca/~dfalk/Writing.html

Benni the Bear Around the Worldwww.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/Benni/

Structure 16: Telepresent Problem Solving

KidCast for Peacecreativity.net/kidcast2.html

Structure 17: Simulations

Electronic United Nationspwww.simulations.com/eun/index.htm

Taking Stockwww.santacruz.k12.ca.us/~jpost/projects/TS/TS.html

I*EARNwww.iearn.org/iearn/

Structure 18: Social Action Projects

Holocaust/Genocide Projectwww.igc.apc.org/iearn/hgp/

The Rope Pump Project: Clean Water for Nicaraguawww.iearn.org/iearn/projects/pump.html

Earth Day Groceries Projectwww.halcyon.com/arborhts/earthday.html

Save the Beaches Projectednhp.hartford.edu/WWW/Nina/Beaches2.html

15September 1998 Learning & Leading With Technology

Documents

How teachers use the Internet to create learning …...6 Learning & Leading With Technology Volume 26 Number 1 How teachers use the Internet to create learning projects for their students