Una’s Blog

I just read the article Wherefore art thou, telecollaboration? by J Harris (2002). One of the main ideas in this article is that research shows students are using the internet in classrooms primarily for exchanging information in different ways, not for projects that focus on discussion and communication. The latter of which has proven to develop students higher-level social learning and problem solving skills.
I found this article interesting because it talks about using the internet in another way, taking the next step almost, in the classroom. It outlines the benefits of devising programs that require students to use the internet in a telecollaborative way, interacting and communicating across and between classes, schools, and countries. This type of thinking and discussion would encourage a very global mindset from both the students and the teacher.
This idea is very exciting for me. It is exactly what I would like my students to one day think about. The problems with actually incorporating these types of computer skills and activities into a program have been pretty substantial so far, however. So obviously it is going to take some work and more trials and experiments to get it well intergrated into a curriculum.
I think this type of project would work well with topics like media studies. One good idea i found in the article is the Global Novel Project.

Image from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Internet_map_ 1024.jpg/300px-Internet_map_1024.jpg