Chris+Lorenz+-+Part+2+-+Social+Networking

Chris Lorenz Lesson Title: Traffic Dangers – part 2 – online collaboration Grade Level: Middle School – Social Studies Unit: Problem Based Learning and Technology Content Standards: Colorado Geography Content Standard 5.1 5.1 Students know how human actions modify the physical environment. • describing ways that humans depend upon, adapt to, and affect the physical environment. ISTE NETS: Ongoing assessment: Each student group will work with the teacher to find an appropriate online group to collaborate with. The teacher will monitor the progress of each group to ensure that they are completing steps A, B, C and D in step 3 above.
 * GOALS:**
 * 1) Creativity and innovation
 * 2) Communication and collaboration
 * 3) Critical thinking and problem solving
 * Instructional Objective**: Students use online collaboration tools to solicit information and feedback from other students around the country to see if and how other students have dealt with similar traffic problems near schools.
 * Brief Description:** After student groups have analyzed the traffic problem by getting details of the past accidents and taken video of traffic patterns in front of the school, each group will develop possible solutions to the problem. Once each group has formulated possible solutions, they will then use Ning to collaborate with other students who have perhaps dealt with similar traffic issues near their schools.
 * Action:**
 * 1) After each student group has researched the traffic problems and developed potential solutions, they will use a social networking site to try to communicate with similar student groups about similar traffic problems.
 * 2) The teacher will try to find similar groups in social networking sites to connect student groups with so that groups do not need to spend time searching for groups. This will be done prior to doing the student collaboration.
 * 3) Each student group will be responsible for:
 * 4) Communicating the traffic problem clearly to their counterpart group.
 * 5) Asking for information from their counterpart group on what problems they had with traffic accidents near their school.
 * 6) Asking for information on what steps the counterpart group took to try to fix the problem.
 * 7) Communicating to other groups in the class the information they receive from the online group.
 * 8) When each class group has had the opportunity to get feedback from an online group, the class groups will share and discuss what they have found.
 * Monitor:**
 * Evaluation:** Each group will be evaluated on how well they communicate with their counterpart group online. The online communication of the elements in step 3 above will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the online communication and collaboration. Each group will need to determine whether the online collaboration helped them to develop or refine their original solutions and summarize their online collaboration experience..

Chris- You did a great job of connecting this lesson to your PBL lesson. Will you have the students collaborate using a wiki as we are in class, a ning, or through a blog?? You may want to have it set up prior to any lessons and plan to implement several lessons on how to navigate a social networking website. For my class blog I had to pass out written directions with step by step procedures. Just a thought you may want to consider. Great job so far! ~Meghan

Meghan:

I was thinking about using a ning, but have not done so before. This is something that I would need to research before proceeding with the lesson. I also would need to find some possible groups that have worked on similar problems to have ready for students to connect with.

Chris-

Hi Chris,

Some questions about your lesson:

I believe your students will stumble upon measurement with local regulations for measuring distance for stop signs or street lights. Can you incorporate math standards?

Are you going to model login or use of NING? I know I have never used it and would like to see how it is used.

What will you use for assessment? A rubric? A checklist? A peer or self-evaluation? You may want to mention the word reflection as your students "determine whether the online collaboration helped them."

I really like how connected your lessons are and that you are giving students more time to determine a solution to this problem. Who knows, maybe they will be the ones to get something accomplished to remedy this situation from occurring again. Nice work! -Lynne

Chris, I really liked how you incorporated the collaboration and expanded on your first lesson. I have one question - with using NING - I know that is a resource we have been provided but I read something about the free NING is going to be phased out. Have you heard anything about that? Will you continue with them sharing their findings in part 3?

I have not used Ning before, but I would like to see if I can use it for group collaboration. If the free version is phased out I would need to find an alternative. I did some searching for nings related to traffic problem near schools but did not really find any suitable groups, so I may need to find an alternative anyway.

Chris-

Hi Chris, This is a terrific lesson. It is great that the students will have an opportunity to take video footage--fun and exciting for many. That is nice that you can use Ning. My school blocks it. How about a checklist for the students and you to monitor the steps/formative assessment? ~Megan F.