Discussion and Reflection
Upon completion of the activities,
teachers had an opportunity to reflect. Teachers liked components of
the WebQuest, provided colorful visuals including graphics and animation.
These visuals helped clarify the task, process, tools, resources, and
products. A teacher, who felt that visual content was an important hook
for low-level readers, indicated WebQuests are “engaging, motivational,
and involve high level thinking”, and EBB provides a protected
space for collaboration. Participants found book-marked resources valuable,
especially for students who “lacked Boolean search strategies
or had difficulty beginning their research.” Other features teachers
liked were the rubrics and tables, which provided spaces for committee
members to place their research notes and website documentation.
One teacher described the
training as “an elegant form of professional development, which
builds the teachers’ capacities to work together asynchronously
over distances toward a common goal.” Her observations mesh with
Little’s (1993) view of professional development as "meaningful
intellectual, social, and emotional engagement with ideas, with materials,
and with colleagues both in and out of teaching" (p.138).
They also address issues
of curriculum differentiation, scaffolding learning, and assessment.
Teachers engage in discussions about how they might adapt the model
across grade levels, content areas, and school boundaries. Participants
learn how to work with a technology coordinator to set up an electronic
bulletin board on their own server. They also discuss what types of
resources are required to supplement their students’ research,
communication and product formation.
Levels of prior computer
use varied widely among the teacher participants, but most had Internet,
email pass worded access experience. Therefore, participants registering
for the bulletin board and accessing the committee rooms reported few
problems. Teachers found composing a letter of introduction too open-ended,
but were pleased that guidelines posted on the bulletin board allowed
them to use pen names, and prohibited sharing of phone numbers or addresses,
or use of last names. Teachers discussed other guidelines that they
would add when using the scenario with their students.
Participants observed that
the quality of the problem-based scenario depends on the problem, the
task division, and the quality of the links to resources. Many suggested
that working with another teacher to co-construct their own project
would require planning time for developing a scenario, locating appropriate
resources, determining how the product would be evaluated. They often
chose to collaborate and customize their own EBB to match their scope,
sequence, and the content requirements of their grade level. “When
planning across campuses, we have a responsibility to our principals,
and to the kids, to the parents to heighten our attention to make sure
that our lesson plans are successful.
Classroom Implementation
Because the teachers could
easily monitor the progress in each of the committee rooms, they were
able to post a variety of messages to support, clarify, or redirect
the committee’s efforts. “Students begin to see the impact
of their communication on other students. It encourages them to rewrite
for clarification and to expand their ideas.” Teachers also observed
that EBB monitoring made classroom implementation less worrisome. “It
is more convenient to evaluate the students’ bulletin board exchanges
than it is to evaluate email exchanges because you can see all [of the
messages] listed at one time.” One teacher observed,
“The bulletin board
takes advantage of the natural inclination that kids have. Kids are
interested in other kids and want to talk to them. In this case, though,
they are going idea to idea. I had one student who had no arms. This
method of collaboration erases culture, gender and disabilities.”
The EBB allows for asynchronous
communications because submissions can be posted and read at any time.
It allows students from different schools to participate in the group
projects. “My students were on a regular schedule, and my co-teacher's
school on a block schedule. It would have been impossible to do this
in real time.” Teachers, whose students were on an A-B block schedule,
found that they could use EBB’s to connect students in their own
alternate day classes. Participants reported that working with mentors,
emissaries, and students from other schools added depth to the project.
“Being able to talk to students who are not in their own classrooms
adds a feeling of seriousness to the project.
A librarian and history
teacher developed a bulletin board, which linked fourth grade and eighth
grade American history students. The eighth graders assumed the persona
of American heroes and responded in the “voice” of the hero
to questions posed by the fourth graders. “The eighth graders
found it difficult because several students pretended to be the same
hero. They had to make sure that they used the same voice in answering
the students’ questions. They had to be careful because the fourth
graders noticed any discrepancies.” Teachers reported that the
collaborative experience built students esteem, developed confidence
in the ability to learn in an open, flexible, and supportive environment.
Another team of teachers
developed projects integrating math, science, and art which involved
collaboration among middle schools in two different districts. Students
created drawings, constructed models, took pictures of their creations,
and sent them to their partners at the companion school. Subsequently,
the two schools co-constructed sculptures. Teachers entered the fruits
of their students' labors into competitions.
Electronic bulletin boards
are an amazingly versatile tool for teacher training and classroom implementation.
When teachers commit to carefully planning the scenarios and the related
resources, and when the technology is in place, then only the imagination,
ingenuity and inventiveness of teachers and their students limit processes
and products.
