Comments from Donna Daniel |
| FINAL EVALUATION 1. How the project went (from your perspective). http://209.115.204.118/telecollaborat/tools.htm Great! In spite of the usual glitches with technology like losing our Message Board for a few hours and our Classroom WebPages for a few days, we managed to stay focused on the work! Tools 4 Writing actually helped to keep me excited about the whole writing process with these pieces of writing, in spite of these technical challenges. My students and I could not wait to see the work done by the other students at other schools! Catherine Suen's constant positive and informative e-mails, and step-by-step mentoring made this telecollaborative writing project fun and easy. Andy Lummis's presence in the background, with the Message Board, was reassuring. 2. The impact of this project on your student's learning, include comments on the impact of using the Internet and Information and communications Technologies. (i.e.) what the students learned about computer technology I believe that the Discussion Board and the webpages motivated them to put forth their best efforts in their writing. Making their work web ready for our class webpage for links with the bigger Tools 4 Writing project encouraged editing and revision, and working for excellence in a short time frame. The message board helped those who participated to develop and hear their own voice. My students felt validated, and their confidence as writers was palpable. They certainly learned more about the revision phase of the writing process and gained more understanding of how to choose and use descriptive words and phrases from the online writing samples. 3. Describe what curriculum outcomes/expectations were achieved and/or not achieved and why. (i.e.) what the students learned about using the web through Tools 4 Learning My students had only used a Message Board on one other project this fall (with the Dept. of Education in Tasmania), and loved this mode of communication. They had to e-mail their assignments home and back to school to continue working on them. We completed much more writing in the time frame of the project than we were able to post. C .1 - Students will access, use and communicate information from a variety of technologies. Specific Outcomes 2.1 access and retrieve appropriate information from the Internet by using a specific search path C.5 - Students will use technology to aid collaboration during inquiry. Specific Outcomes 2.1 retrieve data from available storage devices, such as a shared folder, to which a group has contributed 2.3 extend the scope of a project beyond classroom collaboration by using communication technologies, such as the telephone and email C.7 - Students will use electronic research techniques to construct personal knowledge and meaning. Specific Outcomes 2.2 use selected presentation tools to demonstrate connections among various pieces of information 4. What the students learned about writing... My children worked with a model developed by Steinhauer School---to analyze and write and rewrite introductions. They learned many different ways to think about writing different parts of a story, and different forms of functional writing by participating in the Tools 4 Learning telecollaborative project. 5. In what ways did students work together both during the project and in creating the website? The children worked with partners to prepare each piece of writing and to make it web ready. į Class brainstorming į Peer editing of independent writing į Partner formatting 6. Your contribution to the project. I was delighted when a colleague commented that she appreciated Steinhauer School's model for openings that I had posted (with permission from the principal). I also know how much it has impacted my teaching and my students”¦ learning for the past two years. Her positive feedback and request to use Steinhauer School's model in her classroom stimulated me and gave me the courage to set up a tentative model of closures, which we posted, with examples from my children's writing. Catherine Suen's design allowed us to link and share other telecollaborative and classroom projects as samples of different forms of functional writing. 7. Please share some of your student's thoughts on this project.(this is important) http://209.115.204.118/telecollaborat/tools.htm It was interesting to read all of our pieces of work on the internet. Logan It was fun to respond to the other kids writing on Mr. Lummis”¦ system. I learned from all the other kids”¦ writing. They have all these descriptions and different words. Madison It was interesting how we got to see other classroom”¦s work and they got to see ours. Jessica I liked it because you can see how other people think. Davis It made me feel like a real author with my work on the internet, and people could see it. Jay |
[Evaluation of Tools4Writing Project]