Globally Collaborative Project Ideas for Elementary

[Kim Cofino]

Update:

So many great ideas came up that I thought it would be appropriate to start a new wiki to allow everyone interested to take ownership of these projects.

As much as I would like to participate in every single one, I know that realistically it’s not possible. With this Global Collaborations wiki we can begin to connect individual schools together on projects that truly enhance the core curriculum units. Please feel free to contribute anything and everything to this new space!

I've also posted a long overview to these projects with more details on my professional blog, Always Learning. Please feel free to comment in either place :)

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Another great unconference session today!

Our group came up with tons of great ideas for collaborative projects for elementary. These ideas are only a starting point, please feel free to add anything you would like to start collaborating on in the replies:

The starting point:

Grade 5 Ideas:

Book Club / Literature Circle: Use Ning to share our thoughts on our reading - create literature circles with students from a variety of schools - each group would have a community on a collaborative Ning.

Connecting ESL students: Discussing common books that our grade 5 ESL student read using podcasting or YackPack. Please share some of the books that you would like your students to start a discussion around - we are confident that there will be at least some overlap between schools if we're working at the same grade level.

Weather: Drawing conclusions from data - collaborate to both collect and present data on weather

Blogging: Connecting grade 5 classrooms - individual student bloggers connecting about their learning, areas of interest, creating a community of learners

Life 'Round Here from Chris Craft: Deadline to join Sept 21st. International digital storytelling project - sharing what life is like where you live.

Cross Grade Level Ideas:

Online Art Exhibit : Flickr, Voice Thread: posting an international art exhibit from a variety of international schools. Also, allowing students to discuss each other's art by posting pictures and allowing others to comment on areas that interest them by audio, text, and drawing on the images

Exploring Our Communities: Use Voice Thread to share drawing of the different communities that each student is a part of and describe those communities. Share among schools.

Learning About Local Culture: : Representing art in the culture you live in teach students about local art - students teaching students

Social Networking : Open Ning or Imbee network just to connect and communicate - starting with more casual conversation, exploring our likes/dislikes, culture, school experience and build as the school year goes.

Professional Learning Communities for Teachers:

Lots of examples already online:
Clasroom 2.0 Ning
The Global Education Collaborative Ning
NextGen Teachers Ning
Support Blogging Wiki
Ning in Education
Tapped In
K12 Online Conference

Please feel free to add your own ideas to this discussion thread!

Please also add your name if you're interested in participating in some of these project ideas.

Lots of sample completed project ideas are posted on my blog,Always Learning, please feel free to check them out and comment.

Looking forward to collaborating with you all!

[Paul Harrington]

Hi Kim,
For me and my class of Year 4's the idea of a Weather Information Group sounds ideal :)

[Kim Cofino]

Hi Paul,

Excellent! Let me find out which grade level does weather here at ISB and we can connect our schools.

[Paul Harrington]

Great Kim thanks - it will be very interesting to compare our areas I am sure :)

[langwitches]

Exploring our communities would be ideal for our third graders (9 year olds), since this is part of their curriculum. We are also interested in blogging collaboration. Kindergarten, 4th, 5th and 6th graders have all set up classroom blogs. The teachers are gearing up to get them started.

[Kim Cofino]

Hi Silvia,

Perfect! I'm anxious to find some partner classes for our grade 5 bloggers. When you get back from Egypt let's chat about helping those grade 5s develop real personal learning networks...

[Kevin Jarrett]

I am preparing to start using Imbee with our entire fourth grade class (120 kids) - I'd love to get something going here!

-kj-

[Kim Cofino]

I need to take a look at Imbee - saw it ages ago, but haven't been back, until it came up this weekend. I would love to get our grade 4s together on this!

[MVESK5]

Social networking with my fifth grade students is high on my priority list this school year. I just registered for a teacher's account with Imbee.

It looks like a great option for the elementary school students.

Have teachers out there tried it and would you have a review to offer us rookies?

Margo in Virginia

[Kim Cofino]

Hi Margo,

I haven't used Imbee yet, but I'm definitely willing to give it a try!