Building Connections
A key to successful project work is developing effective relationships with educators around the iEARN network. Most educational systems do not emphasize or even encourage collaborative curriculum-based project work - even within the same school. Therefore, it is extremely important to establish human relationships among teachers to facilitate the difficult task of collaborating on projects across diverse educational systems, time zones and school year schedules, cultural differences, linguistic obstacles, and the non-oral and non-visual learning medium of telecommunications. iEARN places a high priority on building these relationships - both online and during face-to-face meetings of teachers and students.
Suggestions for Getting Started and Participating Successfully in iEARN
Welcome Phase
Learn about Projects
Become Involved in a Project
Create a New Project
New Project Template
General Suggestions for Posting to the Online Forums
Suggestions for Successful Project Participation
Suggestions for Successful Project Facilitation
1. Welcome Phase
Meet others in iEARN -- we invite new members to introduce themselves and greet new members on our forums for connecting people. Teachers and students must be registered to enter the iEARN forums. Teachers can register students by clicking the "Manage Account" at the top right of iEarn's Collaboration Centre page.
Two good places to start are the following forums:
Teachers- This forum is a place for teachers to meet and talk, make announcements and updates. It is also a place to share initial project ideas in order to find other people who might want to help develop a project. As part of their introduction into iEARN, new teachers are encouraged to post a message to introduce themselves and describe briefly themselves and any special interests they or their class have.
Youth- In this forum, young people can meet each other, share ideas and topics of interest, and consider ways they can work together.
Special Language FORUMS:
All of the iEARN forums are multilingual, though there are also a number of special language forums for connecting people. iEARN is also open to hosting additional language forums as interest is expressed among iEARN participants. See the Language Resource Page for links to the various language resources, including online forums, available across the network.
2. Learn about Projects
There are several resources that will help you find out which projects are currently taking place on iEARN and how to get started in project work:
Newsflashes - Every two weeks an online newsletter is created and sent to all iEARN participants via email. It describes new projects and people looking for collaborators, gives updates on continuing projects, and is a place to make general announcements. To receive the iEARN Newsflash, write to subscribe@us.iearn.org requesting to be added to the newsflash distribution list. (see a sample newsflash)
Project Description Booklet - This annual publication is sent to all members of iEARN.
Project and Member Databases - In iEARN's searchable project database you can find out more about projects that are happening in the iEARN community. If you do not know your password, or have forgotten it, click here.
3. Become Involved in a Project
We encourage all iEARN teachers and students to participate in existing projects before initiating a project of their own:
- Identify a project of interest and find out if the project is still active using the steps listed above.
- Go to the forum where the project is held or write to the facilitator of the project. Read existing messages on the forum.
- Introduce yourself, your class/school and reasons for your interest in the particular project. Respond to recent postings/topics on the forum.
- Remember, all students want and need responses to their messages. We recommend that your students post 2 responses for every new message they post.
4. Create a New Project
Before starting a new project in iEARN, new classrooms are encouraged to first get involved in existing projects. Once you have participated, have made contacts in iEARN, and are familiar with how the projects are conducted on the forums, these are the suggested steps for developing your own project:
Announce your idea by posting it to the Teachers' Lounge . This is to generate discussion and possible collaboration on the actual design of the project, and to see if there are other people interested in the topic.
Once you find other people who are interested in joining the project, fill out the Project Idea Template Form (see below). iEARN Coordinators will help to find an online forum for your project and will indicate this on #14 of the Project Template.
Once your project has been assigned to a project forum, facilitators are encouraged to start an "Updates" thread to provide participants with updates about the project (news, timeline modifications, etc) and an "Introductions" thread in which new members can introduce themselves as they join the project.
Occasionally post responses to your topic so that people know whether it is ongoing or ended, whether you are still looking for participants, etc. Project facilitators are strongly encouraged to update their original announcement by posting news of the project as responses to the original announcement. Also send the updates to newsflash@us.iearn.org, so that we can put them in the newsflash. This is especially important if most of your project is taking place over email and not on an online forum where it is visible to the full iEARN community.
New Project Template
- Name of Project:
- Brief one-sentence description of project:
- Full description of project:
- Age/level of project participants:
- Timetable/Schedule for the project:
- Possible project/classroom activities:
- Expected outcomes/products:
- Project contribution to others and the planet:
- Project language(s):
- Curriculum area:
- Names/email of initial participating groups:
- Name of facilitator(s):
- Email of facilitator(s):
- iEARN Forum where it will take place or is taking place (leave blank if uncertain, and you will be assigned to a forum):
- WWW page of project (not required):
Send by email to projects@us.iearn.org.
Suggestions for Posting to the Online Forums:
Try to describe the essence of your message in the Subject line. And, if you are responding to a message, do not change the Subject line.
Try to be as brief as possible in your message, and include the most important details in the first paragraph. You may be writing in a language that is not the native language of those reading your message. Some users have limited Internet access, and it is very helpful for them to be able to get a sense of your message in the first few sentences.
Limit the number of attachments you post to the forums. They can be too big for those who pay for dial-up access. Attachments don't always translate over the many systems across iEARN and many arrive to people as garbage. Try to configure your mailing software so that it sends out only plain text and no attachments of encoded word documents and html files. (e.g. Microsoft Outlook Express by default is set so that it sends out not only plain text, but also an encoded word version of the same text or an html version, that doubles the size of messages). If you want to share with all subscribers something that is big but valuable (a Word document, a jpeg picture etc) just send a note to the forum and ask people if they want to get it by email, then email it to them individually. Or place your document on the web for everybody to see.
Do not post chain letters or any commercial advertisements to the forums.
Suggestions for Successful Project Participation:
Try to create a globally aware classroom/school environment. The fact that iEARN is a known, sustainable community will provide a very different online experience to those young people who are used to "anonymous" correspondences on the web. Having systems in class/school for students to better understand the interconnectedness of the world, will allow their online collaboration with peers globally to take on richer meaning.
Create a system for peer-editing in your class. Preparation and transmission should be seen as two different tasks. Preparing the message, researching and creating material to be transmitted, is a very important part of the whole process. Students will be writing with real purpose for a very real audience. The presence of this audience provides an incentive for students to produce the most effective communication possible. Consider creating a feedback process where students have the opportunity to comment on each others work, peer edit, and then revise accordingly.
Communicate. Even if you can't contribute for weeks, send a note to say so. That way, your partners know that you are still interested in participating.
Ensure language is cross cultural. How much of what is being sent needs explanation or description for an audience from a different culture? Slang or colloquial language needs to be used carefully. Translating student writing into a context that is most universally understandable can open interesting discussions in your classroom.
Have fun!
Suggestions for Successful Project Facilitation:
Emphasize the collaborative aspect of the project. Make sure that there is collaboration and interaction among participants, and that teachers do not simply develop the project with their classes and report back what they did, but that they actually work together.
Involve students in project planning and facilitation. iEARN project forums are intended to be used primarily for student to student interaction. Project facilitators play a key role in helping teachers plan to use the project in their classes. Educators are important for coaching and guiding students in project participation.
What’s the project impact? In addition to meeting specific educational goals, every projects proposed by teachers and students in iEARN must answer the questions, “How will this project improve the quality of life on the planet?” This vision and purpose is the glue that holds iEARN together, enabling participants to become global citizens who make a difference by collaborating with their peers around the world.
Use iEARN’s online forums for project discussions and exchange of student work. Because iEARN forums are archived, new participants can join more easily than in exchanges happening over private e-mail. In addition, iEARN forums are distributed via mailing lists, web-based forums, and offline newsreaders, thus keeping cost to a minimum for those with limited connectivity.
Login to iEARN on a regular basis and stay active in the project’s online forum (at least weekly). Those listed as project facilitators are expected to monitor forum discussions, and to welcome new participants. If your class will be offline for a period of time, please post a message to the project forum to alert the team of this, and if possible designate others to assume the role of facilitation.
Update project information periodically. Posting periodic updates to your project forum will help existing participants, and will ensure that new participants will not be referring to outdated project information. In addition, project facilitators are encouraged to share project news in the Teachers’ Forum and students can do the same in the Youth Forum.
