| Step Two
Step Two: Building a Telecollaborative Project, Before you Begin
To ensure success for your project, consider doing the following before you begin designing your own project.
Participate in a Project: It is helpful to participate in a telecollaborative project before you actually try to create one on your own.
- You gain valuable experience as you observe how someone else organizes the project, manages the participants, and communicates the activities.
- You establish relationships with people who have experience integrating telecollaborative projects into their curriculum. These people become valuable support resources as you begin to create your own.
- You develop your own ideas of how to make curricular connections to a project and how to engage students in this type of project.
Read, Read, Read!: There are many books, articles and Web sites about telecollaborative projects you can use as valuable resources. These resources give you design guidelines, templates, and tips you can use immediately.
Identify Curricular Connections: Tie your telecollaborative project into your specific subject matter, content standards, and instructional goals. Identify these beforehand so you can clearly communicate them to other teachers and students who are interested in joining your project. Ask yourself these questions:
- What do you want your students to learn?
- How are they going to learn it? What activities will they participate in that lead them to your ultimate learning objective?
- What will they get out of it when it�s all over? What will be the final project?
- How will I know my outlined objectives have been met?
Identify Project Specifics: Communicate clearly from the beginning:
- How long will my project be?
- What age group of students is appropriate for my project? Who is my target audience?
- If designing an international project, what will be the primary language used to communicate with each other?
- What will be the primary means of communication?�email, Web site based, teleconferencing, etc.