Looking for collaborators on a "First Day of School" project

Since it is "that time of year," I think a great way to introduce kids to the concept of collaboration is to share first day of school experiences around the country and around the globe. My first thought was to do Animoto videos, but I am sure there are many other great ways to connect. Ultimately, it would be great to create a web site or wiki with all of our experiences in one place. I would foresee us talking about traditions, fears, hopes, etc. I think staying with the ages of around 7-11 would be best. This could be a really excellent project!

I am new to the idea of collaboration and trying to learn all I can about web 2.0 technology, so I am very open to any guidance anyone wants to give. I am a third grade teacher in an inner-city school in a high poverty/ high crime area. I am hoping to expose my kids to other cultures in the country/world. Let me know if you are interested!

Tags: Collaboration, first day of school

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Permalink Reply by Samuel Fye on August 23, 2009 at 5:55pm

I don't see where there needs to be any limit to this project. Since people will have their own pages on the side, I don't think it will get too jumbled. Just go to the wiki and request to join--the more the merrier!

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Permalink Reply by Lucy Gray on August 23, 2009 at 4:22pm

Wow... look at all the people who want to collaborate. Very exciting. It looks like you've got enough project partners, but I'd love it if you'd post about your project in a ning that I run on global projects; there are tons of people there looking to join in on this sort of thing as well. The url is: http://globaleducation.ning.com.

Thanks,

Lucy

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Permalink Reply by Samuel Fye on August 24, 2009 at 6:00pm

Hello all! I am so pleased at the response to this project! I guess we are all basically just sitting around now and waiting for the first day--not much to do until then. I can't wait to see people's pages go up! I have not done anything with the wiki since setting it up, as things have started to get busy here. I did, however, get the adds removed, as several folks suggested. Thank you--it is that advice and guidance I am looking for in this project, so do not hesitate to give feedback and input. I not only have not done web 2.0 projects before, but no body in my school has either, so I am pretty much on my own! I know it needs to be "spiced up" a bit, so any help with that is appreciated! Beyond that, I hope everyone enjoys the last few days of their vacation! Thanks for your participation!

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Permalink Reply by Betsye Sargent on August 26, 2009 at 7:36am

Hi Samuel,
We tried an Animoto with our summer engineering class, and you're right -- it's easy. Now I'm wondering how we upload the first day of class animoto to our collaboration. And how do we see what others have added? Would this be on the wiki?
I seem to remember your mentioning somewhere about sharing voicethreads? That we haven't figured out yet but I went to the freetech4teachers you suggested, but didn't find directions. Rather it suggested that we would have to pay $60 a year for a subscription. Did you find the same thing? I notice that Mary Freeman mentioned Audacity for voicethreads. Thought I would check that out next, but any experience you have had would be appreciated as we all l;earn together how to use these tools.
Is there any way we can be notified when someone adds a comment since I feel I have been out of touch.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on August 26, 2009 at 9:46am

Betsye, FYI, I just got an email saying you could add video to your Animoto video. Is that redundant? You could imbed an Animoto video anywhere, here's on one our blog.There is a little envelope at the bottom of this discussion page. Click to follow.

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Permalink Reply by Samuel Fye on August 26, 2009 at 3:03pm

Here's the link for the VoiceThread tutorial. I was going to do a screencast for you (because I just did one yesterday for the first time and thought it was really cool!), but the one on this page is probably better than what I would do! Let me know if you need anything else.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/08/how-to-week-day-5-using-an...

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Permalink Reply by Mary Freeman on August 27, 2009 at 2:18pm

Sam,
Sorry I've taken so long to reply. I plan to let my students take some photos of our school and area tomorrow and I could also record their comments about the
1st day of to compile into a video (that is if I can) I've joined Animoto but haven't used it yet.
I like the idea of collaborating on habitats.
We are currently studying weather, perhaps we could do something with that (especially since it is hurricane season where we live in NC).
Betsye and I are corresponding by email now because it is so much easier to check thorough out the bus school day. Please feel free to do the same if there's something you want me to see quicker. mfreeman@rcsnc.org
Thanks, Mary

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Permalink Reply by Samuel Fye on August 29, 2009 at 3:17pm

I did some work on the Wiki today--finally! I basically just spruced it up a bit, but I did figure out how to embed some things--notably, VoiceThread. I am happy to get any feedback/suggestions. By the way, anybody competent editing Wiki's with CSS? I will also post this on the forum board. Take care!

PS If this is the first posting you have read, the Wiki is at

http://thefirstdayproject.wikispaces.com/

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Permalink Reply by Samuel Fye on August 30, 2009 at 10:40am

Still making changes to the Wiki--check it out when you get a chance!

http://thefirstdayproject.wikispaces.com/

Sam

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on August 30, 2009 at 3:43pm

Sam, If I were you I would either link to your district site or move it to its own page. Having it at the top of your students' page is a bit distracting. Just a bit of constructive critism from someone who had done thousand of webpages, three blogs and five wikis!! N.

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Permalink Reply by Samuel Fye on August 30, 2009 at 4:26pm

I certainly appreciate the feedback! I only put that there because I was learning how to embed websites, and that was my practice site. My page is still just a "sandbox", as I don't have anything "real" to post yet. I do not think I will include that website on my final page at all. Please don't hesitate to pass on any other thoughts--it has been a real learning experience for me. Take care!