IOC 2006 Online Learning supporting international collaborative literature project

My own positive experiences as a student in distance education courses fostered my desire to create online collaborative learning opportunities for my students. This is my fourth year of online learning design for my students and every year just keeps getting better with the rapid development of social computing tools available and the ubiquitous speed of bandwidth.

My students throughout these years have enjoyed using Internet-based forums and email to meet and communicate with other students from around the world. The goal, however, is much more than to just exchange information between teenagers, but to engage in collaborative knowledge building and learning. This requires attention, focus, clear communication skills, questioning, analyzing, negotiation, and flexibility. In short, these collaborative projects provide opportunities for our students to employ higher order and critical thinking skills in a manner that cannot be duplicated in a classroom setting. And, I am proud to say, on many occasions I have witnessed my students rise to this challenge and perform beyond my expectations.

This year I have been particularly pleased with the moodle software that was used to support these projects. Moodle rocks! As one who does not want to learn or use code, moodle has been very easy to use and has been exceptionally well-supported by those lads, mostly in Australia, but around the world who offer their time and expertise in a selfless manner. The moodle LMS has been stable, mostly reliable, quite flexible and the students have no difficulty navigating through the course areas. In fact, the students have been much more facile in their use of the environment than many of the adults!

It has been my pleasure to recently accept a nomination for the GSN Online Shared Learning Award. My thanks to my peer, Milana Zubritskaya, at the Technical Lyceum of Novosibirsk State Technical University for the nomination. You are my partner in spirit, Milana, and I have been very encouraged by our friendship.

2006 Illinois Online Conference for Teaching and Learning Feb. 15-17 2006 Online Learning Supporting The International Collaborative Literature Project Israel-Canada partnership in online collaborative learning
HOME LCC Moodle LMS IPNCL Tools used Timeline Students' feedback Teachers' Feedback Design of projects Multimedia showcase LCC ICLP 2006 NC-LCC ICLP 2004-2005 Lower Canada College Neveh Channah Rabin High School	Sharon Peters Greetings from Montreal! I teach middle and high school English at Lower Canada College, a university prep school. As well, I am completing my M.A. in Educational Technology at Concordia University. My thesis explores online collaborative learning for high school students and, while my progress on my final thesis is glacial, I do hope to graduate soon. My own positive experiences as a student in distance education courses fostered my desire to create online collaborative learning opportunities for my students. This is my fourth year of online learning design for my students and every year just keeps getting better with the rapid development of social computing tools available and the ubiquitous speed of bandwidth. My students throughout these years have enjoyed using Internet-based forums and email to meet and communicate with other students from around the world. The goal, however, is much more than to just exchange information between teenagers, but to engage in collaborative knowledge building and learning. This requires attention, focus, clear communication skills, questioning, analyzing, negotiation, and flexibility. In short, these collaborative projects provide opportunities for our students to employ higher order and critical thinking skills in a manner that cannot be duplicated in a classroom setting. And, I am proud to say, on many occasions I have witnessed my students rise to this challenge and perform beyond my expectations. This year I have been particularly pleased with the moodle software that was used to support these projects. Moodle rocks! As one who does not want to learn or use code, moodle has been very easy to use and has been exceptionally well-supported by those lads, mostly in Australia, but around the world who offer their time and expertise in a selfless manner. The moodle LMS has been stable, mostly reliable, quite flexible and the students have no difficulty navigating through the course areas. In fact, the students have been much more facile in their use of the environment than many of the adults! It has been my pleasure to recently accept a nomination for the GSN Online Shared Learning Award. My thanks to my peer, Milana Zubritskaya, at the Technical Lyceum of Novosibirsk State Technical University for the nomination. You are my partner in spirit, Milana, and I have been very encouraged by our friendship. My blog: Musings on Educational Technology