Abema hamoi basindika eitara. ( Haya)
Mikono mingi kazi haba. ( Swahili)
Many hands make light work. (English)

Haya (Tanzania) Proverb


Collaboration?!!! What a great idea!

I work, I’m a mother and now, I am trying to go back to school. The technology class is beating me, but I can see the value in it. Time constraints make telecollaboration invaluable. I am learning little by little how to navigate and make more productive use of the web every day. I hope to find the help, support and resources I need to succeed.
It is even more exciting to envision the teaching opportunities available with the implementation of telecollaborative lessons. World wide “fieldtrips” are at our fingertips. Any topic is within reach. Exchanging ideas and seeing another point of view to broaden our experience and intellect used to be the goal of travelling to other countries. Now, the World Wide Web has added another resource for preparing students to be global thinkers in a multicultural world while saving fuel. The availability of collaborating with diverse groups on a structured goal or lesson broadens the field of knowledge.
Telecollaborative lesson plans have evolved and are still evolving. The basic steps begin by choosing a curriculum that would not be possible with a traditional classroom. The activity structures or models for designing educational telecomputing activities should be chosen thoughtfully from the approximately sixteen activity structures currently compiled from reviewing hundreds of successful online projects. These activity structures fall into three groups identified as Interpersonal Exchanges, Information Collections and Problem -Solving Projects. With my time being at a premium, exploring examples of other projects and getting ideas online can save hundreds of hours of planning.
As with any lesson plan, planning all the details will make the lesson more effective and productive and keep the goal in focus. Communication with in the telecollaborative group takes on new meaning as participants are on line at different times. Short private messages, such as thank-you’s, return receipt messages, “good job” or “where have you been?” should be modeled to keep communications alive and reach participants personally.
Finally, the completed project should be celebrated with all the participants. The finished product should then be shared with the immediate community and published on the web. In this way the project is not over, but has just begun again enabling further communication making us all stronger.