INTERSCHOOL WEB-BASED CURRICULUM PROJECTS--URLs
The following projects range from the very simple and short term to the complex and long term. They vary in the number of instructional tasks, educational level, and degree of technological literacy. They have been chosen because they can be examined with these issues in mind.
But they have also been chosen because they illustrate the different levels and kinds of collaboration that are possible, the different ways of fostering social and cultural awareness, and the way in which the whole (the results of individual work) can be greater than the sum of its parts. It is in these characteristics, we think, that the true power of web-based curriculum projects lies.The Globe's El Nino Project and the Acid Rain Project are two examples of projects in which the participants gather data and send it to a central databank, where it is then posted for all participants to see. In some of these projects, schools are encouraged to work together, but the main point is to gather enough data so that the shared results reveal patterns or larger (non-local) processes.
Most of the projects that do this have focussed on scientific data, but there more and more that cumulate other kinds of information in order to give a picture of a larger process. The New Deal Network's projects taken together will build a picture of the New Deal as it operated across the nation.
Smaller projects, such as the WPA Murals Project, focus on only one aspect of the larger whole but have the same aim. This particular project has great cross-disciplinary potential because it is looking at public art.
The Global Grocery List and the Monster Project are examples of seemingly very simple projects that provide powerful ways to raise awareness of economic, social, and cultural difference.
In the UN CyberSchoolBus's Demining Schools Project, students not only learn about the devastating effects of the land mines left behind after a war, but join an international campaign to ban land mines and help raise funds to clear the mines from a schoolyard in Mozambique. They interact with a range of people outside the classroom, including land mine experts, land mine survivors, and their local communities.
In the Young Reporters for the Environment, students from schools across Europe work together (in carefully constructed groups) to investigate locally and then report to the entire community on environmental issues of mutual concern.
There are many places to go to find on-line projects. One excellent annotated list is at: http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/online/join.htm
We would be happy to hear your thoughts on this discussion.
Barbara Shelly (bashelly@mailbox.syr.edu)
Susan Lowes (susanl@mailhub.ilt.columbia.edu)