Presentation for the PLTW Conference, Houston TX January 2010

1. TEXAS Facilitating a Virtual Project in the PLTW Classroom Carol Teitelman Coordinator-Distance Learning Region 13 Education Service Center Austin, TX Carol.Teitelman@esc13.txed.net Jana Schmidt IED Teacher Lyndon B. Johnson High School Johnson City, TX jschmidt@johnsoncity.txed.net

2. Session Objectives: Facilitating Virtual Projects in the PLTW Classroom overview: 4.2.1 virtual design challenge barriers : teacher survey results collaboration : synchronous-vs-asynchronous tools: online collaboration questions and answers milk and cookies

3. Facilitating Virtual Projects in the PLTW Classroom IED Unit 4-Lesson 2Virtual Design Project & Team Norms 1. Why are teams of people used to solve problems? 2. What are group norms? 3. What does consensus mean, and how do teams use it to make decisions? What types of communication methods do virtual teams rely on in the absence of face-to-face contact? 6. How do teams deal with individual team members’ weaknesses? 7. What methods do teams use to formally address conflict between team members?

4. Unit 4.2.1-Virtual Design Challenge: Facilitating Virtual Projects in the PLTW Classroom students select a design problem: Modular Coffee Shop Table Speaker Support System Manufacturing Fixture Bicycle Storage System Holiday Ornament Dog Supply Organizer Locker Organizer teacher groups students according to interests teacher selects method of virtual collaboration

5. Unit 4.2.1-Virtual Design Challenge: Facilitating Virtual Projects in the PLTW Classroom teacher introduces project and method(s) of communication. time estimate for project: 25 days project assessment is based on teacher, student and peer evaluation deliverables: engineering notebook, gantt chart, performance evaluations, drawings and a 5 minute summary presentation

6. BARRIERS

7. Facilitating Virtual Projects in the PLTW Classroom Mapping out the Issues

8. Texas Teacher Survey Results (49 responses): Facilitating Virtual Projects in the PLTW Classroom My gut was right.

9. Facilitating Virtual Projects in the PLTW Classroom

10. Facilitating Virtual Projects in the PLTW Classroom

11. "There can be infinite uses of the computer and of new age technology, but if the teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classroom and make it work, then it fails.“--Nancy Kassebaum, U.S. Senator

12. TOOLS

13. Facilitating Virtual Projects in the PLTW Classroom “Usually it's the time crunch that makes me not want to participate but also finding the virtual partner and figuring out the times and schedules for the students to "meet" just really kills it for me”. Synchronous -vs- Asynchronous Collaboration

14. Synchronous Can you hear me now?”

15. Asynchronous

16. Facilitating Virtual Projects in the PLTW Classroom “With all the extra activities that are assigned from the district that we are required to do during our class, it is very difficult to get through the entire curriculum (activities for TAKS, journaling, etc..). The technology department is very restrictive in what we can do with our computers. We also do not have the web-cams.”

17. What needs to be shared?What format works best?How many people are involved?

19. Sharing Multimedia

20. Sharing Multimedia WIKI

22. Q & A

23. Links used in the presentation: Sharing documents: mashable.com/2008/05/02/sites-to-share-documents-online/ Sharing multimedia: www.flickr.comwww.youtube.comwww.shutterfly.com www.teachertube.com Podcasting: www.learninginhand.com Blogs: http://www.21classes.com/ Wikis: try www.pbworks.com Video conferences: www.vidyo.com Other sites: www.cilc.com for tips on videoconferences Photos used are copyright, royalty free from Microsoft Gallery or www.sxc.hu as well as taken by the presenter.

24. TEXAS Facilitating a Virtual Project in the PLTW Classroom Carol Teitelman Coordinator-Distance Learning Region 13 Education Service Center Austin, TX Carol.Teitelman@esc13.txed.net Jana Schmidt IED Teacher Lyndon B. Johnson High School Johnson City, TX jschmidt@johnsoncity.txed.net