What is a Telecollaborative Lesson?

A telecollaborative lesson is similar to a collaborative learning environment, with the only exception that it is done from a distance. The teacher groups his/her students with other students located in different classrooms, different schools, and sometimes even different countries. Since it is obvious that the students are not in the same classroom the teacher uses the internet to facilitate student interactions, for example the students can e-mail one another to communicate. The teacher must also make the time to correspond with other teachers/ telecollaborators on the project so as to stay on the same page. Not only can the students interact with a different class, but they can also interact with several different classes at one time, depending on the teacher’s use of the telecollaborative lesson. A lot goes into planning a telecollaborative project, and the teacher must be ready to put in a good hundred hours into the development of one. There are certain steps and measures one can take to plan an effective telecollaborative lesson. The teacher creating a telecollaborative lesson must be clear with what the curricular goal(s) will be and how the activity will be structured. Keep in mind that the teacher isn’t just setting these in place for his/her class, but that these will also be implemented with the other classes that will be joining the cybernetic grouping of the students. It is recommended that the teacher research and explore other examples of online telecollaborative projects. It is helpful to see how other teachers put the projects together and what topics they may have decide to cover with this type of lesson. It is also important to determine the details of the project: the title, the educational purpose, the organizer/contact person for the project, and many more significant elements that ensure a successful execution of the project. Once these have been decided and the intentions of the lesson are made clear, it is time to invite other telecollaborators into the mix. Posting a brief description of your project in public discussion areas frequented by other K-12 teachers will get the job done. Along with the brief description of the project, make sure to leave a private e-mail address so that interested parties will be able to reach you online for further information of the project. This is a great way to create a solid network of teachers as well. By keeping the e-mail addresses of interested teachers you will have formed connections with the ones that share your interests, making it easier to reconnect with them when the time is right. Once you have spoken with other educators about the project and have made a decision on how to best go about it, you can now form the telecollaborative groups. Staying organized is a vital component throughout the entire process. It is essential to keep the information of all the teachers that registered to be a part of the project in a file and to make sure to have the teacher’s name, school name, school location among other important tidbits about the class itself. After all these things are in place, it is time to communicate. Remember that communication online is different from face-to-face communication. E-mail is text-based and a quick way to communicate a thought, so be prepared to receive multiple e-mails from the different telecollaborators. It is important that you log into your e-mail account daily to read and delete messages sent to you about the project, whether they are updates, progress reports, or changes. Knowing the status of the project is imperative to all who are contributing to the efforts of the project, so it is wise to have all who are contributing to the message being sent to sign it. As an active participant in the group you should also be willing to share what you know with all, including the newcomers. Just make sure to keep communication alive between you and the other teachers. And finally, create a solid closure for the lesson. This can be done through assigning the students to create a tangible product at the end of the lesson, like a public presentation or a display of what they learned. The main point of a telecollaborative lesson is to get the students to interact not only amongst themselves in the classroom but to expose them to the world outside of it, to bring a little piece of reality into their grasps and to let them experience it, if just through the internet.