From Freeport, ME - The MLTI program has put an application on our laptops that can be used to introduce our students to Web 2.0 experiences: NoteShare. Also, they have given all middle schools accounts with StudyWiz, an online collaborative community that is "private." I am working with NoteShare notebooks, shared both through our network and over the net (using IP addressing), to show students how to make Comments and how to use threaded discussions in collaboration. With another teacher, Shawn Favreau, I will be also exploring the Chat and Discussion boards built into StudyWiz. Shawn and I are both finding that we can not assume that students really understand how to take advantage of either asynchronous or synchronous digital communication. I have had to set strict guidelines for contributions - "fluff" comments are an instant response from most of the students in any class group. Flushing out meaning or value in another's post is NEW and it is HARD. Shawn is finding that some topics, such as those that touch upon personal values and experiences, can be more easily explored through the StudyWiz chat - which is to say, students express their own feelings and thoughts more freely that they would in a classroom discussion or roundtable. However, they are NOT responding meaningfully to each other. This, we agree, has to be modeled and taught. The advantages of NoteShare as a teaching environment are that it is (1) instantly updated by each contributor [unlike StudyWiz, which takes too long to refresh screens] (2) editable - I actually highlight some responses, project them, and we edit them as a group - I also use the editing tools to comment directly to student authors, just as I do when I respond to their writing pieces. My hope is that the modeling will result in students who can use the editing tools to enhance collaboration and collaborative decision making. They are, by the way, planning group digital presentations in response to a novel we are reading. Each group is comprised of 3-5 students from other core classes. No f2f allowed (although, interestingly, 2 of the 16 groups are sneaking this...).

We tend to believe that because our students are active online, in real time, they will quickly transfer their skills to classroom uses. Nope - we can't take this for granted any more than we can assume they can make movies because they are handy with a camcorder.