Designing Your Own Online Project

Determine Your Goals
Begin the planning process by looking at the big picture. What do you want students to learn? What skills do you want them to develop? Identify goals first, before you develop an activity and find teachers and students to work with. This important step can help you maintain a strong focus and create a project that fits into your curriculum.

This is also a good time to ask yourself if Internet tools and resources will help students to achieve the goals you've identified in this particular project. If the tool fits the task, use it. If it doesn't, then by all means, use a different tool. The key to effective Internet (and other technology) use is to be specific abou;what you want to do and then use the teaching and learning tools that are most appropriate.

Map Out the Details
Once you've decided what you want to do, it's time to work out the details. How will you structure the activity? What will participating students and teachers need to know? How can you describe the project to spark their interest?

As you develop answers to these questions, you will need to prepare two email messages to distribute to potential participants: a short project announcement and a longer, more detailed call for collaboration. The project announcement consists of a short description of the project and contact information so people can request further details. The call for collaboration includes all the information teachers and students will need to participate in the project:

• Project goals, objectives, and description
  
• Your contact information: name, location, email addrss
  
• Firm timeline that includes a beginning date, ending date, and several interim tasks and deadlines
  
• Criteria for participation: how many teachers and students will participate in the project? Which grades will be included? How will you select the participants? When and how will you let teachers and students know if they will or will not be included in the project?

Many teachers use sample project announcements and calls for collaboration as a guide for writing their own messages. Examples developed by other teachers can give you valuable ideas and help you to successfully organize and describe your own project.

It also helps to have a friend or colleague take a fresh look at your project announcement and call for collaboration. Are the messages clear? Do they include the information teachers and students will need to make decisions and participate in the project?

You might also want to test your project out on a small scale, either with one teacher or with a group of teachers. A quick trial run can help you discover technical problems or glitches in the overall project design, saving time and unnecessary frustration in the long run.

Find People to Work With
After you've thought through the details, it's time to get the word out. Start by sharing your project announcement with other teachers who have Internet access. This can be easily accomplished by posting your announcement on one or two electronic mailing lists where teachers advertise their online projects. Interested teachers and students will send you email, expressing interest and requesting more information (the call for collaboration).

It's hard to know how many teachers will want their students to participate in the project. There may be ten, there may be one hundred. It's your job to decide how many participant groups work best for the project, select participants as necessary, and let everyone know what's going on.

Keep Up the Momentum
Once teachers and students are actually participating in the project, your role as project facilitator becomes doubly important. Here are a few tips to keep discussions focused and lively.

• Form a distribution list of all project participants so that teachers and students can share information and materials easily.
  
• Focus discussions on the originally defined topics and tasks.
  
• Share your expertise with others and encourage other participants to do the same. This can become particularly important when participants are Internet newcomers and need technical assistance.
  
• Encourage participation by sending short, private email messages as necessary.
  
  reminder messages help busy teachers and students remember upcoming tasks and deadlines
  
  cheerleader messages recognize and applaud exceptional efforts
  
  ping messages touch base with participants who have not sent email tohe group for awhile
  
  thank you messages can be sent throughout the project to let participants know that you appreciate their contributions
  
  

End Graciously
Projects often include development of a tangible product that will become accessible to project participants and to the larger educational community. The product might be a book, short videotape, or online database of measurements collected by students. The point is to create something concrete that showcases all the hard work and rich learning that have taken place.

It's also helpful to include time for participants to talk at the end of the project. Students and teachers might share their perspectives informally with one another. They might also choose to close with thank yous and goodbyes or by planning to collaborate again in the future.