1. UNESCO ASEAN SCHOOLNET BRIDGES OF LEARNING Learning Circles South Africa Sep 2009

2. Introduction Nomty Gcaba ◦ JHB, South Africa ◦ SchoolNet SA

3. Telecollaboration Tele – ◦ Television, telescope, telecommunication ◦ Over a distance Collaboration ◦ To work together Internet ◦ Email groups, website Learning Circles

4. What we learnt Not enough training Language difficulties Email problems ◦ Technical ◦ Incorrect addresses Country coordination Time and other events

5. Why we chose Learning Circles Internationally successful Structured Simple

6. Classroom Investigations Themes ◦ Measure by Measure  Maths, science, economics  Analysing data with spreadsheets and charts ◦ People and Places  Social science, language, economics  Opinions, attitudes, beliefs, values ◦ The World We Live In  Science (natural science, biology)  How we interact with our world

7. Learning Circle Investigation Differences ◦ Geographical, Cultural Request simple information ◦ Request completed in one lesson or less Gathered information enhances the project Interesting to others

8. Bloom Taxonomy of thinking ◦ Knowledge  Identify components of a family ◦ Understanding  Explain how you are related to your father’s sister ◦ Application  Draw a family tree ◦ Analysis  Compare a human and non-human family ◦ Synthesis  Create a family crest ◦ Evaluation  Who makes the biggest contribution to your family?

9. Open and closed questions Closed ◦ Facts ◦ Correct answers Open ◦ Require research, thinking ◦ Promote discussion ◦ Many responses

10. Open/Closed Activity Language ◦ What does “interpret” mean? ◦ Interpret this poem Science ◦ What is coal? ◦ What energy source is the best option? Maths ◦ What is the volume of a square? ◦ Are squares useful in building design? Complete the examples

11. Focus Question Provide the challenge of a project Focus on the topic Open Challenge higher order thinking Stimulating and interesting Short

12. Sharing information ◦ Receive questions from other groups ◦ Respond to them ◦ Receive responses to your question

13. Assessment Learning Circle Sharing ◦ PowerPoint template ◦ Microsoft word ◦ Publisher Goodbye

14. Project “rules” – groups/classes One person per group registers ◦ Group could be class ◦ Class may have more than one group Each group has different email address Group from same class may not be in same Learning Circle

15. Participation options Whole class does same project ◦ Work in groups but participate as one group ◦ Work in groups, each participates in different Learning Circle ◦ Work as one group, participate as one group Each group has different investigation ◦ Each group participates in different Learning Circle

16. Communicating Only one registration per group One communication person per group Use class code in subject line ◦ E.g. MM4 Introduction Be reliable Use the same email address Stay in contact with country coordinator

17. Test run your project ◦ Setup (1 week) ◦ Register in Googlegroups ◦ Confirm your membership ◦ Learning Circle News1 ◦ Project should be planned

18. Test run your project Phase 2 Hello (1 week) ◦ Learning Circle News2  Name  Class code  Grade  Country ◦ Groups students – introduce project ◦ Class introduction email  Number, age/grade,  Something about your class, school and town  E.g WW5 Introduction

19. Test run your project Phase 3 Class Investigation (2 weeks) ◦ Learning Circle News3 ◦ Start class investigation  Focus question  Data required  Send data gathering question  E.g. Subject: WW5 Data gathering question

20. Test run your project Phase 4 ◦ Data gathering (3 weeks) ◦ Learning Circle News4 ◦ Receive questions  Organise responses in groups  Send responses  E.g. Subject: WW5 response to WW3 ◦ Receive responses  Analyse responses in groups

21. Test run your project Phase 5 Data gathering (2 weeks) ◦ Learning Circle News5 ◦ Prepare publication  Examine data  Discuss focus question  Come to conclusion  Publish findings ◦ Website, PowerPoint or Word document ◦ Send to LC coordinator

22. Test run your project Phase 6 ◦ Goodbye (1 week) ◦ Say thank you ◦ Share what the project meant to you  E.g. Subject: WW5 Goodbye

23. Timelines Cycle 1 1. 16-22 January 2. 23-29 January 3. 30 Jan – 12 February 4. 13 Feb – 5 March 5. 6-12 March 6. 16-22 March Cycle 2 1. 14-20 August 2. 21-27 August 3. 28 Aug -10 September 4. 11 Sept – 1 October 5. 2-11 October 6. 12-18 October