Home MembershipSpecial Interest GroupsSIGTel (Telelearning)SIGTel Online Learning Award 2002

Spotlight on the 2002 SIG/Tel Online Award Winners

First Place Marilee Paterson

From Russia with Love Marilee Paterson Target Audience: Grade 9/Ages 14–15 Canadian: Peggy Schieman Russian: Yana Kliain Jan Buchoski Leonid Federov Melanie Allen Irina David Ball Raisa Richard Tapp Svetlana #1 Judy Jess Svetlana #2

Tom Baines School
250 Edgepark Blvd., NW
Calgary, AB T3A3S2
Canada
mapaterson@shaw.ca
mapaterson@cbe.ab.ca
http://canada.eimc.ru
403.777.7190

Project Summary

This project rose out of a need to "speak" with the youth of modern day Russia. I had the outline of an internet project for one of the curriculum topics within our Grade 9 Social Studies curriculum - Russia . . . Then & Now. The internet provided many historical websites but we needed to get also a modern perspective. Very naively, I went on the internet and explored www.penpals.com. The first 30 hits were Russian women wanting to marry American men. (ha, ha). At the bottom were a few people willing to help me make contact with someone in Russia. One response led me to the website of Ural Mountain University and from there a computer technology teacher, Sergei Osipov. He then connected me to Yana Kliain, whom I have been corresponding with since October, 1999.

Objectives

Since the inception of this project in October, 1999, classes of grade 9s (up to 8 classes per year) have been involved. Small groups of grade 9 students were paired with Russian students and emailed one another each week. The Russian students' responses were read aloud to the rest of the grade 9 students. Any emails that came from Yana, I also shared with my classes. They were able to group information into cultural patterns and compare them to ours in Canada.

Necessary Telecommunications Resources

Our main resource that we use is email. Other software is imovie, page mill, digital video, scanning of pictures.

Role of Telecommunications

After the first year of the project, we were able to secure funding from Telus2Learn and we sent over to Russia a video camcorder and a digital camera. Since July of 2000, we have exchanged video and pictures numerous times. Topics within the videos have ranged from special places in our cities, special celebrations and activities within our schools. Yana has created a website for our project ( http://canada.eimc.ru ) and the small group of students that relate to the rest of the school are actively involved in answering a question of the month. For example, one question was "Terrorism in the 21st Century." Very interesting to read both culture's responses. Through each of these mediums we have increased our understanding of a country that was for many years closed off to the rest of the world.

Curriculum Area(s) Involved

Social Studies, Language Arts, Computer Technology

Grade Level(s) Targeted

Grade 9–14–15 year old

Planning Requirements & Procedures

The first year of the project was mainly Yana and I emailing each other. The second year of the project we organized it so that a certain "pod" within the school would be responsible for emailing and sharing responses with classmates within their pod. That year we had 3 pods of grade 9 so the project rotated after approx. 3 months. The third year of the project, we opened the project up to volunteers from the different pods and have a selection of 2–3 students now per pod who attend monthly meetings regarding the project. They, then, disseminate the information to the other students in their pod throughout the year. Next year, we plan on having one class responsible for making the connection and then presenting their findings to the rest of the grade 9 population, parent groups and other teachers, possibly using power point or hyperstudio.

Print Materials Needed

Class Management Strategies/Required Activities

Students within the small group actively email once per week, scan pictures, respond to the question of the month and are given a taping segment to complete. The classroom of students watch the videos that are sent, listen to email responses and collect from the emails examples of the cultural patterns within Russia.

Suggested Class Time & Project Duration

The project is ongoing and will, most likely, continue through the next few years, in some form. The time that the small group is active is 9 months of the year-meeting one time / month. The time that the rest of the grad 9 population is actively involved is during the teaching of the Russia topic within the curriculum.

Method(s) for Evaluating Student Achievement of Objectives

Throughout the project there have been on-going "informal" evaluations using the following methods: exams, quizzes, projects, assignments, discussions, and presentations monitored and assessed for student performance. A few specific examples are:

1. Data collection of all print-out of emails from both countries have been made into a book, "Discovery of Canada," that is to be used in an ESL classroom in Ekaterinburg. This will be a future reference and will establish a base knowledge, which can be used to examine student performance in the project over time.
2. Student performance on Russia related questions in the Alberta Gr. 9 Social Studies Achievement Exam will be analyzed.
3. Student motivation is measured and noted during various learning activities such as sharing of pictures of Russia, viewing videos sent from Russia and examining the various traditional artifacts that have been sent as gifts.