Connecting+students+using+the+Web

=Connecting students using the Web=

We have now seen a wide selection of tools for students to use to publish work on the Internet. How can you best go about using some of these tools to connect to other classes and students around the world?

**Planning a Project**
The first thing you should do is to decide what kind of project you want to become involved in. Here are some questions to consider:
 * How long do you want the collaboration to last? (a couple of weeks a / a term / ongoing?)
 * How much time are you going to set aside for your students to work on this project?
 * How much of that time will be spent preparing the project? And how much time in connecting with the students?
 * Will the collaboration have a particular theme? If so, what is it? (My city / country, the Environment, etc)

The more specific a plan you create, the easier it will be to find a class / classes to join in

Connecting to do a specific project is better than connecting just to communicate. There are plenty of existing ideas for projects on the Web you can use for inspiration.
 * Web Learning Projects

Live communication Tools
Connecting in real time is highly motivating for students. Here are a few ways you can do so: []
 * **Tapped In** [] - Learning Community with text-based chat
 * **WIZIQ** [] (A free virtual classroom)
 * **FlashMeeting** (the Open University in the UK) - if you are an educator, you can apply for a free trial account (341e4149)
 * **Skype** (a good way of connecting classroom-classroom if you have permission to use it) - a webcam makes it even better. Download it here.
 * **Google+** is a new social network with a 'Hangout' feature (see picture below) that allows you to connect to people and chat in real time.



**Finding a class**
Once you have a document with the details of the project (including the size of the class, the age range and level of English), then you can look for a class to connect to.

There are many ways to do this. One of the best ways is to start with communities of teachers who are interested in doing similar projects. Here are a few places to look. You will have to join some of these communities and start asking and looking for possible partner classes:


 * The EU's e-twinning project
 * British Council's Teaching English site
 * Groups of teachers on Facebook or asking on Twitter
 * A community of practice of teachers such as **Learning with Computers** ([|group] [|blog])

If you try these and don't have luck, then I would be happy to do my best to help you find a suitable partner class - just keep in touch by email:

graham.stanley@gmail.com