November

From the three choices students voted on for the final topic, Progression Through Time received the most votes. It was determined that the emphasis would be on technology and how it has changed our day-to-day life. Once our final topic had been selected, the next task was to determine subtopics and work groups, and to start developing storylines.  Based on the number of students working on the project, our goal was to have at least two students from each school per subtopic group. NC students needed to work in pairs to increase their comfort level with the project and because English is not their native language.  Students were given the opportunity to select from seven subtopics. 

Teachers found a number of websites to get students started on their research.  Students were asked to visit the sites that related to their topics and to look for additional sites to add to the list.  They were also asked to make note of any web design features they wanted to incorporate into our site.

During the middle of November,  ECS was without internet access for over a week due to a virus in their system.  They also had a shortened week due to parent teacher conferences.  During the same time period, Mott was without internet access for 1 day.  These problems made it difficult for students to communicate through Nicenet at school. 

We started using our GVC server space for hosting documents, graphics, etc. that we wanted to share with our partners.  Since Nicenet doesn't have an attachment feature we found this was the best place to leave things where students could find them from school or home.
Our first student chat was held between members of the medical subtopic group.
Chatting enabled them to discuss in real time how to proceed with their subtopic and it seemed to be very helpful. All students continued to research their topics, discuss design features, share ideas, and learn new software programs like Swish, Adobe PhotoShop Elements and Paint Shop Pro.

Students from NC prepared for their field trip to the Hebrew University.  The purpose of the trip was to get tips from the experts on conducting interviews.  Students from all schools would be interviewing people working in the subtopic areas as well as parents and grandparents.  NC students would share their findings with the entire group after their visit.

December

We began the month with Mott students returning after a long week-end off to celebrate Thanksgiving and with all computer problems apparently solved. Students spent the week deciding which items they wanted to feature in their subtopic areas and then continued to research those topics. The design team was busy learning Swish and coming up with ideas for the entrance.  Several chat sessions were scheduled during the week to give students an opportunity to make some decisions "in person".  An idea for the entrance storyline was posted and students were able to discuss it during one of the chats. Several students started communicating through regular email to further discuss their ideas.

NC students met with Mrs. Iael Nidam-Orvieto of the Oral History Department, Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem. She gave them a workshop on interviewing people for creating Oral History Sources.  This taught them all the aspects of interviewing, documenting, and learning from the interviews. Pictures of their trip and a summary of the things they learned were shared with the entire group through Nicenet.

Each student was asked to make three suggestions for questions to be used in our interviews. These were compiled into one document that students could use when conducting their interviews and doing their surveys. Ideally, each student would interview at least one person as well as survey several others.  Our goal was to have at least one "expert" interviewed for each of our subtopic areas.