Benefits of Online Collaboration Between Grades and Schools

My grade 5 class has had the opportunity to buddy with a grade 12 Biology class in the neighbouring town. The grade 12 class has access to a class set of netbooks so that the students have the opportunity to skype with their buddies and to journal with their buddy using a wiki on a regular basis. It has been a wonderful experience for the students to get to know another group of students who are a lot older and who, on the surface, do not share many apparent commonalities. Modelling was needed for both groups of students on how to use skype and how to journal effectively with someone you don't know. The students caught on very quickly to the technique of asking someone that you don't know questions that are open ended and that do not allow for a yes/no answer. To help structure the interaction of the two groups and to provide purpose for the students, we (grade 12 biology teacher and myself) met and linked outcomes between Biology 30 and grade 5 science. The students were working on a unit in plants and as a culminating activity the grade 5 students were to present photosynthesis in a digital format that could be presented during a skype session with the grade 12 students. I was amazed at the myriad of ways that the students came up with to effectively present the process of photosynthesis. Some of the ways were: a rap, drama, interview show, glogster poster, hand drawn poster and song. Each presentation show cased the students' multiple intelligence learning style well. Each morning we skyped for about 15 minutes where each grade 12 student had the opportunity of presenting a "Wonder Why?" based on biology and then 10 interesting biology trivia. The grade 5 students had the opportunity to ask questions based on the presentation. The grade 5 students took turns each day presenting on photosynthesis. The grade 12 students were expected to take notes and then had a quiz based on what they learned. The grade 12 teacher commented that the students in her class did very well on their photosynthesis quiz. It was fortunate that the grade 12 students were able to have access to netbooks over a six week period because it allowed for the connection between the students to be established. In fact, the power of the relationships created was very well illustrated when a student in my class who struggled in math mentioned to me that her grade 12 buddy (who is also female) commented that her favorite subject is math and how she wants to study to become a doctor. That comment from her grade 12 buddy affected my grade 5 student so much that she said that she didn't know that girls could be good at math and that she was going to try to concentrate during math and to do better. This side benefit of collaboration with an older student group is something that I didn't ever imagine happening.