Dear Group,
If you have never participated in a "Blackboard" web-based learning
activity, you're in for a real treat. I strongly recommend it to all
University professors.
It is a way to effectively communicate with your students using many
different categories, such as:
--General Announcements
--Course Information: Syllabus, required texts, policies
--Assignments with web links
--Communication: With members of the class directly: Class E-mail,
Discussion Board (varying topics), Chat Room, Class Roster with their
own homepages.
--External Links section organized by subject headings
--Personal Information
--Calendar
--Check your grade
--Class Manuals
--Address Book
--Digital Drop Box. File too big to fit on a floppy? Don't have a
CD burner? Want a place to save your material just in case your system
crashes? The Digital Drop Box is perfect for all of that. It's
especially handy if you need to do a big Powerpoint presentation. Just
put it in the Digital Drop Box and bring it up in class and do your
presentation.
I am currently taking a Library Science class and it's great.
Sincerely,
Robert Beck
Greetings!
Are you interested in having your school/class participate in an
interactive, Web-based learning environment? We are in the process of
creating an online community through the use of a Blackboard course
website. The word "course" is used here to mean a Web-based learning
activity, not an actual academic course in the usual sense. Schools are
being invited to have a group in the course, meaning one or two teachers
and a small group of interested students.
The content them for our pilot project is the game of Go, an ancient
Chinese board game. While learning about the history of the game and
it's place in Asian culture (art, literature), as well as how to play
it, students will be exposed to lessons and activities created by the
teachers involved in the project. Connections can be made between Go
and math, language arts, and social studies.
Take a few minutes to read about out project in the following text, and
visit out Blackboard course site to see the resources, links, materials,
and people who are involved. If you, or a teacher in your school, is
interested, please contact me. I will be happy to answer questions, and
provide more information about our goals and activities. This is work
in progress. From here on, much will be determined by the participants,
and we will all learn together!
Anton
-----
Pilot Project:
Central New York Scholastic Go
(We'll change the title if schools outside CNY area join the project.)
1. The purpose and the technical agenda of our pilot project...using
Blackboard with several schools:
Here in Central New York (the greater Syracuse area), we are developing
a small pilot project to explore the use of a Blackboard course site to
facilitate interaction, communication, and instruction among independent
classrooms in several school districts. We want to add a few schools
from other geographic areas, both within the U.S. and abroad. There are
now two middle schools in different school districts here with teachers
who plan to join hte project and will be learning to use the Blackboard
online course software.
We'd like to see if anyone outside Central New York State is interested
in joining our project. At the moment, we are considering various forms
of Web-based applications for distance education or group communication,
such as Blackboard, Yahoo Groups, and Listserv. The well-known Internet
Go servers are a possibility, however online game sites are usually
blocked by the network firewalls in schools.
2. The theme of our content is: The Game of Go (This should be
especially interesting for social studies teachers!)
If you are not familiar with the ancient Chinese board game called Go,
please visit the links below. Go is somewhere between 2,000-4,000 years
old, and it's true origins have been lost in obscurity. Needless to say,
the game wouldn't still be played all over the world today, if it
weren't at least as challenging and fun to play as chess!
If your school already has a Go club (like a chess club), or you want to
consider teaching students to play Go as part of a social studies unit
on the history of Asia, or perhaps in a math unit (games, logic,
coordinate systems), please contact me by email. I will be happy to
answer questions about Go and our project.
Want two FREE Go sets for your school? Of course you do!
The American Go Association (AGA) supports school teachers who want to
teach the game of Go by offering to provide free Go sets and materials
to help create school Go programs. Contact the AGA, and make a request
on behalf of your school or classroom. This support is offered only to
bonafide K-12 school teachers and administrators.
You might want to begin your exploration of Go by requesting this free
equipment, and then have your students invesitigate the game of Go for a
social studies or math project. English teachers may want to make the
connection between Go and Asian literature, such as the haiku about Go,
and the novel, "The Master of Go", by Nobel Prize winner, Yasunari
Kawabata. Go is embedded into almost every form of Asian culture. If
your students being searching the Internet for websites on Go, they will
be surprised to how many turn up - hundreds!
If enough interest develops beyond the assignment, and students want to
continue improving their skill, and to play with students from other
schools, you can join our project at that time. Meanwhile, your students
will learn about the oldest board game in human history, and gain some
insight into Asian culture.
What is Go? - by Mindy McAdams
http://www.well.com/user/mmcadams/gointro.html
American Go Association
http://www.usgo.org/index.asp
Free Go Sets for Schools! http://www.usgo.org/teach/ed_main.html
And now, here's how to get to view our Blackboard site - CNY Scholastic
Go:
Click here for the login screen http://welol.cnyric.org/?bbatt=Y
Click on Login
Click on Preview
Click on the tab for Courses
In the Course Search box, type: cnygo
Click on the course title: CNY Scholastic Go
You should now be at the Announcements/homepage for the course!
These sections are open via the Guest Access view:
Announcements - homepage
Course Information - overview
Teachers - list of instructors & photos
Course Documents - materials for students (and teachers!) Projects -
collection of Powerpoints by school groups Books - short list of
recommended Go instruction books Web Sites - resources for instruction,
history, buying equipment
__________
Anton Ninno, K-12 Tech Integration Trainer
Voice: 315-431-8407 E-mail: aninno@cnyric.org
Rodax 8 -- 6075 Thompson Road, Syracuse, NY 13206
OCM-BOCES http://www.ocmboces.org/
NYGPS http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nygps/
CNYGO http://community.syracuse.com/cc/cnygo
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