[Year 12 IT Apps] Virtual Teams - Get in the Groove

[murch at tpg.com.au]

With the virtual teams aspect, and to give my students a real life task working on virtual teams, I decided to get my students involved in  a 'dinky di' 
one. I had applied for middle school students at our school to be part of the flat horizons project which is a global one, as sounding board mentors. As 
time was going against us, I decided to give the task to my year 12 class as we are looking at the topic of virtual teams. 
See it at http://horizonproject2008.wikispaces.com/Sounding+Board+Feedback 
Initially 4 students in years 11 and 12 from 4 different countries worked virtually on creating a wiki on various technology topics. This is to then be 
judged. Topics were given and they collaborated and developed a wiki.
Volunteers were sought to read them, assess them and offer feedback - 3 positive points, 2 on possible improvements to  the wiki and 1 piece of 
knowledge that the assessing student had gained. The year 12 students are therefore the sounding board. I invited my students into a purpose built 
wiki that I set up, entering their feedback on this wiki with links and  relevant tags given to the horizonproject wiki.
The flat horizon wikis will then be judged globally by professionals and the role of my students is to help them on their way.
This project is now underway but I would encourage any of you to get involved in similar type activities as it makes their education far more real.
Anne Mirtschin
Hawkesdale p12 College