Catalog of elementary activities

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Definition

This is Part 3 of the TECFA SEED catalog

What we mean by "elementary activities" or "simples acts" is to be related to the action and interaction units identified in the different steps of the scenarios and activities described in this catalog, see the >[#activity-catalog Catalog of scenarios (activities)]. We wish to make things easier for teachers willing to put these scenario into practice or to design their own. It is important that they can quickly know "how to do what" with a complex portal as a tool. These units of elementary pedagogical acts are not to be systematically associated to technological support. Though we linked them, whenever possible, to the corresponding C3MS bricks. Several bricks can be related to each simple act and teachers will thus have the possibility to choose according to the context in which he will have to operate. The aim is therefore here to find the best means to manage contents, sustain workflow and foster a rich and constructive interaction both between learners and between teachers and learners according to the types of situations in which activities will take place.

In order to allow teachers to freely use this catalog and foster a more creative approach of portal technology for teaching, we also identified, for most of these simple acts, differences in contexts leading to turn to different C3MS bricks. Finally, experienced teacher may directly design their own scenarios and then directly jump to C3MS bricks without doing any deeper analysis of elementary activities.

It is possible to identify the following collaboration and teaching situations:

1. Interactions between individuals in the same class

The pooling of resources which will be made available to all at anytime, create together, annotate, discuss, re-use and recycle what will have been produced, store productions that can be retrieved in the portal

2. Interactions between classes in the same city, the same country

Creation of communities (inter-classes projects), sense of collectivity, communication between teachers, learners, discovery, thematic portals for a specific course.

3. Interactions between classes located all around the world

Discovery of other cultures, openness to the world, communication and mutual enrichment, collaboration between teachers to boost communication between learners (for instance, language teachers)

4. Interactions between members of a community (parents, persons interested by a specific topic)

Collaboration between teachers, parents, specialists , creation and development of communities having the same interests.

This catalog is mostly concerned by activities that concern a single class, but also (2) and (3) to a lesser degree. Categories used are still quite provisional. They have been created sometimes at the beginning of the project and need un update at some point.

The Catalog of elementary activities

BrainStorm

Everyone says what he knows or imagine on a subject. Before starting an activity students try to figure out all they already know so that they can integrate knew knowledge better.

• >[#BEJFFJFB Wiki]
• The teacher wishes to lead his students to collaborate and get to an agreement
• >[#BEJIJIHI News engine]
• The teacher just wishes to initiate a debate making sure that each individual will give a piece of advice
• >[#BEJJFJJC Forums]
• It is also possible to use a forum pour to get students to interact before starting an activity

CheckWork

Checking of students' productions by the teacher. OBSOLETE ?

CoEdit

Creation of collaborative documents. They all can modify a unique document or at least annotate it

• >[#BEJFFJFB Wiki]
• Creation of collaborative documents that can be edited by all members. The identity of "actors" doesn't appear on the screen if they don't wish
• >[#BEJCDJHB CMS]
• Content can be edited through forms and will be inserted into a menu structure it will be possible for others to modify it but this will be less adapted to collaborative work.
• >[#annotation Annotation]
• Annotation of a given text (in various forms)

CommentLinks

Insertion of commentaries under the links entered in the portal. Useful to give hints on websites content. See >[#BEJBJDDA CreateLinkSpace]

• >[#BEJFEHBI Web Links]
• Links management system

CreateCategories

Determining categories for a theme, entering categories in an interaction space

• >[#BEJFEHBI Web Links]
• Entering categories and sub-categories in the portal in order to classify the links that are inserted
• >[#BEJFFJFB Wiki]
• Getting students to interact in a collaborative space to determine together the categories they will then enter in the portal in a more structured way

CreateForum

Installation of a forum module (ADMIN) or creation of discussion topics in an already installed forum

• >[#BEJJFJJC Forums]
• A forum allows participants to have an asynchronous discussion. Currently, there are 2 types of forums: threaded ones or "boxed" ones, which are mostly used and developed for portals

CreateImage

Formatting, modifying and adding legends to images to make them fit the project- OBSOLETE ?

CreateLinkSpace

Creation of a space in which to enter links. It is possible to create new links category, that can be described, and inside which it will be possible either to enter links directly or to define sub-categories

• >[#BEJFEHBI Web Links]
• A links management tool allows to insert web links inside categories. Most of the simple tools to be found in portals only allow the creation of one sub-category. Functionalities are not as sophisticated as in yahoo or DMOZ.

CreatePage

Web pages creation outside the portal with an editor. Links to these pages can be added in the portal - OBSOLETE ?

CreateQuizz

Creation of a quiz either by the teacher to check if the students have well understood some points or by the students to synthesize what they have just learnt

• >[#BEJFDIEI Quiz]
• Quizzes are modules that can be configured and adapted to any content

DistributeTasks

Dispatching of tasks by the teacher. Allows everyone to know exactly what to do and to manage time.

• >[#BEJJCAHI Task Management]
• This module is specifically designed to make project management easier.
• >[#BEJFFJFB Wiki]
• Can be used to plan a project by making an agreement on tasks to be performed according to wishes. The advances in the project can be traced back with the "Page History" function which saves the previous versions of pages.

EditCalendar

Use of the calendar to set a timetable. Each participant can add a particular event and describe it, and it is therefore easier to plan a collaborative project.

• >[#BEJGGIAD Calendar/Planner]
• There are several types of calendars. Most allow to edit everyday events and to indicate their duration. Calendars often include a special block which displays what's in the air.

EditGallery

Use of the « gallery » module to display images, photographs and commentaries.

• >[#BEJBHCFA Gallery]
• The "gallery" module allows to upload graphic elements (gif, jpeg, png, etc.) directly from your computer to specific "albums" to which it is possible to give a name. The tool automatically generates a "thumbnail" for each album. All "thumbnails" are displayed in one or several pages and each picture in the albums can be commented.

EditGlossary

Configuration and use of the glossary to display words, expressions and their definition. The teacher can enter the words to be defined and the students can enter the definitions of the words or expressions whose meaning they had to find out.

• >[#BEJFBGFB Glossary]
• A glossary editor is a simple CMS which allows to add words and definitions.

EditMenu

Adding internal or external links in the menus on sideblocks. This allows to organize links according to a specific theme, which makes things clearer. - ADMIN

EditStory

Modification of an already displayed text

• >[#BEJCDJHB CMS]
• This is a simple CMS (Content Management System)

EditSummary

Creation of a specific displaying space on the portal - ADMIN

EditVote

Creation of a quiz, poll, survey

• >[#BEJHEHEE Polls/surveys]
• Creation of a multiple choice question mini quiz.

HandsOn

"hands on" on the portal to understand how it works. The students can test the different functions so that they understand underlying mechanisms. Students must be administrators.

Interact

Discussions on forums or in the news engine (add comments to stories)

• >[#BEJIJIHI News engine]
• It is possible to add comments to what is generally displayed in the central frame of the portal and also to comment upon comments.
• >[#BEJJFJJC Forums]
• Communication in a classical forum is more direct and it is possible to choose the forum the most adapted to the type of communication that one wants to initiate.

IntroWork

Warming up before starting an activity. The teacher introduces the subject to students and gives clues.

• >[#BEJFFJFB Wiki]
• It is possible for the teacher to display an introduction and research questions in the wiki. Students will then collaborate to find answers by interacting in the wiki.
• >[#BEJIJIHI News engine]
• The teacher can choose to display the theme of the ongoing project on the central frame of the portal. The students can then react by adding comments.

KeepReference

Bookmarking visited sites before selecting, classifying and displaying them -OUT

Moderate

Suppressing of what is "wrong" by the teacher... - ADMIN

PlanProject

Common planning and management of tasks and projects

• >[#BEJJCAHI Task Management]
• This module is specifically designed to support project management: specification, organization, distribution of tasks...
• >[#BEJFFJFB Wiki]
• More flexible way to organize a project. Rather based on discussions aiming at deciding "who does what". All participants edit a special page dedicated to this task.

RateLinks

Giving one's opinion on the value and interest of the displayed links by voting. The links are then classified.

• >[#BEJFEHBI Web Links]
• This function is associated to a links manager module.

SearchWeb

Information seeking on the web

• >[#BEJJEGCJ Search Web]
• Use of a search engine. It is possible to include a form in the portal and to reduce research fields.

SendFeedBack

Evaluation and commentaries upon productions by the teacher or experts (during and/or after the activities). The feed back can be individual or collective.

• >[#BEJIHGFA Mailing Lists]
• The teacher can send a feed back to sub-groups of students or to the entire group. The feed back will be received by E-mail.
• >[#BEJIJIHI News engine]
• It is possible for the teacher to display a general commentary on the portal.
• >[#BEJFFJFB Wiki]
• The teacher can also insert comments in students co-productions.

ShowBest

Displaying of the best productions according to chosen criteria, which can be quite motivating.

• >[#BEJEBHHE Top List]
• Displays the de "best of" lists. Possibility to configure the portal according to chosen criteria.
• >[#BEJGEBFA Rating]
• This is not really a brick but it is rather a functionality allowing to vote and classify in preference order.

SubmitAnswer

Post answers to questions or definitions of words or expressions. Students productions following a given task.

• >[#BEJJGGJH FAQ Manager]
• Entering answers to questions displayed in the FAQ section
• >[#BEJFBGFB Glossary]
• Entering definitions to words and expressions in the portal glossary section.
• >[#BEJIJIHI News engine]
• Answers can be given in the shape of commentaries displayed directly on the central page of the portal.

SubmitComment

Annotations, e.g. comments, reactions, complements to a text or any presented material. Can be done an unlimited amount of times

• >[#BEJIJIHI News engine]
• Commentary inserted directly after the texts displayed on the central frame of the portal.
• >[#annotation Annotation]
• Same principle as the previous, but applied to other kinds of entries (Poll questions, WebLinks, FAQs, CMS, pictures, articles) for which we don't make a separate entry here.
• >[#BEJJFJJC Forums]
• This is more a forum-like discussion. The answer is given directly to the person who gave a piece of advice or introduced new ideas.

SubmitLinks

Insertion of a link in the link space, which will have been configured - see >[#BEJBJDDA CreateLinkSpace] and >[#BEJDAJGE CreateCategories]

• >[#BEJFEHBI Web Links]
• Links management system
• >[#BEJFFJFB Wiki]
• The Wiki allows to insert easily links in pages.

SubmitQuestion

Insertion of a question to be answered or a word or expression to be defined

• >[#BEJFBGFB Glossary]
• The teacher enters words or expressions in the glossary.
• >[#BEJJGGJH FAQ Manager]
• Students or the teacher enter questions of general interest. These questions will be answered progressively.

SubmitStory

Insertion of a text to be commented or to which a following or commentaries will be associated, exposition of cases...

• >[#BEJIJIHI News engine]
• It is possible to display stories, problems to be solved...to which students can react by inserting comments.
• >[#BEJJFJJC Forums]
• Initiating a debate on a theme expressed shortly.

VoteFor

Vote for a project, an idea, etc.

• >[#BEJHEHEE Polls/surveys]
• It is possible to display the results automatically on graphics, to organize mini polls.