Thomas A.

Co H4G 07 IB CLE 12 C
PREPARATION FOR A VC = MOTHER ALWAYS SAID XS IB CLE 2013-2014

WORKSHEET 6

Participating in the Online Community

THE F2F WEBSITE & THE PARTNER SCHOOLS WEBSITE

GENERAL OBJECTIVES
Familiarize oneself of the online community and discover how it can be used to maximize learning about, from and with the other members of the Face to Faith community. Know enough about the partner school to easily establish rapport with them during the actual videoconference

DIRECTIONS
Go the to the Face to Faith online community and explore the different features of the site. After this, go to the partner schools website to get to know more about the students you are going to meet in the video conference.

USING THE ONLINE COMMUNITY

Adapted from the Face to Faith Introductory Module The Face to Faith online community is an integral part of the Face to Faith programme. You are encouraged to make full use of this facility to enhance your learning by doing the following: 1. USING BLOGS AS JOURNAL. Use the blogging feature as a regular journal where you can record your personal reections on what you have learned in your lessons. You can upload photos or videos that you have taken as part of your learning. 2. USING THE ONLINE COMMUNITY FOR COMMUNICATION. You can start getting to know and establishing relationship with your partner school though the online community. This can be done informally through forum and chat. You can share ideas about you and your school or ask them questions through the different platforms. 3. USING THE ONLINE COMMUNITY FOR RESEARCH. You can use the website to do some research about different points of view. The site has faith-specic fora where students like you are able to ask questions to a range of people from different faith traditions, as well as throw questions open to others on the site. You also have access to a polling tool which enables you to do some wide ranging research (provided that you structure your questions appropriately).

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Forum

Thomas A. Co H4G 07 IB CLE 12 C

1. Individually, explore the Forum Section of the site. Browse through the list of topics. Open them and go through the answers of the people. Which topics and/or answers do you nd interesting? Choose three (3). Be ready to explain why you found them as such. 2. Upon the signal of the teacher, share your insights (from number 1) to your learning circle. When you do this, remember two things: (a) When you are the one sharing, articulate and elaborate your answer very well and (b) when someone is sharing, practice active listening. The latter will be evident when you ask response questions. 3. As a group, choose one forum to participate in. Individually and professionally (read: respectfully), add your answers to the thread. Use the I perspective. (As much as possible, dont choose a topic that is specic to certain schools.) 4. Below, share an insight or two about something that you learned in exploring the Forum Section of the online community.

1. a) In one pretty short forum discussion, the forum poster Shruti.hsv wanted to discuss the topic of bullying. One commenter in particular, Ruchi Vashist, posted a response that added depth to the topic. What I liked about the response was that she gave the idea that people need to see bullying from the side of the bullies, who are actually victims too, and the spirit of Face to Faith of knowing a case from multiple angles really shows in that comment. b) In a post by Aathma Dious about the usefulness of social networking sites, Joon Mun commented with a very balanced view. What I liked was how he concluded by saying social networking is good in moderation, while not saying that he was completely for or against it, as he knew rst of all the pros and cons quite well. c) F2F user Dulcimer posted a very intriguing forum discussion on the origin of evil. That topic is very sensitive to religions all over the world, and a very interesting topic indeed. I appreciate how the user formulated well the discussion topic, for I think as a result, future commenters answered with insightful and well thought of replies instead of short, unoriginal responses. 4. I chose to comment on the post Why is there evil? by Dulcimer for the topic really interested me. Exploring the Forum section of the website was really interesting, because I got to know the questions that occupy the minds of other thinkers my age, and also how people tackle and answer those questions. Its great to see how people from other cultures and religions think about certain topics, and while youre able to gain knowledge from different perspectives, youre also able to share your views, making the Forum Section a two-way learning system.

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Blog

Thomas A. Co H4G 07 IB CLE 12 C

1. Individually, explore the Blog Section of the site. Browse through the blogs. Choose one that you nd interesting. Be ready to explain why you found it as such. 2. Upon the signal of the teacher, share your insights (from number 1) to your learning circle. When you do this, remember two things: (a) When you are the one sharing, articulate and elaborate your answer very well and (b) when someone is sharing, practice active listening. The latter will be evident when you ask response questions. 3. As group, choose one blog you want to respond to. Individually and professionally (read: respectfully), add your comment to this blog. Use the I perspective. 4. Below, share an insight or two about something that you learned in exploring the Blog Section of the online community.

1. I found the blog Watch your tongue !!! by Chhavi Bhambri quite interesting because included in the post was a short story which had philosophical implications. In just a a few hundred words, the value of being careful of what and how you say things was made clearer to me, albeit in a very entertaining way. 4. I was overwhelmed knowing that the Blog Section of the F2F website had 2454 pages of blogs in it. Going through the rst ten or so pages, I saw several blogs about similar topics, like the signicance of ones name, or ethics. Others posted personal notes about their thoughts and own faith, which is good, as it allows the F2F community a chance to really learn about each other at the comfort of our own homes, at a time we choose, without the need for video conferencing. The Blog Section works just like any other blogging site in the Internet, except all share the common themes of faith, morality and philosophy, making F2F more educational in a sense compared to the other blogging communities in the Web, where people simply blog about almost anything yet share nothing of real intellectual value.

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The Partner School...

1. Browse through the the website of the partner school. For numbers 2-4, write your answers below. 2. What activities, programs, practices, etc. do you nd similar in Xavier? 3. What activities, programs, practices, etc. do you wish know more about during the videoconference? Why? 4. Share 1-2 insights or impressions about the partner school after browsing through their website.

Thomas A. Co H4G 07 IB CLE 12 C

1. Xavier Schools XCE or Xavier China Experience involves sending students to places in China to learn. Looking around in the website of our partner school, City Montessori School, I discovered they had something similar to the XCE, where they send students to other countries in competitions and conferences. They also had a Literary Festival like our Teen Read Week here in Xavier 2. City Montessori School or CMS also had the Quest International Festival of Biotechnology. Im curious as to how exactly that is carried out, and I have some interest in the eld of biotechnology, so I might ask about that in the future video conference. 3. Comparing CMS and Xavier School, I see both have lots of similarities. They share common activities like student participation in math competitions, and they also send students out of the country to nurture a larger perspective of the world within the students, which is one aspect of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme which Xavier offers. It is nice to see that schools in other parts of the world also want to develop global perspectives and have projects for integrating the Internet and computer technology into their system of education.

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Chat & Blast Chat & Blast

monitored. Be respectful. 2. Blast in the home page of the site. Note, however that, on the one hand, blasts are like tweets which you can use to broadcast what you think in 150 words or so. On the other hand, blasts are NOT like tweets because blasts should always mean something, not just any stream-of-consciousness thoughts. Blasts are some extent. You may want to blast about the upcoming video with 1. If profound someone to is online, try to initiate a conversation with them. Note, however, thatconference all messages areCambridge School. Be respectful. monitored. 2. Blast in the home page of the site. Note, however that, on the one hand, blasts are like tweets which you can use to broadcast what you think in 150 words or so. On the other hand, blasts are NOT like tweets because blasts should always mean something, not just any stream-of-consciousness thoughts. Blasts are profound to some extent. You may want to blast about the upcoming video conference with Cambridge School.

1. If someone is H4G online,07 try IB to initiate a conversation with them. Note, however, that all messages are Thomas A. Co CLE 12 C

Putting things Putting things together... together...

For your answers to the following questions, write them below AND copy/paste them to the form in the class website. 1. In your own (evaluativist) opinion, what is the importance of participating actively (and respectfully) in the online community? 2. your When is the best time to use forum? Blog? Blast?AND copy/paste them to the form in the class For answers to the following questions, write Chat? them below 3. How can you maximize these features? Elaborate your answer. website.
1. In your own (evaluativist) opinion, what is the importance of participating actively (and respectfully) in the 1. Itonline is important for Xavier School students to actively participate in the online community because in my community? 2. opinion, When is the best is time to use forum? Blog? Chat? Blast? the world becoming more connected with growing access to the Internet. Large amounts of info 3. How can you maximize these features? Elaborate your answer. can be obtained in the shortest amount of time due to this advancement. However, the problem all students

face nowadays in using the Internet for education is the issue of credibility and plagiarism. The Internet is indeed useful for learning and quite necessary in this age, but the Xavier community must exert caution in validating and assessing information. 2. The Forum Section of F2F should be used when a particular question of signicance comes to mind that the person knows will generate an enlightening discussion for all who participate. Chatting in F2F must be used mainly for short periods of sharing information through conversation. Blasting is one-way, meaning, you should not exactly expect to receive comments for what you share through Blasting. In receiving input or feedback, the forum or chatting is more appropriate. 3. Theres really no other way to maximize those features of the F2F website than to really give time to explore and use them. When properly motivated and determined, one would nd a wealth of information, especially

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