Scenario for HMS:

We need to consider a similar scenario for your students. -Jennifer Dorman 12/30/07 11:50 AM 

Background: You are employees of the Central Bucks Technology Corporation.  CBTC, like many other international businesses, is in the process of restructuring in an effort to maximize profits for its shareholders and remain competitive in an increasingly global marketplace.  CBTC has decided to relocate its Research and Development Division to South Korea, whose corporate business climate, reputation as a global technology leader, and the willingness of its citizen to work for less compensation than their American peers, creates favorable conditions that may allow the company to remain profitable and and competitive in the global economy.

Task: While none of you will be making the move to South Korea, you have been assigned to the CBTC transition team to support those American workers who will be relocated to CBTC's South Korean R&D Division.  You will be competing against the other transition teams to develop the most effective and complete product.  Your final products will be reviewed by outside experts and the winning team will retain their jobs and and be awarded bonuses for their efforts.  Employees of the other teams will find their positions eliminated in CBTC's corporate restructuring.

Your job will include developing the following resources to facilitate the transition for the American expatriate workers:
Are the students going to have enough time to learn and develop all of the items listed below? -Coach1517 1/2/08 10:47 AM
We could provide them with the list and require a certain number.  Of course, if we use the competition aspect, they may decide to include more than the minimum.  I'll highlight the ones I think should be required. -Jennifer Dorman 1/2/08 5:57 PM 

• Orientation video that overviews life in South Korea to help the American workers assimilate into South Korean culture.  This video should provide background information on the following details of life in South Korea: government, economy, society, history, climate, and recreation.

• Wiki site with pages for the following topics: (All topics highlighted in yellow are required - others are suggested.)

• Business and economy in South Korea
• Housing and real estate in South Korea
• Health care in South Korea
• Education in South Korea (for the children of relocating employees)
• News and other current event resources for South Korea
• Embassy resources for American citizens in South Korea
• Resources for language learning (learning to speak Korean)
• Resources for moving people and property to South Korea
• U.S. State Department resources for international visas, passports, and other required documentation for the relocating employees
• Cultural resources (including religious and state holidays, societal customs, etc.) to help American assimilate into South Korean society
• Ning social network with various discussion threads, videos, and blog posts to help the expatriate Americans connect with each other, their friends and family in the USA, and their new South Korean colleagues to help prevent home sickness and isolation.

Budget: Each team will start with an operating budget of $100,000.  Bonuses will be awarded when project goals are completed early and dollars will be deducted when tasks are completed late or below standard. You will have the support of South Korean CBTC employees to whom you can outsource project tasks - at a cost to your operating budget.  Teams will be required to track their operating budget on a Google Spreadsheet.  Each team will be able to outsource up to five project tasks by submitting Requests for Proposals (RFPs). 

Just another thought, what if we made it a like a team competition. Kind of like on "The Apprentice" with Donald Trump. Each team is assigned to develop the company's Ning site. The site has to include an orientation video and the other elements you have listed above for the Ning site. The students would have to show all of their work and behind the scenes production using the wiki so we as teachers can assess and evaluate their progress. I agree that all groups must share their work with their teacher. Each group would then privately create their site and at the end of the quarter present there site to Mr. Trump (which in this case would be Mrs. Dorman) for judging. We could even have business people from the community judge them. If we could find an actual business company that wouldn't mind taking a few moments just to look over the students work and then select the one which would be the most worthy for their company.
I love this idea.  I think it would prove motivating.  -Jennifer Dorman 1/2/08 6:00 PM 

Team Roles: While every group member will contribute to all portions of the project, each person will also hold a leadership role. 

• Team Leader- this is your group's "captain," the team leader will meet with Mrs. Dorman on a regular basis to report group progress and will set due dates, update the group task graphic organizer and calendar on a daily basis, and record group progress on the task log (the team leader may delegate specific organizational tasks, but is ultimately accountable for the
• Project Managers - each group will have three project managers (one for the video, one for the wiki, and one for the Ning)
• Budget Officer [Financial Officer]- this person will be responsible for maintaining the group's budget spreadsheet (adding awarded bonuses and deducting expenditures or penalties)
• Media Director [Quality Assurance Engineer]- this person will be responsible for overseeing the aesthetics (attractiveness and ease-of-use) and the of the group's products.  This person should assure that all three team products integrate common themes, color schemes, and visuals and that all hyperlinks and other embedded media function properly. 
• Quality Control Directors - teams of 8 or 9 can assign up to two quality control directors that meet regularly with the project managers and creative directors to assure the visual quality, content quality, and organizational quality of the team products (in teams of 6, the project managers will fulfill this requirement). 
• Team Liaison (or Operations Manager) - this person will be responsible for submitting RFPs, working with the team leader to adjust the calendar, and maintaining contact with South Korean team members.

Each group must create a flow chart using Bubbl.us to illustrate your chain of command and track the individual responsibilities and assigned project tasks for each group member.  (Note - Each group member's name and role should appear on the flow chart.)

 Do these roles and their descriptions sound clear? -Jennifer Dorman 1/9/08 12:04 PM 

Tools: You will be able to make use of the following collaborative and organizational tools to support you in this process:

Any other tools we should consider here?  I created by-invitation-only Diigo and Flickr groups for our students to securely share resources. -Jennifer Dorman 12/30/07 11:51 AM 

I think these tools are a good core for the students to learn to use and develop. Many of them I believe will still be in popular use throughout their high school careers. The tools you have listed in the "toolbox" will give them freedom and flexibility to discover new applications for those tools we might not have previously considered.

• Collaboration on word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentation files
• Google Calendar
  • For recording task start and due due dates
• Google Reader or Pageflakes - RSS feed readers (both services have a public page, but Google Reader allows for embedding clips and feeds into other websites)
• Flickr (Online Connections Flickr group)
  • image sharing
  • Bubblr - create comic strips with Flickr photos
• Diigo (Online Connections Diigo group )
  • sharing your links and comments
• Bubbl.us
  • collaborative brainstorming, task assignment and maintenance
• Wikispaces
  • wiki hosting
• Pinnacle Studio DV
  • digital video editing
  • Jumpcut, Eyespot, Jaycut - free online video editors
  • SplashUp, Picnik, FotoFlexer - free online photo editors
  • TeacherTube - video hosting
• NoodleTools, KnightCite, Zotero (just for Firefox users) - bibliography citations
• Check out the Online Connections Toolbox for more Web 2.0 applications.

Additional resources for consideration and student experimentation. 

• Bumblr - Create comic strips using photos from flickr.
• Jumpcut  - Upload, edit, and share videos online.   
• Zotero - for citing online resources  
   

I just updated the applications list. -Jennifer Dorman 1/9/08 1:42 PM 

Moving Abroad / Transition Resources:

• Transitions Abroad.com
• Preparing for Life Abroad
• Going Abroad: Where to Begin
• Expatacular (this is an example of a Ning network to support those moving to another country)

Do you think we still need the information under Task below? -Jennifer Dorman 1/9/08 1:47 PM 

Task: Each student group will create three products: a Ning network, a wiki, and an orientation video (to be embedded into the wiki and Ning via TeacherTube.)  Team leaders will break their assigned project components into specific tasks, delegate individual jobs to each group member, and create a timetable for task completion.  HMS groups will assign information and resource gathering tasks that need to be outsourced the the KIS students, communicate with KIS students, and oversee the sharing and processing of these resources.

HMS students will communicate with their KIS colleagues through Ning, shared Google Docs, wikis, and Bubbl.us brainstorms.  The Flickr and Diigo groups will be common places to share resources for all groups.  It is suggested that the HMS team leaders create a Google spreadsheet that details all the project tasks and the names of students assigned to complete them.  KIS students will be assigned to groups as liaisons and can be tasked to gather resources and researching.