Online Collaboration
CyberTEAM teachers participate in an online collaborative community via a Moodle shell created for professional development. Agendas for workshops and meetings along with resources, links and forums are provided. During the school year, teachers are provided a separate Moodle shell for their classroom. With support from the project coordinator and/or CS students, teachers create Moodle modules based on TechQuest lessons they plan for their students. For instance, during the first year, teachers developed TechQuest lessons for videoconferencing with a park ranger from Anza-Borrego State Park to learn about plate tectonics, erosion, history of the region, and/or tools used by researchers who study the geological artifacts located in the park. Teachers developed TechQuest modules in the spring of 2009 for use of Google Earth to study Earth science topics such as volcanoes, ocean ridges, and related earthquakes to plate boundaries. At the end of each year, teachers create an electronic portfolio in Moodle to provide evidence of meeting their Action Plan goals for the project. During year two, CyberTEAM teachers created additional Techquest related to renewable energy, Web 2.0 tools, and the two interactive learning objects developed by the project (CyberHawk and Flash-based Epicenter Location Tool). Techquest lessons are available under the Recourse link on the CyberTEAM Web page.
