Welcome to Camp Internet

2001-2002

 

 

 

Outpost Leader’s Name: ______________________________

 

 

School: ____________________________________________

 

 

Your Camp Directory (same as your log in ):   

             www.campinternet.net/~________________

 

 

Camp Email for Leader: ______________@ campinternet.net

 

 

Camp Email for Class: ________________@ campinternet.net

 

 

Camp Contacts :        www.campinternet.net

General listserv    camp01-teachers-l@campinternet.net

Channel Islands listserv    camp01-isl-l@campinternet.net

Backcountry listserv    camp01-bc-l@campinternet.net

Southwest listserv    camp01-sw-l@campinternet.net

Global Garden listserv   camp01-gg-l@campinternet.net

   (please note that it is a  lower case “L” – not #1 - before the @)

 

Camp program support:    camp@campinternet.net

 

Camp headquarters: 1-800-889-2823

 

Mailing: 1129 State Street A7, Santa Barbara CA 93101

 





Let’s Turn Technology into Learning !




 

Teacher’s Workbook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents   2

1. Setting Up Your Own Outpost  3
Components of an Outpost Base Camp   4

Student Projects   5

Computers   5

Literacy and Art   6

Family Involvement   7

Field Trips   8

 

Your base camp to online explorations

 

DISPLAY   Teachers select an area of their classroom to set up a Camp Internet display that draws student attention and interest to their regular Camp activities and special events. You can hang a Camp poster, backpack, Passport cover, color web page print outs, student projects or artifacts, depending on the contents of your Camp Supply Kit. Add photographs, calendars of events – use your imagination! Your Camp Internet Outpost is a great tool to help parents understand the breadth of activities involved in Camp Internet learning expeditions.

 

 

 

Lake Arrowhead School Outpost

Outpost Leader: Laurey Meier

 

 

 

 

The components of a Camp Internet Outpost Base Camp are:

 

 

Teacher’s Work Book – this is a handy binder designed to allow you to refer to program guidelines, collect resources, include web page print outs, store the student achievement stickers, organize CD ROMs, and will help you manage classroom activities through out the year.

 

 

Computers – minimum requirement at least one online computer (and if only one online computer then also a TV monitor that can project the computer screen for group viewing), and preferably 4-6 computers. Some Outposts are hosted right in the computer lab providing even better student-to-computer ratios. Other Outposts have had to rely on a central library computer.

 

 

GPS Unit – a fun hands-on technology learning tool made available to your school or classroom to encourage field observations and online reporting, map building and information sharing. A great way to build knowledge at school or in the community.

 

 

Camp Internet Passports for each student – these folders provide the students with a durable storage system for keeping their printed passport and their own projects secure and safe all year long. You have a master available online to generate a custom designed – or full standard - passport selecting features you wish to study, and to generate any replacement pages.

 

 

Camp Internet Expedition Learning Materials Kit – this is the collection of science, reading, art, video and history projects and hands-on materials that will have specific times during the year that they tie right into the online curriculum projects.

 

 

Teacher’s Base Camp – this is the very helpful teachers-only online learning center. Here you will find tips and projects to help make your delivery of Camp enjoyable and rewarding. Keys to the Passports, masters of the passports for replacements, and other tools will be available. Keep that ID and password private, and if you ever suspect a student has gained access, notify us so we can change your password.

 

 

Weather kit – this is a fun weather kit and teachers have installed them in several ways. One of the most innovative is connecting the weather station to a wooden dowel, 36-48”, and securing it in a large coffee can filled with rocks. The pole can be painted with acrylic paints to give it a tribal weatherman’s appearance. This system is then portable and can go out each day to measure the weather – or be left out safely during a rainy day, and come back in at close of day.

 

 

GIS database – this is housed online at the Camp and each Outpost is invited to submit data to this collection – weather, types of trees, etc. -  that then will be complied and made visibly accessible on the main Internet map server. Watch the maps grow!

 

 

Student Projects – hands-on learning compliments online knowledge building – students create wooly mammoths, paint a Rainbow Bridge, shape a clay pot, conduct a water quality test, work in their garden, pan for ‘gold’, and enjoy rolling up their sleeves to explore the world.

 

 

 

 

Student Projects    Walls and Counter tops can serve as display areas for student projects as the year unfolds. Hands-on learning – science, art, technology tools like your GPS – these all provide ample opportunities to bring their online learning to life in unforgettable learning activities.

 

 

 

Madison School Outpost

Outpost Leader: Janice Gallatin

 

COMPUTERS  The computers in the classroom – whether one or six – serve as the student’s gateway to their Camp Internet learning experiences. Teachers can put their Camp Mascot on a central computer or TV monitor screen, bookmark Camp Internet as a featured learning activity, and keep their Camp CD ROM collection handy for times when school bandwidth might not be available due to internal technical fluctuations.

 

 

Lake Arrowhead School Outpost

Outpost Leader: Janice Ross

Art and Science Builds Literacy  Camp Internet combines a wealth of reading, history, science and art project challenges that help students visualize and experience great literature and fascinating science activities and knowledge. From John Muir’s wild ride in the tree tops, to Zorro walking the plank, from the real story of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas to the mysteries of Ancient Cliff Dwellers, Camp has an abundance of e-books and science online to spur literacy and artistic expression. Fill your walls with art and mail us your best works for the online gallery.

 

eri-yokoyalma

 

Tulsa School Outpost Art Contest Winners

Outpost Leader: JoAnne Perine

 

 

GIS/GPS Fieldwork  The first step in completing a successful GIS/GPS project is to be ALERT OBSERVERS able to GATHER DATA. This develops skills that will see students able to make astute observations, gather accurate data, and them develop an understanding of the data in its scientific and/or historical context. Students will then learn to use the  data to communicate their findings to their peers and adults.

 

 

Kermit McKenzie Middle School GPS field work

Outpost Leader: Jeff Foote

Family Involvement  Camp invites the families of your students to also learn about positive uses of technology as a learning tool and we offer four direct methods of parent involvement:

 

 

Family Night Open Houses are held at affiliated schools to open the classrooms and computer labs for parent hands-on involvement. Students are proud to show off their skills and serve as Camp Internet guides for their parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. Each teacher arranges one of these open house events a year – a special night as its own event, or in conjunction with another school wide open house. On our side, Camp Internet opens the FAMILY ROOM and hosts a live Internet Dig so families can see Camp in ACTION.

 

 

Coachella Valley Family Night in a Mobile Learning Lab

Valley View Outpost Leader: Jim Jones

 

Online Family Nights  On an average of once a month, Camp Internet will host an online FAMILY NIGHT where families can join in current Camp learning activities first hand from a home, public library, school lab or friend’s computer. Grandparents around the country can join in too. They may meet an expert Volcano Scientist, explore our Great Kiva Internet Dig, or learn about the Rainbow Bridge Chumash legend. These sessions are announced in advance and teachers print out the master flyer to send home to parents. The flyer includes the web address where parents can go to find out what days these events are happening, and Camp also provides individual event flyer masters to go home each time there is a session you want to personally invite parents to attend. Teachers bring their own families online for these too!

 

 

Computer Mentoring Some of our schools invite parents into the classroom to guide the students through their online learning activities. These parents set aside a few hours a month each and will work with a small group of students to help them conduct Level One and Level Two learning activities. Students enjoy these additional adults helping in their classroom, and the parents then learn more about Camp and help other parents understand what the kids are accomplishing. If you have parents who would like to join our Camp Internet Family Club, please invite them to write us at camp@campinternet.net.

 

Local Family Field Trips  Every family is encouraged, in their introductory letter from Camp, to find a weekend day to go on a local family field trip to a park or museum, and to reserve an evening time to come online and add their field report to the Family Field Reports. Each family can decide where they want to go, will write their own field reports, can send us digital pictures of the location to add online, and then can reserve an appointed time one evening to have private access to the Family Field Report center.

 

Field Trips   Camp Internet encourages teachers and parents to work on organizing a year-end field trip that brings the student’s online learning experiences to life in the field. We select recommended sites that feature historical and scientific learning opportunities, and we coordinate trips that range from bus costs only, to bus plus a $15 entry fee, to over night trips that are bus and $100-$150 in costs. You select what works for your needs and we help coordinate these great learning adventures. Or, if your school already does an annual Science Camp, we can combine those activities with the Camp program and field reports.

 

  Exploring Yosemite

 

Our Outposts Explore: Yosemite, Indian Canyons, Catalina Island, Joshua Trees National Park, Anacapa Island in California; Walnut Canyon, Petrified Forest, Sunset Crater and Wupatki, Saquaro National Forest, or the Grand Canyon in Arizona; Bandelier National Monument, Petroglyph Monument, Rio Grande or Taos Pueblos in New Mexico; Dinosaur Journey, Crow Canyon, Colorado National Monument in Colorado; Arches, Natural Bridges, Bryce, or Zion Parks and monuments in Utah.

 

Local Field Trips to local resources also are very valuable and encouraged in the fall, or in the spring if long distance bus costs are not available. Community gardens, local museums, even your own school garden all count as excellent hands-on learning places directly related to Camp Internet learning activities. Explore – Observe- Learn!

 

Year End Field Reports are one of the most important learning activities Camp hosts and a chance to turn online knowledge into hands-on knowledge and then SHARE that new knowledge with fellow students, parents and friends.

 

 

 Floating Oceanography Lab

2. Putting Camp Internet to Work in the Classroom

 

Camp Internet is providing you with four levels of technology-facilitated learning activities in nearly every study unit. Students can work at any level you designate, at their own pace, or as a group.

 

·              LEVEL ONELearn to Access Multi-Media INFORMATION and Data using the basic introductory Camp Internet online overview materials, printed and CD-ROM resources.

 

·              LEVEL TWO  - Interact with the Data to Turn Information into KNOWLEDGE by launching projects that use the Camp’s in-depth source materials for small group or independent reading and answer assignments, and by participating in live Debates, Internet Digs, and Trail Guide Chat activities that put their new knowledge to a test.

 

·              LEVEL THREE – Use New Knowledge as Basis to SHARE Original Works as challenges to develop student data sharing projects that will be published online – in a Field Report, as a Web Site, or in the GIS Mapping Center.

 

It is your choice how to apply the Camp resources. Based on best practices shared by Camp alumni, we offer the following implementation suggestions.

 

A                 LEVEL ONE – Explore the Online Resources and Learn to Use the Web as an INFORMATION-rich Learning Environment       

 

Set aside one hour, once a week to go over the new-this-week materials as announced on the Camp Calendar for your track. The best way to integrate technology into the classroom is to combine it with content you are committed to delivering. You can thereby cover two subject areas simultaneously – technology literacy and your content selection (science, history, reading, etc. ). If you are unable to stay on track with the calendar every week due to scheduling/vacations, etc., select any unit to cover that you would like to catch up on – or work on in advance. During this hour, announce what the subject is for the week and then show the students where to go on the Camp web to access that week’s new materials. If you are in a one- computer classroom, you can facilitate this as a group via a TV monitor. If you have 4-6 computers, divide the students into groups (some teachers have the small groups all at the computers at the same time, 4-6 clustered around each screen; other teachers rotate students or groups at the computers through out the day or week). In computer labs where access is one computer to one student, then each student has a full hour with the material solo. Whatever computer access you have, the goal is to have them read and understand the basic overview for up to an hour each week and then prepare for their LEVEL TWO assignments.

 

 

A                    LEVEL TWO – Launch Learning Activities that Turn Information into KNOWLEDGE  

 

PROJECTS  Many of the over views require less than an hour to read and comprehend. The mate activity to reading the overview is to select one of the research areas in the accompanying online library to work on for the next 3-7 days. Example, after reading the Rancho Era overview in the Backcountry section, students should then be assigned to select one of the historical documents written by people living at the time, and then work to answer the questions posed at the beginning of that source document. In this way, students come into contact with higher-level source materials, learn to read and comprehend actual historical or scientific materials, and develop conclusions based on what they have read.

 

INDIVDIUAL or GROUP   You have the option to let each student select a topic to work on, assign each individual student a topic to research, or create small groups that as a team read and answer the questions. This reading, research, and answer assignment can be facilitated during additional class time, afterschool at a school computer or library computer, or, teachers often print out the document they are assigning to the student and send it home with them. When the work goes home, the students prepare written answers and can return to the classroom to either turn in the written work, or, use the written answers to then transcribe their responses online when there are online forms provided for posting their findings. Likewise, students who tackle these assignments from the school or library computers can also use the online forms to type in and the print out their findings.

 

There may be a TRAIL GUIDE scheduled to work online with the students in the subject track. If this is true, then your students should prepare up to twelve questions as a class to present to the TRAIL GUIDE during their live online time together. These questions should be the result of what they have explored at LEVEL ONE and LEVEL TWO. If they are unable to attend the scheduled live chat with the TRAIL GUIDE, they can send us their questions in advance, we will post them to the GUIDE, and then they can come back and see any answers later.

 

There will be an INTERNET DIG scheduled every week that will challenge the students to put their learning to work.

 

There may be an online QUIZ, CHALLENGE or DEBATE available to test their knowledge.

 

The advantage to the live interactive online exercises is that all students are then exposed to one another’s research findings, they can consider new perspectives on what they researched, they can learn from experts in the field, or, with your direction, they can use the chat room to question one another’s findings. Classrooms can also schedule to meet for interactive debates.

 

 

A                    LEVEL THREE – Become ‘Information Providers’ by learning to design, write, illustrate, and SHARE learning projects that will be published online.       

 

At this higher level, students will learn to use online resources to develop a special project that will be published online in the Field Report Center combining text, images and source material links, or in the GIS Center where simple data collections will be joined together to form fascinating maps as data visualization tools.

 

FIELD REPORTS are online postings that require advance preparation. Students will be given an assigned theme or topic by their teacher, will write a minimum of 150 words in a word document, will select an image from online sources that each have their own individual URL / web address, and will select at least 3 Camp or other URLs to record as their source material locations. When this document is completed, it will include the body of their field report, at least one photo no larger than 3x4” when viewed online, and will include the 3 link references in a foot note. This entire document will then be cut and pasted into the Field Report Center online and will become a shared document featured in the classroom’s themed Field Report available online during the live posting session, and afterwards in the Camp archives.

 

GIS MAPPING PROJECTS  are the learning activities that employ the class GPS unit as a data gathering tool, combined with an excel template for recording the data, and will include observations, photographs, or possibly video in conjunction with the GPS readings. Directions are provided online.

 

OUTPOST WEB SITES   Teachers and students who develop web publishing skills are encouraged to create their own Camp Internet Outpost web site on the Camp server to share your discoveries.

3. CAMP INTERNET   Glossary of Terms

 

Weekly Briefings

 

Every week Camp will send out a camp-wide briefing to help teachers orient themselves and their students on the current activities and one time only live online events. Look for these each Monday pertaining to activities Tues-Fri. In addition to the general overview briefing, most weeks also see a track-specific briefing go out with more detailed information on activities pertaining to your track. Be sure you are signed up to receive the list serve camp01-teachers-l general mail and camp01-isl-l, camp01-bc-l, camp01-sw-l or camp01-gg-l listserv from the email account/s you find most easy to manage when back in the classroom and/or at home.

 

Internet Digs

 

This unique feature of the Camp program invites students into the chat room at pre assigned and reserved times for an interactive online learning activity. At the top of the room, a series of questions are presented to the students. Inside each question is imbedded a BUTTON that is a link to the source materials where the answer to the question resides. Students click on the BUTTON with their mouse and the link goes automatically to a pre-assigned location on the Internet. This is guided research. The students then read or can the document hunting for the answer to the question. When they have found the answer, they then click on the BACK button on their browser and drop back into the chat room to post their answers. When they post these answers, they need to identify the number of the question they are answering, and provide the answer as a full sentence. Ideally, they will be taught to include the question in the answer so they are making a complete, self-contained statement. i.e.  “#1 The Channel Islands chain has eight islands off the Southern California coast “ vs. posting “eight” as their answer.

 

Trail Guide Chats

 

Trail Guides are respected authorities that offer a few hours of their time to your classroom to serve as expert mentors. They may be paleontologists, archeologists, writers, artists, or directors of National Park education programs. This is a rare opportunity to get your students in touch with these excellent resource people – and – it is a great opportunity for the experts to share their knowledge and wisdom with today’s youth. Before any Trail Guide Chat, have the students read the Trail guide’s bio, visit their agency web site, and learn about what this expert does in their career activities. Then, have the class as a whole select twelve questions in advance that they would like to ask the Trail Guide. Encourage them to develop intelligent, articulate questions that are directly related to the expert’s specialty. Let the students know that the Trail Guides will be busy at their computer, reading and answering their questions as fast s they possibly can. This means students will not see an answer he instant they post a question. The answers will show up as best as the Trail Guide can get to them. In the interim, while waiting, students should read the questions posted by other classrooms or other students, and read the answers to those questions. They are there not only to learn the answers to their own questions, but to also learn from the questions other students ask. Please always have the students post a thank you online to the Trail Guide for taking time out from their busy schedule to spend with your class.

 

Field Reports

 

During the Fall and Winter, we will ask your class to do at least one preliminary Field Report using readings or observations from their immediate neighborhood. You will be provided with a master field report to print and provide to each student. On this field report they will write down their findings. Then, they will return to class and prepare their report with text, an image and source links (3min). You will then schedule a day and time to come into the Field Report Center to post their findings online for one another to read and learn from during a live interactive Field Report. Whenever possible, use a local digital camera to create a gallery of images in your Camp Outpost web directory that the students can select from, that are sized appropriately, and that serve as their image library. As the year-end project, every class will prepare and post a final field report based on a Spring learning activity – local school site projects or distant field trips are featured here.

 

GIS

 

GIS stands for Geographic Information System. GIS is a computer-based mapping system that uses geographic locations as a basis for collecting and posting data about that location. Camp Internet is building multi-campus maps to demonstrate data collection on a broad regional basis and your school will be asked to submit data to this project. At the local level, a GIS school map could track all of the trees in your neighborhood or on the school grounds. It could map out the number of online computers in your school district. It could map out how many students are in the camp program, at which schools in your region, and what they are studying. As a map-user, you will be able to see this data, not in text format alone, but as an image on a map. This is called data visualization. Instead of reading spread sheet that shows which school have how many online computers, you will be able to read a map that shows you where the schools are in relation to one another that have online computers, and you will be able to read how many computers each school has online. You may be able to click on color icons at each school site and then learn how many computers there are per student, whether they are PCs or Macs, etc. This tool is revolutionizing how we gather and share information, and is a very important feature of the 21st century learning environment.

 

Quizzes

 

The Camp is adding new quizzes all the time. These quizzes test student comprehension of the online reading materials. Most are multiple choice and they use the mouse to click on the button next to the answer they believe to be correct. At the end of the quiz, when they click on the SUBMIT button, it will then process the quiz and come back to them with CORRECT or TRY AGAIN notations. They can print out the results and turn it into you for grading or review.

 

Debates

 

Debates are a feature of camp activities that require extensive advance preparation. The Camp provides in-depth source materials for students to consider in advance of any debate activity. After reading these materials online, students can work in teams in their class to represent opposing viewpoints, using the source materials to develop their positions. When the class arrives online for their reserved debate session, they then ‘become’ the party whose position they represent, they speak from that voice, and must stay in character until the close of the debate. Example, John Muir vs. the Hetch Hetchy Dam Developers. There are two sides to this historic battle, and your class can choose to be the environmentalists and we will select Camp staff or another classroom to be the Developers. If your class are the environmentalists, they need to read the Senate hearing reports and Muir’s writings, they need to study the Bierstadt paintings of Hetch Hetchy, and they need to develop a viewpoint that reflects the concerns of those people in that time. We have learned that at the close of the debates, students are FIRED UP, eager to make changes in their own community, and we will provide you with suggested local actions that the students can take to feel empowered as environmentalists. Or, actions they can take to help developers become more environmentally responsible today.

 

Challenges

 

The Camp encourages local hands-on learning activities that may or may not have a direct computer relation. We call these Camp Challenges. A Challenge could be a treasure hunt online that uses historical source materials, woven with fictional characters, to send the student on an online map and location hunt to identify the site of buried treasure on Catalina Island. Or it could be a Challenge that has them study and identify a Dinosaur Bone provided in their Camp Expedition Crate. Or it can be to go out and record the weather daily for three months and input their findings into our GIS mapping system online. Whatever the nature of the Challenge, it will correspond to the online activities and enrich the student’s learning experience.

 

Teacher’s Base Camp

 

Your Base camp is your home base. As a Camp Outpost Leader, you will be provided with tools to help you integrate technology into your classroom. These tools will live inside the password-protected Teachers Base Camp that is not accessible to your students. Your calendar, special activity suggestions, weekly briefings, answers to the Camp Passport questions, and Camp support materials lives here. Please visit it weekly to keep in touch. Many teachers visit the Base Camp first thing Monday morning to get an overview of the week ahead, some check in over the week end form their home computer, and others are planning out activities weeks in advance via the calendar.

 

Listservs

 

The listservs are designed to transmit up-to-date information to you and to provide a forum where you can post queries to other teachers. Email on the other hand is for direct one-to-one conversations between you and Camp staff, or between you and another teacher or team of teachers. The listserv is for posting messages relevant to the entire group. Has anyone tried … ? Can anyone suggest a good ...? You are invited to attend …. are appropriate types of group postings. You will receive your Camp briefings in your email box each week and these are sent via the listserv to everyone in your track. If you want to respond to one of the briefings – make a reservation, ask a question – be sure to send it to camp@campinternet.net , NOT to the entire list (it clogs up other peoples email boxes if lots of casual comments, or one-on-one questions, start filling up each teachers box. To reach the archive of our listservs to catch anything you missed and need, go to www.rain.org/campinternet/lists01 .

 

Email

 

Teachers - Each teacher usually has a school-provided email account. Others have an email account with a commercial Internet provider. This is the email account you want to receive the briefings in MUST be identified and sent to us so we know where to point your messages to. If you do not have email service at school or home, we can facilitate providing you with your own email account on our system. Whichever email service you use, this is how you can post messages to the listserv, and how you can send private one-on-one messages to Camp staff. You can easily reach us by ending email to camp@campinternet.net  anytime. Nearly everyday, weekends included, we read the camp@campinternet.net  email several times a day. You can also use your email to set up correspondences with other teachers you will be teaming with for debates, online challenges or other class-to-class interactive learning.

 

Students – Students often have been provided with individual email accounts at school, or have a home account. It has been Camp’s experience to date that there is not enough time in a school week for students to manage individual email from or to the Camp program, so we provide one classroom account for your use. This account can be used to share campus-to-campus introductions for teaming, to send invitations to one another, or to send questions to Camp staff. We welcome questions from students and will answer promptly. It is critically important that students be given guidance in how to use this email account responsibly, and the lesson they learn about responsible use to day will shape their attitude about Internet ethics and protocols in the future.

 

Logon/Password

 

The Camp program will provide you with two log-on accounts for web access. One is strictly confidential (never give to a student) and is for your use as a Teacher/Outpost Leader. It will allow you to access the Base Camp, log into the chat room, and enter other restricted areas as a Camp member. The second log on and password will be for your student’s use. They will need it to enter the chatroom and to enter any password-only areas of the Camp. The log on is a string of up to eight characters that you type in the log on box. This then helps the server on the Camp side to identify who you are. The password is also typed in the password box and allows the Camp server to verify you are authorized for entry. When you submit the typed-in log on and password to the server, it will search to match who you are and your verification with the codes it stores. If you mis-enter one or the other, it will give you another chance to re-type in the log on and password. These allow the Camp to have secure areas for your professional work and development, and help keep irresponsible users from interfering with the important

 

Web Directory

 

Every Camp Internet teacher and their classroom are each provided with their own web directory where they can store and share digital images and text files with one another. When you do projects with your students, they should be recorded with a digital camera wherever possible, uploaded to your directory, and given a specific web URL per picture. These images can then be incorporated into the class Field Reports and into the Teacher’s Dig that will be created during professional development. Your directories will be your logins attached to campinternet.net – i.e. http://www.camointernet.net/~sarahj

 

Camp Internet Passport

 

Every student (up to 35) in each teacher’s classroom is provided with their own Camp Internet Passport Folio. This Passport is a folio that will hold a set of question sheets that you will print out from the Teacher’s Web and each page will provide room for handwritten answers and sometimes drawings. You can select all pages in your track’s Passport, or can modify it based on themes you elect to cover. All of the answers to the Passport questions are available from the Camp Teacher’s Web in your track study units. As students complete their Passport sections, please reward them with the provided color stickers as Passport Stamps – these signify that they have ‘crossed a border’ on their Camp Expedition, and are ready to enter a new territory. If you are unable to cover all of the topics in the Passport during the year, we provide a Passport Key in the Base Camp that will enable you to verbally present the questions and answers to the class so they can fill in the answers as a group. We encourage full completion of the Passport, distribution of all of the color stickers, by the end of May each year. Classes who go on field trips usually bring them along, and add Field reports and museum/activity brochures to the Passport. The Passports go home with them at the end of the year.

 

 

Remote Access Astronomy Project

 

One of Camp’s most fascinating partners is the RAAP program at UC Santa Barbara. On top of the physics building, professors have mounted a telescope that can be remotely controlled via the Internet. You, from your classroom, can send it coordinates for a star you want it to take a picture of. On the next clear night, the telescope will scan the heavens, search for your star, take a picture of it, and then, send a digital picture to you at your email account that shows the star you chose. This is VERY exciting technology to use in the classroom. During the mid-year in-service session, you will be trained on how to use this amazing remote access telescope.

 

 

Family Nights Promoting Family Involvement

 

Camp Internet hosts two types of Family Nights. One is a session where the teacher opens the classroom for a live Camp Internet multi-generational exploration where students showcase their work and introduce their parents to innovative, and academically safe and sound, uses for the Internet as a learning tool. The other is held selected Thursday evenings and invites families to come online from a home or library computer and join in an Internet Dig or live Trail Guide chat with guest experts. Families are given full student level access for the evening to explore the Camp resources. Open 6-9pm.

 

Camp will provide you with Family Night announcement masters – please print and send home with students to announce upcoming events!

 

4. Camp Internet Teacher Training

 

The Camp Internet program offers schools an innovative teacher training service presented in a twelve- month package adaptable to all skill levels. The Camp professional development program combines live and online training with direct applications for that training immediately in the classroom. Each teacher training package includes training, workbook, materials, technical support, and classroom application activities.

 

Teachers subscribed to the Camp Internet Education Technology Staff Development Program enjoy becoming a part of a supportive distance learning community. The Camp program links teachers from multiple districts together in a stimulating training, learning, and direct Internet classroom application program. Teachers of all skill levels will find challenges to meet, and will experience increased confidence in their ability to integrate technology into their classroom. Teachers who have participated to date report that the program has given them a tool to put to work right in the classroom for the entire school year. In contrast to an occasionally used software program, or a short-lived virtual field trip program, the Camp offers them a way to integrate standards-based subjects with technology in their classroom on a year round basis, and in a multiple of subjects.

 

The full Camp Internet teacher training program sees 120 hours a year of learning for teachers.

 

This includes 40 hours of summer or out-of-classroom activities in advance of delivering the learning modules in the classroom. During the school year – traditional or year round – teachers spend 1-2 hours a week demonstrating the program to their students, guiding their participation, and directing hands-on learning projects that compliment the online learning. This classroom delivery training amounts to an average of 60 hours of activities. Teachers also participate in professional development activities online or at live sessions, and will ideally host at least one peer demo of the program to colleagues. Once a year teachers also often host an open Family Night where parents and friends are invited into the classroom to experience Camp Internet with their student’s as their guides. This professional development activity module includes at least 20 hours of effort. Total effort is 120 hours for the full program.

 

Teachers complete an online baseline assessment form at the beginning of the program, and then complete a final evaluation form at the end of the program. The following summer, after completing the program, the teachers receive a Certificate of Achievement that may be applicable for continuing education salary step documentation.

 

Over the year, teachers will master 22 of the national technology proficiency skills, will understand new ways to integrate technology into the classroom as an integral part of delivering their curriculum, and will have increased community support for technology in the schools.

 

Basics skills teachers will master inorder to receive their Training Certificate :

 

Web-as-a-learning-and-research-tool comprehension, Live online discussion group and web training participation, Video and audio access, Use of and construction of classroom Internet Digs, Email, Listserv posting methods, GIS and GPS data gathering and analysis, Multi-subject integration, Virtual field trips, Online quizzes, Online essays, Assessment and reporting, and Class instructional web site development.

 

Featured Distance Learning Training Units

 

In the Fall, teachers will be guided through GIS studies in evening and after hours online learning sessions. In the Spring, they will be guided to create their own Internet Dig. Teachers will also have access to CTAP web development training to help them build their own Camp Internet Outpost web site.

These skills will then be applied in the classroom to assist students to create their own ‘Third Level’ data sharing projects.

 


5. How to Use the Camp Internet Online Resources

 

 

Briefings

 

Each Monday morning the weekly briefing for your track goes out to your track listserv. You will receive this in the email box you have chosen to have this mail sent to, including a campinternet.net mail box that will hold all messages sent to you for reference. Please print this out and add it to you binder for reference later, or, use the listserv archive where they are collected online (located at http://www.rain.org/lists01). These weekly briefings highlight class activities, update you on teacher training, and provide advance notice of special projects, guest, contests and Camp events. If you have misplaced a briefing with a project detail you need, go back into the archive to locate any past postings. Try to read the briefing by every Monday evening to be prepared for the week’s special activities.

 

Camp Calendar

 

Camp runs at least 4 calendars simultaneously and expends concentrated effort to keep these as current as possible. Each track has its own calendar that includes weekly themes (posted on Mondays), weekly Dig topics, special Trail Guide guest events, Family nights, teacher training sessions, Field trip scheduling, Field report reservations, and invitations to attend partner agency chats and events online (National Geographic, NASA, etc.). Stay current with Camp using the calendar – it is an anchor in the fast changing web world. The Calendar is accessible from the main Camp portal.

 

Teacher’s Web Site

 

This private teachers-only area is your true online BASE CAMP and is accessed from the front of the main Camp portal. Here you will find out how to contact one another, how to access documents you need – passports, passport keys, family night invitations, parent letters, field report templates and more. Your online Teacher Training will take place in a Teacher’s Chat Room accessed from the private teachers-only web site.

 

Passports

 

Your Workbook binder contains a master Passport for your track with the full color stickers applied as reference. You will find the online master for your Passport in the Teacher’s Web where you can print it out in full for each student, or modify it to meet your needs. Passports are 12-16 pages and should be stapled in the upper left corner. Stickers are provided for the full passport for up to 35 students. Also in the Teacher’s Web are the private passport keys that are for teacher use only as they provide answers to all Passport questions. If students re stumped on answers, please ask them to first use the SEARCH engine on camp Internet to try to locate their answer. If that fails, you can either direct them to write to camp@rain.org  for help, or provide them with the answer verbally from the key.

 

The new Passport folios are in the design of a backpack on sturdy full color paper and will serve as a portable pack for homework and afterschool efforts to answer the Passport questions. Students love a challenge, and the Passports are a very popular, memorable learning tool. This hands-on tool is portable and a favorite way to share progress at home with family. If you are teaching more than one student class of 35, you can arrange for additional Passport folios, stickers or hands-on projects.

 

Student Center

 

This fun tool kit is the virtual Student Backpack and provides a variety of learning and communication tools to help students enjoy Camp Internet. They will be promoted to enter their first name inorder to personalize the online Backpack.

 

 

Internet Digs

 

Goal: Internet Digs provide a chance for students to turn INFORMATION into KNOWLEDGE by requiring them to read, comprehend, and write about information they are guided to online. This is a safe and secure learning environment that most often leads to source materials inside the Camp web site, and when going outside the site, goes to carefully selected educational resources with important value (usually at museums, universities, science or history enters). Each student who has computer time should complete one Internet Dig every week school is in session to compliment their online reading and research in the track themes. Students will ideally already have read the week’s featured materials online and be familiar with the theme before beginning a Dig, but can receive value from using the Dig with out advance preparation.

 

Outcomes: This exercise will enhance student learning by giving them a challenging Q&A that requires reading, research, comprehension and writing skills. Students learn the positive outcomes of writing and communicating responsibly online.

 

Location: Internet Digs are accessed from the main Camp portal, and are subject track specific.

 

Implementation: The Internet Digs will be available to your students every week in your subject track. Any day, Tuesday – Friday, you should have the students come into their track’s Internet Dig and work on answering the questions posed in the Dig. Each Dig will have a welcome statement and introduction, and then will list 6 or more questions that will be numbered. Students read one question at a time, click on the BUTTON imbedded in the question area, and read the resources that this live button leads to. Once they have discovered the answer, they use the BACK button to return to the main Dig and enter their answers. They must note the # first and answer in full sentences that include the question i.e. “#1 - There are 8 California Channel Islands” is correctly formatted whereas “8” as an answer is not a complete concept. Before posting any answer, every Camper needs to include their first name and school name in the YOUR HANDLE box below, and then clicks on the CHAT button to post to the room.

 

If you want to scroll back up to see postings from earlier in the discussion, put a large number (like 100 or 250 if it is a busy room) in the SCROLL BACK box, then click on CHAT an the Dig will refresh itself back that far in postings. If you want to read, but not post, but need to update to see what has transpired since you opened the Dig, also click on CHAT and it will refresh with the most current comments. Digs are open 8am – 5pm often as early as Monday, but officially open Tues – Fri. they are not accessible during evening hours except for special pre arranged sessions. At 5 pm Friday, every Dig archives, and will be available with in a week for viewing in the Archive.

 

If you would like to include a photo in a posting to a Dig, first locate the photo you want online. Once there, click your moue’s right button on the image and then draw down on that box and click on SOURCE. Write down the source address for that image. Not all images will be accessible as a full picture in the chat room, some will result in a button to click on, while others will have protections that disable any linking. You will need to experiment. Next type the source URL in your browser bar and open to that location. If you have found a successful link to the source image, cut and paste that full URL including http:// into the Dig answer ( with space before and after) and it will be included in your posting.

 

Field Reports

 

Goal: Every student will complete one local and one neighborhood or distant field report each year – local in the Fall and neighborhood / distant in the Spring. These are KNOWELDGE SHARING activities.

 

Outcomes: Field reports are very important projects in that they reveal the level of reading, comprehension, hands-on, and learning outcomes experienced by each individual Camper. Students may learn to use web, GPS, digital photograph, hyper-link, digital scanning, animation or other multi-media skills.

 

Location: Field Reports are posted in the Field Report center BY APPOINTMENT and during the posting period are open to the public who may post questions for the students to answer.

 

Implementation:  To create a successful Field Report, each student needs to :

 

1.      Identify the location the field report will be about – local school yard, neighborhood, or distant national park.

2.      Receive clear instructions on what information is to be gathered in the field and what tools will be used to gather that data – GPS unit, sketches, essays, digital photographs, etc.

3.      Begin their field study as alert observers, carefully observing and noting what they see, hear, feel, think, and discover while out in the field.

4.      Come back to the classroom with their field notes and data, and then prepare a word document (Microsoft Word is recommended due to link abilities) that includes their personal observations, the scientific and historic information they gathered, and their GPS readings. These reports should be at least 200 words long (4th-5th grade), 400 words (6th-8th grade) or 600 words (9th-12thgrade). They should not copy actual images into this step of the Field Report.

5.      In addition to their written report, they also need to add at least three links in their report – two to Camp Internet online or teacher-approved web pages that compliment their findings, and one that brings a photo or link to a photo into their report for visual emphasis. This is done by typing the full http:// string right into the word document – i.e. http://www,rain.org/campinternet.  It will then create a blue / lighter web address in the document that serves as a live link to the reader. They must be certain that the web address has a space before and after, is not touched by any punctuation, and includes the http:// in the beginning.

6.      Each class then makes a reservation for a time to have the Field report center opened and they spend a day posting their reports one by one until all class members have contributed to the field report.

7.      Field Report posting days can be 1-2 days for each class and will open 8am and close 5 pm on appointed days. With in one week the Field reports will become permanent posting in the Camp Internet archive.

 

 

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