Techniques Nov-Dec 2012 - 8

Classroom Connection

Cloud-based Collaboration Connects Engineering Teachers
phoTo courTesy of Jennifer Klein

A Cloud is Born
With jobs forecasting showing the need for more engineers, Fulton County Schools began transitioning from technology education to engineering education ten years ago to promote interest in engineering careers. After the second year of our engineering program, the teachers saw the need to collaborate. The new curriculum was far different than what we had taught in the past, and our “island” felt small. I began offering a summer professional development class for the engineering teachers, which we’ve now had for seven years. We review curriculum, lab safety, training modules, industry certification and master projects, and we share what works and what doesn’t. Some years we pretend we are students and do the hands-on modules and projects ourselves. Initially, follow-up was through email. We also used a public folder within our email system, but space was limited through Outlook. And if the system was down, we were out of luck. It was troublesome to collaborate and share this way. We needed a better portal to share files and videos, upload easily and have easy access at home and on our phones. In the fall of 2011, sharing among the 13 teachers “went viral,” when we debuted online collaboration through a popular cloud service. Through the cloud we share files, photos, videos, project ideas and pictures of projects that work. This sharing allows us to expand our “island” and help our students achieve more. Dwayne Belcher, who teaches engineering at Westlake, another Fulton County high school, says the cloud portal saves everyone time because we trouble-

shoot students’ projects and share ideas. His students see other students’ completed projects and try to make them better.

Sharing the Wealth
Cloud-based collaboration has many benefits, most of all ease of use and the ability to access the information anywhere there’s an Internet connection. No longer do we need to be at school on the network to get a file. Once a file is placed on the cloud, anyone with password access can use it to help their program. Wayne Thompson, who started an engineering program at Cambridge High this fall, dubbed the cloud his “one-stop, shop-all environment,” where he finds everything he needs, including materials from the summer workshop. As a former middle school teacher returning to high school, the cloud has been a lifesaver for him. We also coordinate and share timelines on the cloud to help pace students’ projects. The calendar spaces out the required work, giving the students deadlines to follow, so that they complete the project without cramming at the end. The cloud also gives us one centralized location to file important documents like safety forms and tests. We also share our syllabuses, which are especially valuable to new teachers. From this collaboration an annual student-designed and student-driven hovercraft race was born, hosted at a different school each year. Photos, entry details and results are posted on the cloud for all to see and evaluate. Gregg Mervich, the engineering teacher at Chattahoochee High, says his students start thinking of improvements and design ideas for the
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An annual student-designed hovercraft race was born through teacher collaboration.

By Steve Sweigart AS A TEAChEr, you mAy ofTEn fEEl likE you are on an island.
When the bell rings, it’s just you and your students, and you are expected to know all the answers. For this reason, as the lead engineering teacher for Fulton County Schools in Atlanta, Georgia, I use professional-development classes and cloud-based collaboration to connect our 13 high school engineering teachers. A “cloud” is an online storage service that can be accessed remotely from multiple users through an Internet connection. In layman’s terms, it is a hard drive, just like the one on your computer, but it is housed on the Internet so you can log into it from any computer and access the documents.

Techniques

November/December 2012

Techniques Nov-Dec 2012

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