What is a Web-based collaborative project? Broadly speaking, many, if not all, classroom projects that use the Internet are in some way collaborative projects. Web-based activities that involve collaboration may include: Information gathering and reporting: researching and collecting information from online resources to answer questions and solve problems, as well as reporting locally collected data to online databases for use by others, including completing surveys and questionnaires. Online correspondence and interactive writing: students communicating about, or creating subject matter with, keypals or epals in other classrooms, or teacher and students communicating with subject matter experts and mentors. Online conferencing: using chat rooms and video or audio conferencing, in which teachers and students in one location communicate - in real time - about subject matter with their counterparts in another location, be it across the hall, across town, or across the globe. Web publishing: creating a class or school Web site that supports communication from visitors. Collaborations may occur between students and teachers; teacher to teacher; among students; between different classes or grades in one school; between schools in different cities, counties, or countries; between students and teachers and subject matter experts, etc. Why use a Web-based collaborative project? A simple collaborative project is a great way to start using the Internet in the classroom. Collaborative projects will be applicable in many disciplines. With the focus on communication at a distance, there is a natural fit with language arts - reading and writing to produce as well as consume information - but there are many collaborative projects that focus on science, math, and social studies. The interdisciplinary nature of many Web-based collaborative projects means that using such projects may facilitate collaboration between teachers in a school, which may in turn help students grasp previously unseen connections between divergent subjects. It also means that a well chosen collaborative project may meet standards and goals in more than one content area. The key to successfully using a Web-based collaborative project is making sure that the project supports and informs the curricular goals you have established for your students, as well as your state standards.