Stop, COLLABORATE and Listen

“Indeed, it is possible to conduct successful collaborative learning synchronously or asynchronously, at a distance or face-to-face.” I love this quote from Bates, which basically squashes all excuses that may form about student collaboration. Regardless of the scenario, we have opportunities for students to work with one another to enhance learning. So what is the best way to do it?

I do see value in discussion forums, but from my perspective I see this for higher end learners who are able to form intelligent thoughts and participate in what Harasim introduced as intellectual convergence, which is the ability to synthesize information, have respectful debate, and come up with joint ideas in the construction of a piece of work. I am not selling my students short, but for the age group in which I am working (mostly grade 6), I don’t see the value of a true discussion forum platform as a way to engage with each other. That being said, middle years students are capable of sharing, reflecting, and giving feedback to self and others and there are other ways to make this happen.

I am a true believer in Flipgrid as a tool that allows students to creatively collaborate. Not only does it work as a great assessment tool, but allows students to view each others responses and provide feedback in the form of text or video. Some students will eat up the ability to be seen on camera through the creation of video comments and for others they will prefer to use text, which is a great reason I love the options that Flipgrid provides. I plan to use Flipgrid frequently in my course.

Another way for students to collaborate with each other is through collaboration spaces. My course utilizes a combo of Microsoft Teams and Class Notebook and one of the features of Class Notebook is the ability set up a space for groups of students to work together to complete a group task. Groups can be private so that only group members and teacher have access to the space or public so that all students can view what the other groups are up to. In a way similar to google docs, ideas can be shared, organized, and synthesized as the group works to compete a task. By allowing others to see the group work, it also allows for a wider range of feedback opportunities. Microsoft Teams has a great chat feature that allows for whole group sharing or can be set up for small groups. I plan to use this for small groups to share thoughts and ideas on certain topics as it is a familiar chatting platform and also allows for file sharing.

 

Since my course will be set up to run face to face or online, when the situation allows, I also have plans to utilize the breakout spaces within Teams meetings. Not all students will be excited to share with the large group and by placing students in smaller groups, more students may feel comfortable contributing. These rooms would be used to collaboratively come up with solutions to math problems or discuss a topic that we are learning to help each other come to a greater understanding. It may also be a way for students to create questions and tasks for other groups to attempt to solve as a fun way to aid in concept attainment and retention.

I have always been a fan of Padlet and see great value with this as a collaborative tool in my course. I am hearing many rave about the capabilities of Jamboard as well and I have only given that a small test so far, but I see it as something I want to further explore. Both of these are powerful tools that allow for sharing amongst a group. I see this happening synchronously as a whole group or as part of breakout rooms, or as individuals who must contribute to the space before a certain time so that the whole group can discuss. Regardless of how it is done, Padlet and Jamboard provide excellent opportunities for all students to have a safe and comfortable way to contribute to a brainstorming task.

One area that I haven’t really considered for my course is the use of social media. My current class does have a twitter account and hashtag, which is used by the whole group to share and collaborate with other students and classrooms throughout the world. As mentioned we do this together through group construction of tweets and comments to others and this could be an avenue to explore further for application in my course. I do see this as more of a teacher led activity, which could continue to happen in a face to face learning environment, but could also be worked into lessons where groups must develop responses to certain tweets and then together we decide what can be posted.

 

Things to Consider

We all know that student discussion and collaboration can go sideways in a hurry in a classroom and the online environment offers up even more challenges. Bates highlighted some important considerations for any online collaborative learning including:

  • appropriate technology
  • clear guidelines on student online behaviour
  • student orientation on purpose of discussion and choosing appropriate topics
  • clear goals and setting appropriate tone for discussion requirements
  • regular instructor presence

From this condensed list I see clear guidelines for student behaviour and regular instructor presence as being two areas of outmost significance. Having a plan to teach students appropriate online behaviour and to co-construct expectations for behaviour and consequences for failing to comply will be important. Also, as the instructor, I need to be very conscious to be present as much as possible. This means popping into breakout rooms, being a part of all group chats, checking in on and monitoring what is being added to collaborative spaces. As much as online learning can be an environment for a diverse range of students to thrive, it also opens up many opportunities for inappropriate behaviour. Part of holding students accountable also lies in providing appropriate tasks that are engaging and making sure that deadlines and expectations are clear and monitored closely.

As the great theologian Vanilla Ice once said, we need to Stop, Collaborate, and Listen. Working closely with others to brainstorm, solve, and present solutions and ideas is a skill that is highly valued in the 21st century. It is important to stop and listen to what others have to say as we become better together. As this course progresses there are more and more ideas about teaching online to consider and reflect on and the value in sharing with each other is becoming more and more evident. Teaching in the online world forces us to think differently and that can be scary. I look forward to stopping in on others blog posts, listening to many great ideas, and further collaborating with everyone as we take on this journey together.

 

 

2 Responses

  1. Gerod says:

    Devin, the title to your blog post this week is awesome! I appreciated that you recognized student discussions and collaboration can go sideways and that you offered considerations to reduce the likelihood of it happening. Mentoring what student interactions should look like online is very valuable to your course but also to the real world. As kids have access to more technology they need to be taught their digital footprint is forever. I will be sure to check out your course at the end of the semester to see how it turns out.

  2. Jamie Mayoh-Bauche says:

    I was also drawn to your post by the title and I love how you focused on the words of a great theologian. Haha. I do think you have thoroughly treated the topic of collaboration in your online course. You have identified a number of useful tools and are thoughtful about how they can be used and an overall framework for collaboration. I liked your discussion of the role of social media and it prompted me to think about how I may utilize social media connections in my course as well. Well done post.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *