Collaborative learning is one of the key components of creating life long learners. “Encouraging students to reach out to each other to solve problems and share knowledge not only builds collaboration skills, it leads to deeper learning and understanding” (Davis, 2014). Bridging these collaborative connections outside the classroom walls creates new opportunities for students to work together and share with a real world audience of their peers.
Over the last school year, I have worked hard to create collaborative with schools in the states and around the globe. Many tools can be used to create these connections. Some of these tools are telepresence, Edmodo, and, as was shared in our resources, ePals. Before you create these collaborative connections, you must consider some pieces depending on how you connect.
“Establishing a culture of collaboration isn't resource-intensive. It doesn't take hours of professional development, or technology, or even technical know-how. And assessing collaborative work is usually simple and straightforward. But you do need open minds and the willingness to trust students with their learning. You need a culture that values every student's strengths and a school community that believes everyone can learn from each other” (Davis, 2014). Prior to setting up any collaborative efforts, I have to look into any language barriers. Even if they spoke English, the type of English, dialect, or accents could cause a break down in communication depending on how your are communicating. With students, we did some front loading before these connections to help them become problem-solvers if they found themselves not understanding at some point in their conversations.
Another possible issue is time zones. Connections that I have been making in other states or countries can sometimes be limited if the collaboration is happening live. Within our district, we have sister schools located in Argentina and China. Now Argentina poses less of a problem then China when it comes to times to connect.
One example of school collaboration using telepresence I did was between one of my Kindergarten classrooms and a Kindergarten classroom in Texas. Students were able to teach their partner school what they had been learning in class. They also showed these students the snow outside and they showed our kids the green grass and trees they had despite that we were in the midst of winter here in Wisconsin. The engagement was high and students were eager to share and talk. They wanted to connect on a regular basis with their new friends.
The use of Edmodo to create collaborative groups is an amazing resource. The ability to set up groups and monitor student communication allows for the teacher be apart of the communication while monitoring the students’ digital citizenship skills. For many teacher look to create connections, the ability to control the environment, connections, and discussions. One of my fifth grade teachers has setup her own collaborative connection with a school in Finland. They utilize Edmodo to talk, share projects, and complete projects or discussions together. The students were excited to see if they had received messages from their pen pals and to share their creations and learning with them. The benefit of this collaboration comes from the ability to communicate anytime, anywhere. Students in Finland can contribute when it best fits in their schedule and our students can do the same.
The last resource is ePals. This a resource that I have been sharing for years and have watched it evolved. ePals is a website that helps to “connect US students with pen pals on almost every continent, preparing them for an ever-global society in which cultural understanding and fluency will give them an edge” (Demski, 2008, p.1). ePals offers an integrated school mail platform where students can connect with pen pals across the globe opening the doors for collaborative responsibilities. Like Edmodo, the teacher can moderate the group, but what makes it a little better is that no email can go through until the teacher has approved it. “It’s uniqueness is in the control it provides educators, who can adjust protections and access settings according to the different needs and ages of their students” (Demski, 2008, p.1).
As with all of my experiences with collaboration in the classroom, the students become more engaged in discussion and energetic about the work they are doing. This is also a skill we are teaching our students to great them ready for a global world where collaboration with staff, colleagues, and business partners could be the standard. No matter what tools you use to open these doors, giving the students the opportunity to collaboratively work outside your school walls is giving them a life-long skill. It is something I recommend to all my teachers and something I do very often myself.
Reference:
Davis, M. (2014, June 12). How Collaborative Learning Leads to Student Success. Edutopia. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/stw-collaborative-learning-college-prep
Demski, J. (2008, November). E-palling around. THE Journal, 35(11), 18–19. Retrieved from the Walden University Library using the Education Research Complete database.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Multimedia Project Creations
Allowing students to create
multimedia projects at the end of a lesson or unit gives them a creative and
engaging way to share their knowledge and understanding through the creation of
projects. There are many types of
multimedia projects students can create to showcase their learning. Multimedia
can defined as “he integration of
media objects such as text, graphics, video, animation, and sound to represent
and convey information” (Simkins et al, 2002, p.1).
A
project that I have completed using multimedia was with my second grade
classrooms the last two years is called "Piggy Stories". In
this lesson, students compare and contrast the different versions of the
classic story The Three Little
Pigs. They will use
what they learn during this process to write their own narrative. Students will focus on voice, sentence
fluency, and word choice in their creations. When they have finished writing, they will use the web tool Little Bird Tales. With this tool they will create
illustrations for their story and then
use the story they have written to narrate their story and produce a digital
story version. This lesson covers a multitude of Common Core standards
for both Reading Literature and Writing, as well as a variety of NET-S
standards.
When I initially began planning for this project, I had to take a variety of pieces
into account. How was I going to embed technology into this project, how
would I make it cross-curricular, and how would I create a lesson that allowed
the students to collaborate, critically think, be creative and communicate
their understanding? I also had to take into account the web tool or
program that would allow my students to present their digital story in the best
way possible and to be able to share it with a larger audience. Although
we were using the same tool for our product, this tool allowed the students to
be creative by using some choices. They could illustrate their stories
right in the program, or illustrate them by hand and upload them. Besides
using voice to narrate their stories, they could also add text so that it
became a read aloud.
The
next project I want to tackle at the beginning of school is to have one of my
third grade classes help me write and produce a video on the history of our
city. This comes as part of the third grade curriculum but the resources
are very dry. As a group we will brainstorm the important pieces to
include, how we can share these pieces, and the where we will research.
Students will each have an opportunity to create their part of the video
whether its acting, a digital story, or virtual field trip into on of our
historical landmarks. I think that this would be a great way to jazz up
the curriculum while also having the students take ownership of their work.
This will be something we can share with other elementary schools in our
town and continue to build upon in the future.
The
use of multimedia in education creates opportunities for the students to share
their knowledge in a creative and engaging way. It has really played a
key role in helping us improve and grow our curriculum. Students are more
engaged at the opportunity to create and because their creations can be so
easily shared out with the world, they take pride in their work.
Reference:
Simkins,
M., Cole, K., Tavalin, F., & Means, B. (2002, January 1). Increasing
Student Learning Through Multimedia Projects. Increasing Student
Learning Through Multimedia Projects. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/102112.aspx
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
The Final Products - Independent Research Projects
Here are the final products by the second graders I worked with on the Independent Research Project:
Volcano Voki
Titanic Voki
Bobcats Voki
Fire-Bellied Toad - Little Bird Tales
Abraham Lincoln Mixbook
All About Bats Mixbook
Cheetah Animoto
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Assessing Student Projects
The word assessment is one that we hear on a daily basis from teachers, administrators, directors, and curriculum coordinators.. It shows our data, drives instruction, can sometimes dictate our effectiveness, helps us determine interventions, and more. When it comes to students learning through projects, assessment is not always completed in the proper way in my opinion.
“Evaluation of the end product rarely identifies specific weaknesses and strengths in the inquiry process of students” (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, & Caspari, 2007, p.111). Common practice, which I see with most teachers, is assessing the final product and giving one grade to the students with little or no feedback on the process. If students do not understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie in the inquiry process, how do they know how to improve themselves. It is better to have practical assessments on all the stages of the inquiry process.
I think that teachers miss this opportunity for this genuine data and reflection. For our District, teachers need to add events to our standardized based report cards to show how they assessed that standard. By assessing the different stages of the process, they can also add each of these as individual events accurately showing the assessment for each standard.
There is also value in creating different forms of assessment during the inquiry process, instead of just a rubric on the final product. “Assessment methods, such as conferences, observation, and student journals, indicate what has been learned and what hasn’t” (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, & Caspari, 2007, p.112). This also allows you to take action immediately, rather than waiting until the end and having to go back when it is not practical or applicable.
Some times the assessment of stages in the inquiry process can be more complex than others. Students are not always able to show or verbally share parts of this process, one of these being their synthesizing process. You must take into account that this happens internally, or naturally in their heads.
The last project that I completed with students involved multi-stages of assessment in different formats. I completed conferences each week, as well as students having to reflect for each week on the different stages, and doing pre and post assessments that were directly related to these different stages. This was valuable information. I worked with students that did not understand the different stages of the inquiry process. They shared when they were having a hard time locating sources of information. This is something that may not have happened if my assessment were only done after the projects were created. I would have seen at that point that they lacked information but at this point, it is too late for that teaching moment.
Resources
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2007). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Insect e-books
My Kindergarten classes have been working hard on creating an Insect e-book. This e-book shares what they learned about during their insect unit. Each student was able to pick an insect they wanted to illustrate and share a few things they learned during their research. The result is a class e-book all about insects.
http://www.bookemon.com/read-book/398241
http://www.bookemon.com/read-book/398274
http://www.bookemon.com/read-book/398241
http://www.bookemon.com/read-book/398274
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