Module 4

Engaging Learners with New Strategies and Tools  

There are many technological tools that learners are using outside the classroom into the educational process. It is to everyone's benefit to utilize the things that are out there because in the real world, learners will come into contact with them.

One of the biggest things I can do to bring these tools into the classroom is first to learn how to use them myself. I can learn what their benefits are and find ways to apply them to my daily class activities. This is also an engaging way to get learners to be excited about learning.

Skype is a great tool for communicating in distance education. It is free and it allows learner and professor to communicate face to face. It is communication that happens immediately and so feedback is timely.

Wikis are a great way to collaborate between learners. They provide the opportunity to share ideas and build new concepts as a team when you can't be together.

Video presentations are an excellent way to deliver content. It gives the learner the opportunity review content as much as they need to to make sure that their own learning happens. 

Module 3

Assessing Collaborative Efforts

Assessing collaborative learning is a difficult task. I struggle with this in my own fourth grade classroom on a daily basis. I want my students to learn together and build their knowledge. I have such a range of ability levels in my classroom – from kids who are globally gifted (gifted in EVERY way possible) to kids who can barely read at age 9. I also have to contend with English Language Learners. No matter how much time I spend creating multilevel groups that will nurture every ability level, I still run up against those kids who don’t want to work with others or won’t engage in the task and leave all of the work for others. One thing I do to try and even the playing field is providing students with clear and timely expectations. I show them the time and thought that I put into planning the activity and they typically buy-in more. This is something mentioned in the book Collaborating Online: Learning Together in Community. While this book is aimed at the online community, I think that many of the principles discussed in this book also apply to face-to-face education. Along with clear and timely expectations, I also lace all collaborative tasks with just enough individual work to allow me to adjust levels of performance for individual students, as I need to. It would be easy to just put all of the “high” kids together and all of the “low” kids together. This is not ideal for most kids however. In my experience, only the gifted group benefits from being grouped together. They are a naturally competitive demographic and together they truly do achieve more. The lower and middle kids do not benefit from this, however. Being purposeful in the types of learning experiences and tasks that you design for students is the best way to fairly assess students in collaborative learning experiences.

I know that if I encounter someone that does not want to collaborate or network in a learning community for an online course, I have one single backup strategy that I fall back on. I do the work myself. It is really hard in an online environment to trust so many people that I do not know and will probably never meet to do work that will help or hurt my grade. I am someone who excels in school situations (hence, why I’m a teacher) and for me to put my success into someone else’s hands is a lot to ask. As an online student, you have to understand two main things: The first is that you will probably learn a great deal from your classmates – whether it’s from their mistakes or just their opinions & and second, you are the only one you can depend on to create your success. If someone doesn’t want to participate, all you can do is continue on your own path of learning and do what you need to do to succeed. If that means doing more work, then that’s what has to happen. If it is truly a project that cannot be done alone, the instructor does need to be involved. They should either re-assign the groups, talk to the non-participating person, or give the other group members other options for fulfilling the requirements of the assignment. This is something that could completely change the instructor’s assessment plan. It is something that you have to be prepared for as an instructor.

References:

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.