Skip to main content

Collaboration 5.5.4

I can now distinguish between  two things: collaboration and effective collaboration. In principle, I have known and practiced collaboration but rarely taken into account that the activities that comprise the collaboration could have either been replaced with better ones - more effective in realising  lesson objectives - or refined to make them more effective. Several lessons tend to put the cart before the horse by asking the wrong questions like "How can I make my lesson more collaborative?", "What technology can I use to make this lesson 'better'? etc. Instead, it would have been important to ask questions like: "How can I make collaboration make me realise my lesson objectives?" and the like. Collaboration should not be seen as an element of a lesson but as the defining theme of the lesson.
The whole lesson or set of lessons is one collaborative process or set of collaborative processes harmonised by the teacher to cultivate the desired experience in the learner. The teacher's role in this process is to set the scene and prompt the learners thinking in every possible way and, later, to adjudicate over the collaboration process as the knowledge is created, reorganized and shared - this , of course, using several tools like ipads, laptops, google docs, wikis etc. Current real-time communication tools allow students to exchange ideas in a manner that more closely approximates the face-to-face experience.
Collaboration should employ social skills which enable all learners to have their say and for the class or group (s) to reach consensus on how the final work should look like. Knowledge, skills and values learnt through collaboration should be used to solve real world problems and yield lasting results. Learners should be able to see the relationship between what they are collaborating to produce in class and the experiences around them.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My links for 4.6.3

Hello Group! I have tried to comb through the internet for websites that will provide support in determining the best digital literacies education strategy for a school. Kindly look through and share with me your opinions. http://www.teachthought.com/technology/63-things-every-student-should-know-in-a-digital-world/ http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/digital-literacy-skills/ http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/digital-literacy-across-curriculum-handbook http://classroom-aid.com/educational-resources/digital-literacy/ http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/10/29/ctq_crowley_digitalliteracy.html http://rpsconnected.rbe.sk.ca/2013/04/no-lights-no-camera-but-lots-of-action.html https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum http://swgfl.org.uk/magazine/Waving-Silently-Technology-and-Self-Harm http://www.digital-literacy.org.uk/Home.aspx https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002144/214485e.pdf

Bring Your Own Device 7.5.4

I was not so familiar with BYOD until after this lesson. It was something that I associated with the corporate world (and not the classroom) - with big organisations allowing their employees to bring their own devices to work as a measure of motivating them with the feeling of greater contribution to the company. BYOD assumes many models in classroom learning which generally allow learners to bring their own devices to school. The devices brought may or may not be dictated upon by the school but, ideally, must be those that support the teaching and learning process. Looking at BYOD now in the classroom context,it is to me more of a challenge than an idea to implement. I see it as something that is long over due and I consider myself little bit behind schedule with a lot to get done. I have particularly taken interest in the cell phone as a device I feel would bring more success in meeting teaching and learning objectives in my classroom. Why you may ask? Well, it is a device that I ...