The second artifact I would like to reflect on involved an assignment in which we were asked to create an assignment or task students could complete by working collaboratively. This sounded easy enough to do, as students collaborate all day on work. Why this specific assignment stood out to me, is that I really had to step back and think about how do I ask students to collaborate on the same piece of work using different devices in order to help the greater good? I say working for the greater good because to me, this is really the purpose of collaboration. Two heads are better than one, right? Right! As long as those two heads are working toward the same purpose. In the past, I suppose collaboration has involved students using one computer to “collaborate” on an assignment. With the effective implementation of technology, students can now easily and equally contribute on the same piece of work. Designing collaborative work does come with its challenges. It was important to think about how I could ask students to contribute equally, but at the same time promote differentiation. This may involve providing different instructions for different students. I would also need to find a way to make every voice heard knowing that all students have something to contribute. I ended up creating an assignment for students to create a goal bank to help them write their weekly goals. This is something students can create together, but also access and utilize throughout the course of the year. After instruction on writing SMART goals, I will be having students create a bank of example SMART goals for different subject areas so that they can access this when they get stuck on writing a weekly goal for our class. I used Popplet because of its easy mapping and it is visually appealing. Here’s a link to the document students will be adding to:
While I have asked students to collaborate before using different devices on the same document, I am happy that this assignment made me step back and reexamine what it means to be a collaborator in a 21st century world!
Steph, I have never heard of popplet before, but I want to check it out after your little presentation. I agree that goal setting is hard for students since they often don't know where to start. Thanks for the heads up on the new tool!
ReplyDeleteI think that the Popplet is a great way to get everyone involved-- nice idea!
ReplyDeleteI don't have adobe flash drive , so I can't see your creation. However, the web tool looks really neat. I like the fact that it is easy to use and visually appealing. I think its great that you have a goal bank to prompt your students.
ReplyDeleteStephanie, I love your reflection on student collaboration. I agree that it is a challenge, but I also agree with you that students can gain so much from sharing goals with one another. Thanks for sharing Popplet, I will have to check it out!
ReplyDeleteLove the collaborative idea to great a resource bank to use through the year. This would likely spark some students to branch out to a goal area they may not have considered on their own.
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