Collaboration

What is collaboration? - Collaborate is defined as to work, one with another; cooperate, as on a literary work: Collaboration is defined as a product resulting from collaboration:

What characteristic are needed to have a collaborative culture? Trust, open to ideas, safe space, tough skin, open to feedback and discussions,

What are the tools needed to create a learning environment that supports and encourages collaboration?  time, space and people

tools - join me, Google Apps, Skype, Google +, Google Hangout. Projector Apple TV or Chrome cast, to showcase the product that you are working on to the group. If you are using a Google Application such as Drive (document) collaborators are able to see the changes as they happen or through the comments section in the document.



 How do you collaborate successful?

Using data to drive instruction

Am I a pessimistic when I say that I don't agree with just looking at an end of grade test score or an SAT score and saying this student needs x,y, and z?  Maybe this comes from my history as a student that didn't score high enough on his ITBS and had to go to summer school in fifth grade....maybe its the fact that my life rarely consists of multiple choice problems.  Yes I do have, "I want to go out to dinner to either Boston Market, Panera, or Jet's Pizza", but I wouldn't call that a problem more of a luxury. 

I value the day to day assessments, the quick check/quiz, and multiple facet assignments.  I would like to see more using Interactive Clickers / response systems (socrative.com, http://www.einstruction.com/ and http://smarttech.com/response).   There are many applications that (IXL, Study Island) support students in a day to day, real life problem solving tool.  There are also companies that have devices (Scantron) that make it easy to score and analyze results. 

We need to continue to assess our students, programs, and teaching methods in a effective manner, but let's broaden our scope to more then just a one three hour test in May (or June for year round schools).  With constant discussion about students' progress (or lack of) we will be able to have a true picture of how effective our teaching really is or isn't for our students.  

Instructional Practice

Many times I think about what an ideal classroom looks like and what would students be working on in this learning environment?  I think back to when I was in the classroom and the transformation for web 1.0 to web 2.0.  For the record 1.0 web tools are linear, app based, isolated, singular and focused on copy right content and web 2.0 is a more fluid learning opportunity that is web based, collaborative work and shared content.

Real world examples...my first thought as a former avid gamer is the evolution of the game Zelda to World of Warcraft.  Zelda is a task by task game that is based on the designers of the game controlling the order we played the game at our house. Fast forward to the World of Warcraft where you create your character, decide the tasks that you want to play, join other people across the world on-line and is collaborative in nature.  Another example is the change in the stuffed animal to the Webkinz.  Children moved from playing with dolls in isolation or with one friend to moving to an online site where you can create your animal and play with others.

How does all of this apply to a school's learning environment?  In literacy we have seen the change from the basal readers reading together and having pre-created questions that are discussed as a whole class to guided reading groups that have leveled text written responses that are shared with the teacher or oral responses shared with the group.  The goal would be to expand that to sharing out within a collaborative school.  This can be done via a Voki or VoiceThread, students can write their information via a blog (EduBlog and Edmodo), or you can take a picture of the written responses and post them. It is important after this is posted that the students converse about their responses and have continued conversations about their responses and reflections. 

In math it is a move from rote numeration using apps or sites such as Pop Math to students' communication such as math talks and explanations both oral and written.  As mentioned by Tony Wagner "its not what you know, it's what you do with what you know".

Other suggestions for science and social studies include changing from students memorizing items such as information about North Carolina or landforms to utilizing project based learning and active learning working with teams.  Some of the best examples involve students creating essential questions and being given the opportunity to use these essential questions to create presentations and products within a student group.

We will need to continue to move our instructional practice and assignments to opportunities that require students to collaborate, communicate, problem solve and think critically. No easy task, but what in life comes easy?