LIBE 477: Final Vision Project Blog #3

LIBE 477 - Reading Review Part C: My Research Experience to Better Understand: How Can Digital Technologies in the Classroom Promote Collaboration?

I will begin, with how I ended my last post: There is so much information out there, it was difficult to scale it down to just a few resources! As I was first looking into the topic of  “How can digital technologies in the classroom promote collaboration?” I was slightly overwhelmed with the amount of information out there.  Upon looking closer at the sites, I realized some of the information wasn’t quite relevant to school, children, or even technology; they were more generalized to the workplace or universities.  When I began honing in on key words and focusing on sites that were more educationally based, I was able to find more relevant resources.  This made me think about the process students go through when searching for information for research projects.  We, as teachers, need to share our learning experiences and model/teach good searching skills so they can be better users of technology.  

In the end, I found six resources that helped me better my understanding of developing collaboration with the use of digital technology in classrooms. It was important for me to hone down the number of articles as specifically related to my questions. I was able to find articles that helped make clear in my mind the justification for using digital technology to develop collaboration, what different tools could be used and examples of how they can be used within the curriculum, and finally, how students, in the end, benefit with such examples/uses. Using the six resources I found, here is what I learned:

Justification for using digital technology as a means to promote collaboration in the classroom:

• When students graduate, they’ll be thrown into situations where they need to collaborate, yet be independent and find the information they need. Learning these skills in school, and then practicing them over and over, is going to make them much more prepared for what they’ll face in college and the work world, and much more likely to be successful.
• Collaboration in the classroom is not a new concept, but with advances in technology, it’s making it “much more seamless and much more ubiquitous” (Hayes, 2019)
• Students enjoy using technology, so use it to increase engagement
• Today’s employers say, “the capacity to collaborate to solve problems is going to be even more important for tomorrow’s workers than content knowledge”, therefore, employers are looking for people who can work effectively in teams (Jackson, 2019)
• Most schools use the internet only to find information, need to go beyond that
• People learn by socializing with one another. Therefore, we need to change the concept of the learner as one who is a contributor, where students help one another learn
• Many applications allow for collaboration outside of the four walls and hours within a classroom

Image courtesy of: www.commonsense.org

Getting prepared to use digital technology as a collaborative tool:

• First step is to shift the traditional paradigm of teacher standing at the front of the classroom to one in which the teacher is “at the centre to the network of children who are helping one another learn” (Jackson, 2019)
• 4 tips for effective digital collaboration as laid out by Learners Edge blog (2020): 
• Build strategies and routines - teacher demonstrates the TRIBEs approach to help foster a positive learning environment for student collaboration:
• 1. Attentive listening
• 2. Show appreciation/no put downs
• 3. Right to pass/right to participate
• 4. Mutual respect
• Determine you collaboration type: as you plan you lessons, consider whether shared or individual devices are the best choice to facilitate learning, practice collaboration/communication skills

Models of Collaboration
Remote	Role-Based	Shared Screen
Individual devices, connected to a shared document or LMS (learning management system), are used. Students communicate via chat or comment feature.	Students work on smaller, individual tasks based on their role within the group. Continuous communication is needed to construct shared final product.	Students work side-by-side, discussing and taking turns to complete an activity using one device.
Example: Individuals write an introduction for their narrative essay and post to the LMS (Google Classroom, Seesaw, etc). Peers review the intros and provide feedback.	Example: A group works to solve a school problem, breaking the project into smaller tasks (researcher, interviewer, writer, etc). They use a web chat platform to plan, interview and construct the project.	Example: Pairs of students work to define math vocabulary terms. They collaborate on illustrations and narrate over a shared document using a whiteboard app such as Explain Everything.

• Choose your digital tool - see below for examples
• Plan your assessment - “it is through our assessment that we communicate to our pupils those things which we most value” (Harris, 2020).  Here is a great example rubric that is provided: https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/345105/Blog%20GATED_Collaborative%20Learning%20Self-Assessment%20Tool.pdf
• Find pro-d opportunities that allows time to play with different digital tools and collaborate with other teachers (Warlow, 2015) so that the teacher can become comfortable with the tools and how they can be used within the classroom to promote collaboration.  This takes time.

Examples of digital tools and ideas to promote collaboration:

Click on the links to explore the sites.

• Figment.com - an online community of young writers.  Provides both collaborative writing spaces through its groups and a place to publish finished work.
• Epals.com - where learners connect with classrooms around the world. Can send emails and/or learn from each other on join projects (ex. Swapping recipes, creating a wiki describing the musical instruments of multiple countries)
• Kidblog.com - a teacher controlled blogging platform (ex. Students can provide peer feedback in the form of constructive criticism to writing)
• Google Docs and other G Suite applications:  students can collaborate on group projects by “sharing” documents/slides, provide feedback on streams in Google Classroom or Google Hangouts, proofread each other’s writing, etc.  
• Flipgrid - a video tool that is meant to encourage discussion and engagement. Short video-logs allow students to share ideas and opinions in a fun and hands-on way.
• Padlet - a virtual corkboard in which students can collaboratively contribute videos, images, and/or comments/replies
• Kahoot - game-based learning and content reinforcement through competition and collaboration (a way to show understanding, rather than test-taking)
• Voicethreads - content-based conversations about selected media through “threads”
• Minecraft for education - students can work together to explore ecosystems, solve problems through design, architecture, etc.
• Any video tools - (example: students learning to speak in French, can send video of them speaking French to a French speaking school to receive feedback)

Benefit for students/teachers:

• “Students who once sat in the back of the room and didn’t want to speak up or be part of the lesson now are excited to get online and share what they’re learning. They want to teach others and they feel like their voice matters” (Jackson, 2019)
• Students are now able to share, create, and critically think online with the world, rather than on just paper (global)
• Students are absorbing critical soft-skills : teamwork, leadership, networking and critical thinking - that will take them far in life. But they “are so engaged that they probably don’t even realize it” (Hayes, 2019)
• By monitoring and managing students’ work in the cloud (ex. Google Suites), teachers can dedicate their time to providing quality feedback and getting to know where they need to help plug the gaps in a student’s knowledge and skills. In addition, this allows teachers to make different assignments to different students depending on their needs (differentiation)
• Activates the student’s ownership of their learning
• Enables collaboration both between students and between students and their teacher(s)
• This video from Common Sense Media (Jackson, 2019) is a great testament:

Overall, I was able to find the answers to all of my previous questions on how digital technology can promote collaboration in classrooms. I now have a clearer understanding of the why, the how, and the result. Through my exploration, I am motivated and can now use some of these tools immediately in my classroom. I want to share some of these tools with my teacher-librarian, so that she may use them in our school’s Learning Commons. A question that arose for me as I was exploring the tools, was what if the school you are working at doesn’t have access to as much technology or doesn’t have the funds to support some of the applications (as some do have a cost)? By sharing the resources and key understandings I gained from my research, I feel I would be armed with a great justification to ask for more support/funding. Thankfully, I am fortunate to work in a district/school that values the use of technology to support 21st Century learning, and funds our schools accordingly.

Works Cited/Referenced:

Harris, M. (2020). 4 Tips for Effective Digital Collaboration in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.learnersedge.com/blog/4-tips-for-effective-digital-collaboration-in-the-classroom Hayes, H. B., & Hayes, H. B. (2019, June 5). Advances in Technology Foster Collaboration Between Students and Teachers. Retrieved from https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2017/07/advances-technology-foster-collaboration-between-students-and-teachers Heick, T. (2019, June 9). 30 Of The Best Digital Collaboration Tools For Students -. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/technology/12-tech-tools-for-student-to-student-digital-collaboration/ Jackson, S. (2019, December 20). How Technology Can Encourage Student Collaboration. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/how-technology-can-encourage-student-collaboration (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn7nnzWNlaY Wardlow, L., & Harm, E. (2015). Using Appropriate Digital Tools to Overcome Barriers to Collaborative Learning in Classrooms. Educational Technology, 55(3), 32-35. Retrieved February 2, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/44430370