Ever
since I began work on my voice thread for this week, I have been thinking about
how I could use them in my classroom. Although I haven’t developed a specific
plan for implementing voice threads, I know I have to try them out. A voice
thread is a major step above the now commonplace PowerPoint presentation.
The book
“Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works” gives some other
examples of technology to use for cooperative learning (2012). One technology I am very interested in
implementing is an online learning community, created with Google Apps for
Education. With this, my students can have their own email addresses, and I can
create a class website, complete with a class calendar to keep everyone up to
date on deadlines. Also, once students have a Google account, they can use
Google’s social bookmarking site to save and share bookmarks.
Cooperative
learning can be very beneficial for students. Working with a diverse group of
people allows students to work to their strengths while learning from what
their group mates have to offer. Technology tools can make the tasks involved
easier for students, as well as more interesting for everyone.
Resources
Palmer,
G., Peters, R., & Streetman, R. (2003). Cooperative learning. In M. Orey
(Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved
<June 3, 2013>, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E.
R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that
works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Leslie,
ReplyDeleteI agree that using cooperative groups where students are different from each other can be very effective by allowing each student to bring something different to the group. I have also noticed that by grouping students together who do not normally fall under the same social groups of friends can also be very productive. There seems to be less socializing this way and more collaborating and working. Do you have a common way of grouping your students together? Do you feel that sometimes it is okay to randomly group your students or even allow them to choose their own groups?
Brianna
Student grouping is an issue for me. Allowing them to choose their own groups is really only productive whith groups of students that would work hard no matter the circumstances. The rest of the groups spend too much time socializing. However, I have had problems creating groups that will be productive, because I have students who do not get along with their classmates. I am going to try to work harder on the grouping issue to ensure that I create effective groups in wich the members can get along and are willing to learn from each other. That being said, I will probably still occasionally allow students to choose their own groups on small projects.
ReplyDeleteLeslie, I think cooperative groups can be very beneficial for students when it comes to learning as well. I agree that it is important to group students based on their different strengths so that they may learn from one another. I was wondering how you hold each student accountable for their share of the work. What kind of monitoring do you have in place?
ReplyDeleteShonda, I have used a few different strategies to hold all group members accountable. First of all, I have each group assign tasks to each member so that each person is responsible for something specific. When I observe groups, I will check to see that each member is doing his assigned task, and that no one is doing a job not assigned to him. I can also have students document the specific tasks they performed. Lastly, I do an individual survey at the end of the project. I separate the group members for this, so no one knows how the rest of the group is answering the questions. In the survey, I ask which member performed which task, and to what extent members pulled their weight. I take each member’s survey into consideration, combined with my own observations. This way, I can justify not giving each person in the group the same participation grade.
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