Group items tagged

The engagement levels of the student group were through the roof.

How else could  we be able to gather 50+ responses within the course of an hour that represented the views of the general public.

As answers started rolling in, they were sharing their responses with each other, comparing them and taking notice of the similarities and differences among the responses. This lead to a great level of discussion about the concepts the activity was hoping to cover.

At the moment we are learning about the different values people demonstrate towards nature. So with this in mind I got the students to choose 3 people who they could SMS who would be likely to respond quickly within our scheduled classtime. They then had 3 questions they needed to include in their SMS with only one question asked per person.

Inherent in the collaborative process is a new way of thinking about teaching and learning. We must find our own teachers, and they must find us.

As connectors, we provide the chance for kids to get better at learning from one another. Examples of this kind of schooling are hard to find so far, but they do exist. Manitoba, Canada, teacher Clarence Fisher and Van Nuys, California, administrator Barbara Barreda do it through their thinwalls project, in which middle school students connect almost daily through blogs, wikis, Skype, instant messaging, and other tools to discuss literature and current events. In Webster, New York, students on the Stream Team, at Klem Road South Elementary School, investigate the health of local streams and then use digital tools to share data and exchange ideas about stewardship with kids from other schools in the Great Lakes area and in California. More than learning content, the emphasis of these projects is on using the Web's social-networking tools to teach global collaboration and communication, allowing students to create their own networks in the process.

Collaboration in these times requires our students to be able to seek out and connect with learning partners, in the process perhaps navigating cultures, time zones, and technologies. It requires that they have a vetting process for those they come into contact with: Who is this person? What are her passions? What are her credentials? What can I learn from her?

Likewise, we must make sure that others can locate and vet us. The process of collaboration begins with our willingness to share our work and our passions publicly -- a frontier that traditional schools have rarely crossed. As Clay Shirky writes in Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, "knowingly sharing your work with others is the simplest way to take advantage of the new social tools." Educators can help students open these doors by deliberately involving outsiders in class work early on -- not just showcasing a finished product at the spring open house night.

Similarly, school leaders and teachers need to decide about the nature of the feedback, keeping in mind that the purpose of the walk-through is to promote reflective dialogue about promising teaching and learning practices related to student literacy with ICT.

Each school staff can modify their own walk-through procedures and develop a set of questions that school leaders could consider during their visits. The questions should be worded to encourage teacher reflection about their practice rather than to elicit a specific answer for the school leader.

Part 2: Our Conversation

Part 3: My Reflections

Part 1: My Walk-through