UNIT II. GROUP-BASED COLLABORATIVE INSTRUCTION AND MULTIMEDIA

All of the articles read for group based collaborative learning had the same theme of students working together for a common goal. I love the idea of students working together to solve problems as the different learning designs presented for this unit. Students working together and using critical thinking skills are skills we all need in the “real world” therefore it is great that there are different ways of presenting materials so students can experience this. All four designs focused on collaboration, higher order thinking, discussion, evaluation, feedback, and a product.  I like that the cooperative learning designs are based on working together to solve problems that are beyond a typical textbook. Although it is more work for the instructor, students will gain a lot more social skills as well as content knowledge using any of these designs. Another similarity of the designs was the focus to use real or authentic problems for students to solve. I think connecting learning to real world experiences promotes student engagement and gives students a sense of reason to learn. Educators should strive to help students relate to topics/content so they have a sense of purpose for learning. Instructor involvement is a key factor in all of the cooperative learning designs. The instructor provides feedback, guidance, support, coaching and mentoring through the collaborative learning process. The instructor steps away from being the key speaker in the classroom, yet hovers close enough to guide students when they need it. I feel that this type of learning helps students become more independent learners as well as strengthens social skills needed for their future in the work place.

Where I found that the designs were very similar based on the collaborative aspects, I also found differences within the different designs. Where the instructor is key to all of these designs and is present throughout the activity, they play a slightly different roll for each design. In the guided design process, the instructor presents the “challenge”, sets up the groups and becomes mediator within the groups listening in, providing feedback and encouragement to all members as needed.  I could see where this could be very difficult with a very large class, especially working with an on-line course because the instructor must keep up with all discussions and provide input and probing questions when necessary.  I feel that this type of collaborative design would work well in elementary or secondary classrooms where there are not high numbers of students and the teacher could float around to the different groups as they discussed the situation and provide the encouragement and assessment of understanding in the moment.

In the cooperative learning design, the instructor is dividing the duties among the group members therefore they have more flexibility to move in and out of the groups checking to see if groups are on task or in need of guidance.  I can see how students would gain a good understanding of the content from this design since they are posed with a question or situation and then left to work together to figure it out. One of the problems I could see arising from using this model with elementary students is having them come to a consensus on an answer. Even though students know they are working for a common goal, the grouping of students sometimes tends to create issues when there are too many strong leaders in the group. I feel that it would take a lot of coaching from the instructor to get the students use to sticking to their assigned roles in the group and understanding that they must all perform well therefore they must help one another do their share and not allow one or two members take over.

In the problem based learning design the instructor is key to being a model of the higher-order thinking skills and strategies. Again, the instructor gets the groups setup for their challenge and then hovers to probe students on their understanding without giving away the their thoughts or leading students towards the thought that there is a “right way”. It is possible to use PBL in elementary and above classrooms incorporating technology through web quests. I starting using PBL in the classroom several years ago and have found it to be a great way to promote collaboration and Internet based research in the classroom. Student’s love that they are presented a challenge or mission and asked to work together using predetermined informative websites. After being presented the problem, students are assigned a job within their group and they all come together to combine information in a product. I agree with the research that this type of learning increases student motivation and interest in the given subject because they are faced with an authentic situation.

In the final designs presented, cognitive apprenticeship and situated learning, the instructor becomes more of a coach and mentor. The instructor guides the student, or as the articles refer to them, apprentices through the correct and or necessary steps to successfully complete the task. In these final designs, the instructor does more of the teaching through modeling and breaks down the content by scaffolding until they can fade out and allow the student to perform on their own. Different from the other designs, the situated leaning and cognitive apprenticeship designs depend more on the instructor to model the thinking process until they feel they can fade out whereas all the other designs the students are encouraged to use critical thinking and cooperative learning to figure out the problem. I can see using situated learning more for math skills as presented in the articles due to the nature of working out problems and sharing the thinking process with group members to find different ways to solve the problem. The cognitive apprenticeship design had the least features of cooperative learning from all the other designs. This design focuses more on the instructor presenting, modeling and coaching the “apprentice” in the skills and understanding needed for the job at hand. I could see elementary teachers using screen-recording software such as the Smart recorder from the Smart products to record themselves working out math problems or working through the writing process then posting it for students to view and practice from.

All of the cooperative learning designs promote life long skills of critical thinking, collaborative learning as well as listening and speaking skills. I feel that any of the designed could be adapted to fit any age level as well as elementary aged students. As mentioned, I have used PBL several times with students from first grade up and the students stay engaged due to the “real” feel of their challenge or mission presented. One of the skills I feel was not addressed enough as I was going through school was speaking. Too many teachers today still feel the need to stand in the spotlight and lecture to students instead of coaching, mentoring, guiding and facilitating as these designs suggest.  I think if we start students out young, working together in the type of cooperative groups presented in these different designs and allow them the opportunity to share what they have learned, they will be more confident speakers as they get older and be more productive and better innovators in the work force. 

Tools for Collaborative Instruction:

Survey monkey http://www.surveymonkey.com/ could be used to create surveys for the end of the collaborative learning module. This tool could give the instructor feedback on what worked well and what could be adjusted. This could also work as a way for students to rate their peers on their contributions to the project.

Our school has a subscription to Gaggle: Student safe email and within this product students can create and share word processing, presentation and spreadsheets. Gaggle is nice for younger students because it provides a constant filter where students are not allowed to post or share inappropriate words or images. Gaggle’s share feature is the same as Google Docs where students can share files and work on them simultaneously. I had my fourth graders use the share feature when working on a collaborative presentation on NC lighthouses last year. It was nice to have everyone assigned to a certain slide and they could work on their portion as well as look in and edit other slides as needed.

Voicethread is one of my favorite tools! I love how versatile it is as well as the ease of use. I think Voicethread could be used as a collaborate tool in many areas of this module. It could be used at the end of the project to share and reflect on contributions and learning or it could be used as a resource tool within the learning module since multiple posts can be made.