Post(s) tagged with "collaboration"
There are many ways for teams of students to collaborate online and here’s another promising one. Conceptboard is a service that provides an online whiteboard space that you can use to share drawings, documents, spreadsheets, and more.
Click through to read the rest.
Thanks Tyler Berbert for the submission!
While it was made by a student trying to solve a student problem, I’m beginning to think there has been nothing created since the internet that could help teachers more than Piazzza.
If you know anyone teaching over the summer, consider it an obligation as a citizen to introduce this colleague to it. It’s free. Here’s a pretty good article about it, and here’s something I wrote about it. So yeah. Enjoy!
If you want to learn more about Collaborative Learning, this would be a great place to start. The site’s on the older side, but the content is good. There are even teaching strategies and advice sections.
Purdue University, in Indiana, developed its own backchannel system, Hot Seat, two years ago, at a cost of $84,000. It lets students post comments and questions, which can be read on laptops or smartphones or projected on a large screen. Sugato Chakravarty, who lectures about personal finance, pauses to answer those that have been “voted up” by his audience.
Before Hot Seat, “I could never get people to speak up,” Professor Chakravarty said. “Everybody’s intimidated.”
“It’s clear to me,” he added, “that absent this kind of social media interaction, there are things students think about that normally they’d never say.”
- Students speak up in class, silently, via social media: NY Times
Click through to read the rest of the post (it talks about “living Facebook” outside of the classroom as well). It’s a pretty interesting read.
I begin the experiment with the concept of “I like,” “Let me comment,” and offering a thumbs up when I approved of a person’s statement. Students recognize the experiment within the first five minutes of class. A few roll their eyes. Most of them joined in, if for nothing else, a little end of the year novelty.
I begin our Philosophical Friday with, “Are people born creative?”
“I think it’s our limitations that lead to creativity,” a boy responds. Ten students offer a “thumbs up.”
A girl shakes her head and adds, “Just to comment on what he said. I disagree. Little kids have few restrictions and they are really creative. But school and parents are the ones who force us to not be creative.” Eight students give a thumbs-up and I can sense that she’s hurt.
I link to Richard Byrne’s posts a lot, but this one really caught my eye. Web Doc allows users to create mixed media posts (similar to ones we make here on Tumblr!); however, it also lets others reply to posts using mixed media in the comments. This might be an interesting way to have students collaborate and discuss various topics online.
Click through to read Richard Byrne’s description and access a video to see Web Docs in action.
So maybe you’ve heard before that Google Docs is super awesome and can make your life easier (if you haven’t: Google Docs is super awesome and can make your life easier). You may be thinking: Sure, Google Docs CAN make my life easier, but right now all of my files are on my PC.
In this post, The Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness explains how to use software called SyncDocs, which allows you to easily transfer your files into Google Docs.
Click through the link to read the rest of the guest post at Free Tech for Teachers.
Mr. Campbell saw that we were studying Greece and asked our class to help his class. His senior Western Civilization class had prepared Greek god reports and we were going to be judges. Through the use of Skype we sat in on some of their presentations. During the presentations, our students used the backchannel Todaysmeet.com. My 6th graders were excited to see other students’ work, talk with students in another state and oh by the way, learned a little more about Greek gods in the process. One of my students actually got to perform the song she wrote about Athena for her presentation to the class in Pennsylvania.
Who I am: A fourth year high school history teacher at an urban(ish) high school in New Jersey.
What I blog about: Stuff related to education I like, and stuff I hope can help other teachers out. Technology, deals on supplies, helpful books. My focus lately is on educational technology & related resources. Occasionally, I also post things related to education reform. Because I post articles that I feel will be of interest to teachers with varying views, the political-related posts made here do not necessarily reflect my beliefs or opinions, nor do they reflect the beliefs of my employer.
What I like learning & reading about: Other teacher's opinions about and experiences with teaching & education. How I can enrich my classroom and reach out to my students. If you write about this stuff, let me know, because I probably want to read it.
What you should submit: Anything that could help a teacher.
Media Consolidation:...
The problem with teaching is, if you took home...
A History Question. #sschat
