Before the advent of technology, I don’t think classrooms were very collaborative. About 20 years ago when I was in high school, I basically just remember taking notes or completing handouts in class. Rarely do I recall doing group projects or anything very collaborative. The teacher ran the show, and the students were mostly spectators. However, this week’s module states that nowadays, “Teachers have the opportunity to make classrooms collaborative environments where each student becomes a contributor in the active learning process.” A collaborative learning environment has changed the way teaching and learning takes place.
Collaboration has become so much easier to do in recent years with the abundance of free or low-cost online services available. For example, in my school district we utilize the LMS Schoology. It has led to streamlined communication between students, teachers, administrators, etc. It is easy to share ideas, assignments, notifications, etc. I have taught Statistics for 15 years at my school. One year, an additional teacher was needed to teach 2 sections of the course. She was terrified because it had been so long since she had any exposure to the class. I gave her my join code on Schoology and instantaneously she had access to all of my recorded lectures, handouts, quizzes, and much more. Her anxiety was eased tremendously by having all of this at her fingertips. In the past, when teachers were given a new course to teach, it was panic-inducing thinking about all of the assignments that would need to be created and individual planning that would need to be done. Now, a collaborative environment has benefited teachers tremendously as they can share resources with one another.
Additionally, benefiting both teachers and students, is the accessibility from multiple devices. When I am at school, I will primarily rely on my MacBook. However, being able to have the Schoology app on my phone has made it simple to connect with students about the class. If they have a question after school hours, I will get a notification from Schoology on my phone, just like I would any other app. If I forget to tell my class something (like “bring headphones to class tomorrow”), I can just post an update to Schoology and they will get the notification on their phones. Communication in the classroom has changed so much in recent years, and it’s become much more convenient for people to stay in touch and share ideas.
Sharing knowledge in a collaborative environment has changed the way students are able to learn. They can develop higher-level thinking skills and have increased engagement as they work together on team projects. Students can show they learned the material while working on their social skills. Being able to work together online is something they will most likely need in the future, so preparing them for this in school is incredibly beneficial. It requires a cooperative effort by students to mutually find solutions, create products, or reach levels of understanding. If students take ownership of their own learning through collaboration, it can lead to positive results in self esteem, leadership, and communication.
Hi,
I really appreciated how you discussed the ways technology has helped create a more collaborative environment that benefits both students and teachers in a variety of ways. The ability to communicate quickly and share entire courses with lessons and assignments through Schoology is one of the biggest advantages technology provides. I also liked how you mentioned students’ ability to develop self-esteem, leadership, and social skills through collaborative environments.
To support students as they learn to collaborate effectively both with and without technological tools, I try to model effective collaboration for them and talk through how to solve problems when working together with others. I also try to model respectful and civil discourse and teach students sentence starters they can use to help them communicate effectively in a group.
I too can remember high school in the late 1990’s when a group project was a fairly rare occurrence. The modern model of education allows for constant collaboration between students and teachers. This is certainly a good thing. I have not used Schoology but your post has me intrigued to learn more about it.