Collaboration, Pedagogy & Practices

This module focused on collaboration and design thinking pedagogy. We collaborated with colleagues to design a project on working with EMLs and using Web 2.0 Tools.

The question about the process of online collaborative work versus face-to-face collaboration seems to be a non-issue. My answer pre-pandemic would be very different. However, in the 9 months of working online and collaboratively, I am pretty adept. Additionally, this is primarily how I work now professionally and do not meet face-to-face. There are not any additional contributions that I could have made for my group. We worked well together in collaborating and dividing out the work. My colleague Alec did help me to have a deeper understanding of Design Thinking since he had used it with students in his Engineering clubs and this was not an area that I was aware of previously.

We determined that we wanted to use Web 2.0 tools that would allow for the most amount of collaboration between students and the teachers so that we could model academic discourse. In scaffolding language supports for Emerging Multilingual Learners, we were determined to use tools that would provide compelling reasons for collaboration and intentional discourse. Ultimately, the goal was verbal academic discourse, but we used all language domains throughout the lesson. One of the pros of the tools is that students could collaborate in real time or asynchronously. The cons for the tools is that students have become hesitant to turn on cameras and so as teachers we struggle to ensure that students understand. Since the pandemic, we have found that the tools can be used in all areas of the curriculum and are generally not curriculum specific.

In this module, I continued to develop my skills in Domain 4, Competency 4: Instructional Tools, Standard A: Use learning management system and/or other online collaborative tools to organize and manage the blended learning environment. This was my first time to use Jamboard and it was easy. It also has the capabilities to be made as Chrome Extension. I had used Padlet previously and Lucidchart. Jamboard was the same but had better integration with Google. I could have used ClassroomScreen too.