Key Concept 4
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
4.1 Candidates will be able to help students use technology tools to collaborate with others inside and outside the classroom.
One of the hallmarks of student-centered learning and Communities of Inquiry, especially the Social Presence aspect, is the use of collaboration. Technology, more and more, is making seamless collaboration, inside and outside the classroom, a reality. Throughout the school year, my students understand they will be collaborating. In order to do this more successfully, part of the beginning of the year must be spent getting to know the classes and helping them feel comfortable with each other. I make it clear that I expect every student to treat every other student with respect in online collaborative scenarios. Without this trust and these expectations, collaboration would not be as rewarding.
The two tools I use most often for collaboration in and out of the classroom are Flipgrid and G Suite for Education. With Flipgrid, I can have students use video to make responses to literature or reflect on their own work. Besides being able to reply to them myself, learners can reply to each other, critiquing each other's work and offering support and suggestions. Students can create Flipgrid during class, but as Flipgrid is availble on any device that has a camera, a microphone, and wireless access, students can collaborate with peers anywhere, so the typical boundaries of the classroom disappear.
With G Suite, student collaborate on study guides, theme charts, and character descriptions. Sometimes we do this in groups and other times we collaborate as a class, with every student contributing to a shared document. By using the Revision History feature, I can ensure that every student makes a contribution and it has been an excellent tool for working together to share information.
By and far, the best quality of collaboration is the spirit of camaraderie that is created as students work together to create a product that helps them all succeed. I hope my students will take this lesson and apply it throughout their lives, as collaboration is critical in every aspect of life, as this graduate school cohort has proven time and time again.
4.2 Candidates will be able to use technology tools to collaborate with colleagues.
Collaboration with technology isn't limited to my students, however. My colleagues use technology every day to work together. For teachers, I believe collaboration is even more crucial, as the typical teacher's time is extremely limited. Through the use of tools like G Suite for Education and Twitter, we can find the time to communicate and achieve professional development goals.
My artifacts below exhibit but some of the many uses of technology to collaborate. For our EdFest Internship, Edward Schultheis and I used Google Forms to decipher what sessions would most appeal to the attending colleagues and to receive evaluations of the day. In addition to the day of learning, we also created screencasts to help our colleagues remember the tools we went over during EdFest.
The word "colleague" is one that, for me, has expanded during this program for me. I now consider my PLN as colleagues, and I collaborate with my PLN many times a week through Twitter. In fact, many of my MSJ colleagues have joined my Twitter PLN in chats, creating one happy family. I have included an archive from a Twitter chat I hosted with David FitzSimons and Edward Schultheis which included colleagues from my PLN and my school.
Whether through G Suite or Twitter, the boundaries of collegial interaction, like the boundaries of student collaboration, have become transparent and do not exist in the tradition four walls anymore. Now, we can collaborate anywhere, at any time, and this is one of the major benefits of technology in education.