Week 7 contribution

Group Goals:
To present an argument for why you might encourage your students to collaborate.
MC - As a teacher, it is important to encourage collaboration amongst peers in order for
children to scaffold their knowledge, develop vital social skills and partake in team
participation activities. This allows students to develop a deeper knowledge of key concepts,
with lower achieving students further developing their basic understanding, and higher
achieving students cementing their knowledge.
SH -Through my experience collaboration, it allows students to develop communication skills
and increase high order problem-solving skills. Students can interact by listening, speaking
politely, discussing ideas, and respect views of other students to develop their
understanding. Students also develop and practice skills in decision-making,negotiation,
conflict resolution, and teamwork.
NH -Collaboration gives students the opportunity to learn new skills and develop existing
skills from one another. Working in groups or pairs can help students to enhance their
communication skills such as expressing an idea effectively and listening to others ideas.
Collaboration allows students to manage their time and take responsibility for their own and
others work. Working with others helps students to look at ideas in different perspectives.
These skills are important for students to become active and capable learners. Especially in
the digital age we live in these skills will help students collaborate on a globally.

To create a list of technologies that, as teachers, you can use to enable your students
to collaborate.
MC:
Twiddla (www.twiddla.com) collaborative online whiteboard
Edmodo (www.edmodo.com) child safe platform for active learning
Yammer (www.yammer.com) private social network
Skype (www.skype.com) group meeting tool - great way for students who may be unable to
attend school to still participate
Wikispaces (www.wikispaces.com) includes a great tool for Collaborative Writing.
NH - Wikispaces a tool for storing, discussing and creating projects
Edmondo a tool for discussion and collaboration
Blogger a tool for creating blogs

To apply one of those technologies to a range of classroom activities of the teams

devising. This week the focus of the classroom activity should be on collaboration.
SH - An example is using Skype for collaboration of celebrations and commemorations in
other places around the world; such as Bastille Day, Independence Day and Ramadan
(ACARA 2015, ACHHK064). The class is broken into three groups, and each will skype other
groups in either France, USA or India to ask their experiences of the topic. Questions are
raised such as how are these days celebrated nationally? How do you celebrate with your

family?. Students construct their knowledge, examine, evaluate and analyse the social and
ethical impacts of the topic and exposed to different interpretations, cultures and
perspectives using a video conferencing tool to collaborate.
NH -Wikispaces is an online tool that helps students collaborate in group projects. It allows
students to manage their information, edit, embed files and videos from other sources and
have conversations and organize their project all in the one place. I think this would be an
effective tool that would encourage effective collaboration. Students could use this tool to
help them work together to create a video presentation.

To identify other tools you found that you can use to collaborate?

Classroom blogs
mindmaps to map out tasks
indmaps Network drives- student folders can be set up and shared.
NH - Other tools students can use to collaborate include:
1.
Animoto online tool that helps students create videos by
adding text, voice overs and music
Storybird Enables students to develop their literacy skills
through story writing whilst collaborating

You might want to set up expectations and norms for your team as a starting point (keeping
Curtis criteria in mind, as well as Tuckmans stages of team development, and Wiliams two
conditions). You may also want to discuss accountabilities.

SH - As the group forms, each team member needs to have clear objectives and understand
their contributions
Tasks are delegated with dates in which these are to be completed
The entire team needs to work positively and work on any disagreement effectively as a
group
As the team collaborates all ideas and opinions should be contributed equally and fairly
allowing for constructive feedback
When conflicts occur, they should be resolved as soon as possible. Differences should be
emphasised; tolerance and patience are important for a team to succeed.

Week 8 contribution
Group Goals:

To present an argument for why you might encourage your students to communicate

MC - Effective communication is a life skill that students will carry on with them into their
future careers and adult lives. The need to be able to effectively communicate ideas,
articulate feelings and thoughts and communicate with varying groups, is imperative for all
students to master. As teachers, we are responsible for ensuring that our students know how
to communicate to the best of their ability, from the prep student knowing how to speak and
verbalise their feelings, to the grade 6 student knowing how to articulate their feelings and
thoughts in a written piece.

To create a list of technologies that, as teachers, you can use to enable your students
to communicate.
SH

Tumbir
Evernote
Voicethread - web based communication network
Prezzi
Weebly
Google Docs
Powtoon
Tablets
Notebooks
Mindmaps
Interactive whiteboard

To apply one of those technologies to a range of classroom activities of the teams

devising. This week the focus of the classroom activity should be on communication.
SH - An example is a grade 3 class to communicating findings of the collaboration of
celebrations and commemorations in other places around the world as per week 7 activity
and the Digital Technologies Knowledge and Understanding (ACARA 2015,ACTDIK007)..
The SAMR model can be applied in the classroom activity -:
Task: Elaborating on week 7 activity, students can think of further questions within the group
they may want to ask students in the three countries
Substitution: Students from each group ask another student to substitute from another
country and interviews them
Augmentation: The interview are recorded on the Ipad tablet and updated using Audacity
Modification: The group may edit the interview.
Redefinition: The group will share their findings on a whiteboard to communicate findings to
the class.

To identify other tools you found that you can use to communicate?

In addressing the third goal, ensure you give concrete examples of authentic tasks
that students might engage with. Remember to state a grade level, and a curriculum
area.
Here are some questions to ask yourself as you work through the activity:

What stage is your team at? Did you get beyond forming?
sh -The team is now beyond forming stage

What actions have you taken to help your team move towards the performing stage?
SH - I have emailed the team in the discussion board to ensure we are on the right path in
our activities.

Do you feel any level of accountability towards your own and others learning?
SH - Yes, Melody is the only member who has contributed so far due to other members
having a computer crash or unable to access google docs.

Beyond the obvious (the difficulty in forming teams online), what other challenges
have you faced in contributing to your team?
MC - Juggling prac with this task and other subjects is proving to be difficult. Some group
members are experiencing computer difficulties, making it impossible for them to contribute
online.

How have you overcome those challenges?

SH - Used the discussion board to share my information.