Blended learning, adding digital content to a traditional lecture type lesson is not new, but the types of digital content is always changing and the best lessons make use of the new tools. This article will cover using digital tools to have students collaborate and produce content. Collaboration, cooperation, group-think, shared learning – it goes by many names and has been taking place in the classroom for years. What has changed is the tools and the types of sharing.
It is important to have the learner write his or her own material, but an equally important work skill is working with others. And workers will collaborate on papers, presentations, and ideas. Learning to collaborate after being told to share can be difficult. It is a skill of dividing up the work, assuring all are equally present and each person is working on there own strengths while learning how to improve weaknesses.
Here are some tools and ideas to start with collaboration in a digitally friendly classroom and ultimately end with a digital product. First, let’s use some tools to brainstorm and share ideas. This can be done in groups within the class or across the digital divide using a tool such as Padlet or Tricider. Padlet (https://padlet.com) is simple- it is like sticky notes posted on a board. Anyone with an idea can post. And the ideas can be words, sounds, videos, or drawings. Once posted, simply take the most popular and build from there.
A tool to help narrow down ideas is Tricider (https://www.tricider.com). This allows users to comment on several ideas and add their own all while collecting up votes on which is best. It provides a beautiful and digital way to gather feedback on each specific idea.
So with these two simple apps you have allowed students to share ideas across platforms and vote on which they like best and why. And as the facilitator you can easily see who has contributed. There are many other free apps on the market (Simplemind, Mindomo) these are simply two I have used successfully. Simply search for free brainstorming apps and try one.
Once the ideas are narrowed down, it’s time to produce the product. There are so many free and accessible tools such as Wiki’s, Google docs, Prezi. I’ll cover more on these in my next post. Until then start sharing ideas!
Katherine Senko 