What are some ways that you can create authentic collaborative projects in your current/future classroom?
History is a subject that lends itself easily to the use of technology in the classroom, from powerpoint presentations and visual aids to projects connecting different classrooms, schools and even countries. To create authentic, collaborative projects in a future classroom, it would be important to assess the abilities of my students and even their general interests. There are many people who have great ideas for projects or lessons with technology and find themselves at a loss when their ideas don't work. It may be that they have a great idea, but implement it with students that are not familiar with the technology or simply do not have the mastery necessary to utilize it.
A collaborative project that is easily used in history or social studies would be groups of students working together to create a webpage for a historical person, place or event. This project would encourage collaboration and organization among students. A wiki page would be an easy framework for this type of project, as mentioned in Schrum and Levin (2009, p. 50).
Another project that could be engaging and informative could involve students corresponding with other classes, in neighboring schools or even further away about similar work they are doing or working on a collaborative project. This could even be useful in classes about geography and culture by allowing students the opportunity to correspond with students and others from foreign lands, learning from them directly.
Creating authentic collaborative projects is more of adapting others work to your own classes and students, because as much time as we think on it, someone will probably have already done what we come up with. Its really about making the project better, implementing it best for your students and making it enjoyable.
Levin, B. B. & Schrum, L. (2009) Leading 21st Century Schools: Harnessing technology for engagment and acheivement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Good reference! For your citation, since I do not see quotation marks - and therefore am assuming you are not directly quoting, you do not need to include the page number.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of students creating a web site in groups! Can you think of any other web tools that they could use (besides a wiki to accomplish this task?
Also - you mention students corresponding with other classes and working on a collaborative project. What specifically would they do? Do you have any ideas/examples? What tools would they use? Skype? Email? Wiki? Google Docs, etc.?
Students would use any communication outlets that would be accessible to both/all classes. Email, a wiki or possibly google Docs would be easy for students to work with
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