Session+7

=Session 7: Collaboration through Voicethread=

7.1: Collaboration :

1. What is Collaboration ? Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal, to help improve a product, or to add new perspectives to a solution

2. What are three ways students collaborate in your classroom? Are they successful ?


 * **Think/Write/Pair/Share** - a staple in my room. Students do share ideas and perspectives. I mix the pairs to see how result can chanbe
 * **Jigsaws** - work the best when explicit directions are given and students held accountable for their portion of the work
 * **Small group work** to collaborate on a inquiry project- works best with rubric and clear expectations

7.2: Video Collaboration

1. **How can expanded use of technology help develop depth and breadth for our students** ?

First of all I like how Randy Nelson explained depth and breath. He referred to **depth** as knowing a great deal about a subject but then he added the filter of failed and recovered. In order for students to grow with the use of the global web they clearly need to know that there are ways to be better at something and they need to welcome the opportunity to try and perhaps fail but find a way to recover and increase their depth of knowledge. Also Nelson refers to **breath** as a broad range of experience but also to express an "interest" in continuing to expand this skill

2. **What is the difference between cooperation and collaboration** ?

Cooperation is the division of work among participants. Each person has a separate, parallel role. Collaboration is working together for a common goal. It is bringing together the depth and breath of individual knowledge for a common goal.

3. **What are the challenges in getting students to collaborate rather just cooperating** ? Students must feel that their contribution is valued. Randy Nelson's advice is good to remember. He stated. "except every offer...don't judge....here is where I am starting so how can I make this better. Clearly true collaborative work requires a great deal of maturity. The role of teacher as guide/mentor is a major part in the success of this type of work. Modeling collaborative may also be helpful

7.3 Voice Thread Definition


 * Briefly define a Voicethread in your own terms, summarize your initial impressions of Voicethread and the various ways it might be useful in your classroom .**

A ﻿Voice thread is a web tool for having a conversation around different types of media. It is a great tool to have a full class discussion about a document or an image. It allows students to interact with their learning environment.

7.4: Voice Thread on Immigration :

**Positives**:

Clearly there was evidence of collaboration among the small groups. The responses of each group showed evidence of some critical thinking about the questions asked and an attempt was made to back their responses with some evidence.


 * Possible ****Improvements**:

Perhaps re-formulating the questions so that they were more open-ended and thought-provoking may help eliminate the repetitiveness of some of the responses.

Also to create a debate on the topic of immigration could also have changed the tenor of responses. It also offers students the opportunity to take a stand and support a side of the debate they may not necessarily agree with.

7.5: Voice Thread in the Classroom :

A Voice Thread can be used to promote a class discussion on a document, visual, video clip or even an essential question to promote a discussion on a given topic. This tool allow student to interact with selected media as well as other members of the discussion group.

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