Community & collaboration case studies

Community & collaboration case studies

• 1.
  Community & Collaboration AsEducators, we all know the importance of community, a group of people who share common emotions, values and beliefs, which are actively engaged in learning together and from each other; and collaboration, when individuals work on a shared goal in the classroom. What do you do to foster both of these in your f-2-f settings? Community Collaboration
• 2.
  Research shows thatcommunity and collaboration are equally important in an online setting. Handbook of Online Learning (Rudestam & Schoenholtz-Read, 2010) “Research over the last decade within a community of inquiry model has found that students’ sense of community in a learning environment sustains productive discourse and enhances learning. That sense of community involves goal-directed collaborative interaction, trust, and mutual support.” (39-40) “In the community of inquiry model, high teaching presence is defined as student perception that the teacher is providing effective course design, facilitating productive discourse, and providing direct instruction. In a large study of f2f and online learners, Shea et al. found that high teaching presence was associated with a greater sense of classroom community for both types of learner.” (40) “…the most highly predicted pedagogical techniques for the online future in higher education were group problem solving, collaborative tasks and problem-based learning.” (18) “In an online classroom, the most effective means of achieving learning outcomes is the use of active learning and collaborative techniques that encourage students to become empowered learners.” (383) Distance Education: A Systems View (Moore & Kearsley, 2005) “Since, in distance learning settings, normal communication is conveyed through an artificial medium, we must find ways to achieve “social presence.” (230) “In an earlier study of computer mediated instruction, Cheng et al. reported a higher completion rate for those learners who worked collaboratively (90 percent) than for those who worked independently (22 percent).” (231) Online Learning: Concepts, Strategies, and Application (Dabbagh & Bannan- Ritland, 2005) “In an online environment, a sense of community is promoted through strong interpersonal ties that provide support for learning and prevent feelings of isolation. Viewing a community as what people do together rather than as a geographic location where tasks are accomplished is the focus for integration of virtual online communities into the educational process.” (84) “…instructors need to place as much emphasis on establishing the appropriate instructional climate as on providing appropriate content, particularly when they want to reap the meaningful educational benefits of attempting to create an online learning community.” (86)
• 3.
  In looking atthe list of things you do in your f-2-f classroom to promote community and collaboration, what challenges do you find in translating these items to an online setting? Should an online setting replicate f-2-f interaction? Challenges What things have translated well? What tools did you use in the online environment to recreate these positive experiences online? Positive Transfer Experiences& Tools Used
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  Case Study #1:Getting to know each other You have asked students to introduce themselves to each other using the Discussion Board tool in Blackboard, and to respond to each other’s intros. You have received the following responses: Hey class I'm Student 1. I am a communication major and live in MyTown, Oh. I am a current Senior at OU and I like to play sports and watch movies. MY newest endeavor is to film a movie and submit it to the Sundance dance film festival in Utah. My name is Student 2. I am 29 yrs old. This is my first year in college. It has been over 11 years since I have been in school. I have 2 boys age 5 and 3. I am working on a 4 year degree for Business management in hopes of one day owning my own company. My name is Student 3. I am an undergraduate and I have not decided on a major. Look forward to getting to know everyone! Hello my name is Student 4, i am 39 years old, i have 2 children,Child 1 20 and Child 2 is 8. I am going to be a grandma in late Dec. or early Jan. i am very excited. I enjoy playing bingo and spending time with my kids. Eventually i would like to be a probation officer or a social worker. Hello my name is Student 5 but everyone calls me #5. I am 23 years old. I have been married for 4 years. I have three children they are 4,3,and 2 there names are Child 1, Child 2, and Child 3. I have 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 5 newborn kittens. My favorite food is spaghetti. I graduated in 2005. I am very excited be back at school and also nervous. My name is Student 6 but I go by #6. I come from the small town MyTown Ohio. I play sports both in school and out of school. Mainly tennis and ice hockey. I am into music from a band perspective and got started in band when I was in fifth grade and have continued it since. I am generally a quiet person and will not talk much, I observe and develop ideas on my own rather than express the idea out loud. I keep to myself a lot but I become more outgoing the more I know someone. I work hard both inside and outside of a classroom no matter what the task.
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  What types ofinformation do students typically give out in their introduction? Information volunteered Is this enough information to get to know someone? If you have never met anyone in your course before would this be enough to begin developing trust with your peers so that you would feel comfortable working with them? What other types of information would you like to see students share? What do students share when talking in a f-2-f setting? Would Like to Know
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  How would youstructure the assignment or what tools would you use to elicit more information or to create a deeper sense of interaction between participants? Adaptation of Assignment Structure Blackboard 9 Tools Web 2.0 Tools
• 7.
  Research “embedding the useof technology designed for connecting, such as Facebook, twittering and blogging, might increase the social presence of all of the students as well as the teaching presence of the instructor.” (Young & Bruce, 2011) “Connecting people’s names and faces is a first big step to forming bonds.” (Misanchuk & Anderson) Tools to Use Glogster http://www.glogster.com/Create a multi-media poster to express yourself. Voice Thread http://voicethread.com/Transforming media into collaborative spaces with video, voice, and text commenting. Bb9 Wiki or Wikispaces http://www.wikispaces.com/ Easy-edit web pages used for collaborative writing/editing. Bb9 Journal or Blogger http://www.blogger.com Create a blog Jing http://www.techsmith.com/jing/ Screenshots and screencasting Social Networks (FB, Social Go, Ning, Classroom 2.0, Curriki, LinkedIn, Google+)
• 8.
  Case Study #2:Making Learning Collaborative This case study is broken down into 4 mini-case studies. You will be collaborating with your peers to brainstorm one of these issues before reuniting into a full-class discussion. Study A In a traditional classroom, you typically lecture on this particular topic (___________________). However, research shows that lectures are not the best methods for transmitting content in an online setting. In fact, Educause recommends limiting video/audio recorded “lectures” to 5 minutes – only to clarify key points. How can you deliver your traditional content, make sure students are “getting it”, and facilitate collaboration in your new digital setting? What tools will you use to do this? Ideas: Study B Students spend lots of time in your traditional classroom developing lesson plans and units. They work collaboratively to make them interdisciplinary and learn to give constructive feedback by doing peer to peer evaluations. You also spend a great deal of your time meeting with individual students and teams during class as well as giving students written feedback on their drafts. You have been asked to teach a section of this course online. How will you maintain this collaborative approach in the new environment? What tools will you use to facilitate your approach? Ideas:
• 9.
  Study C Pre-service teachersneed to practice teaching and receive feedback on their performance. To facilitate this in your course, you typically have students co-teach the course with you. That is you have them work in small groups to present information from each chapter of your text to the class or have them model what they have learned by teaching a mini-lesson in their content area. You believe this is an important component of the professional development they undergo while in the college of education. You are now teaching the course online. How can you embed this practice into your new course structure? Will you have them model traditional face-to-face instruction, online instruction best-practices, or both? Ideas: Study D Your students are working on a group project in your online course. Traditionally, you ensured that all students were participating by allowing class time to meet, brainstorm and work. You fear that students will not contribute to the group process equally when they are not meeting face to face, worry about students collaborating from a distance, and have concerns about the entire collaboration process being asynchronous. How can you assess student participation and provide opportunities for both asynchronous and synchronous collaboration on the group project? Ideas:
• 10.
  Suggested Tools Study A H2Ohttp://h2o.law.harvard.edu/index.jsp Discussion board that eliminates rushing to post first, forces students to think on their own before reading others’ posts, and increases critical thinking because students cannot automatically respond to anyone – especially taking the easy way out by responding to only those they agree with. Still allows for viewing all discussions at the conclusion. Study B CCDT: Collaborative Curriculum Design Tool http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/tfu/design_ccdt_about.cfm This design tool allows students to create lesson units using the Teaching for Understanding model and provides opportunities for collaboration from other course participants, instructors, and outside participants (such as classroom teachers). It also allows completed works to be published publically on the web. Study C Zentationhttp://www.zentation.com/about_free.php Synchronize video of you teaching and PowerPoint slides together in a single presentation format. Zenation allows viewing of body language & teacher presence in addition to the content to better get an overall view of student’s performance. Blogging comments allow feedback from viewers, and questions can be answered asynchronously. Study D Yugma for Skype https://www.yugma.com/ This version of Yugma works with your Skype account to add desktop sharing, file transfer, presenter switching and marking capabilities to your video conference with up to three people for free. It also allows you to record the session so voice, text, and sharing interactions can be reviewed.
• 11.
  Considerations in Choosinga Tool 1. Private or public 2. Course objectives and skills learned 3. Ease of use 4. Cost Research “Best practices to strengthen bonding include simple tasks such as collaborative decision- making related to communication protocols, and required and ongoing student postings in online discussions. In addition, use of synchronous instant messaging to enhance camaraderie, asynchronous communication for deeper discussions, and instructor modeling of thoughtful responsiveness with a personal tone all can help build classroom community connections.” (226) “With the elimination of time and place constraints, instructors can create innovative assignments and interactions in a global context. According to Robinson and Hullinger (2008), small group discussions and projects can provide an emphasis on higher level thinking skills of synthesis and decision making, which in turn create a more challenging learning environment and deeper learning. Such meaningful academic experiences provide students with relevant accomplishments and satisfaction that build learning communities, enhance the quality of student engagement, and decrease dropout rates (Park & Choi, 2009).” (226) “…in order to create a strong sense of community and to help students engage with learning in online courses, instructors need to find ways to help students feel more strongly connected with each other and with the instructor and to facilitate activities that more actively involve students in their own learning. Instructors who purposefully design learning activities to create opportunities for students to learn about each other, thereby decreasing transactional distance and increasing social presence (Robinson &Hullinger, 2008; Rovai, 2002), are likely to improve learners’ sense of classroom community.” (227)
• 12.
  Lists of moreresources http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/bestlist/bestwebsitestop25.cf m#collaboration http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm http://go2web20.net/ http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Home