EEND 676 Module 1 Discussion
Hello Class,
I've actually thought a lot about the topic presented to us for this module. I teach co-taught 9th grade biology and group work is a huge part of our curriculum. In fact, we have always done a lot of collaborative work in the classroom, but really have just begun to experiment with tech based collaboration. I think that although the content drives the course, teaching students to be productive members in society is possibly an even bigger job for the classroom teacher. A big part of being an educated, productive member of society is the ability to work well collaboratively with others. Group projects and labs add a lot to our classroom experience, but also create a lot of problems as well. Especially when it comes to fairness, grading, and cyber ethics.
Recently, this has been magnified with the introduction of technology in the classroom. Students have so much more to work with and the projects have evolved to become much stronger because of technology. At the same time though, it has opened the door for kids to find ways to cheat or copy and created another aspect of the curriculum that teachers need to closely monitor. In our school, we have had issues with students creating groups online that were less about collaboration and more about divide and conquering the work or straight up copying material. One of the topics from our module one resources is plagiarism, specifically with technology tools. These tools often make it much easier to plagiarize material and definitely easier to find work and pass it off as yours whether it be from other classmates or material they found online. I think it is important to continually promote the importance of using your own work or cite other's work that is used appropriately to strengthen your project. I am excited to learn what others in this class have done to combat these issues??
Another aspect of our readings this module discussed was cyber ethics. Again, this is another aspect to consider when assigning a collaborative assignment online. In the past I have used Google Communities or Slides for students to post, then review, and comment on material from their classmates. I am always nervous about what students might post and whether or not they know the difference between constructive criticism and inappropriate comments. Because our school has gone 1:1, and we plan to use the technology in our classrooms more than ever, I took a day at the beginning of the year to talk about Digital Citizenship. In fact, students received 50 points for being a part of the lesson. Those points however are not guaranteed. Every time the student has to be reminded about proper digital citizenship they lose 5 points. At the end of the semester, their remaining points are added in to their grade. I am hoping we have a lot of students with 50 points by the end of the semester but anticipate quite a few learning along the way.
Being able to work collaboratively in the real world is such an important skill to master in school. Some would say it is even more important than some of the content that we teach. Because of this, we work hard in our classroom to ensure that students learn to work collaboratively throughout our curriculum and develop skills that will not only help them succeed in class, but in the real world as well.
Thank you,
Jim Nielsen
I've actually thought a lot about the topic presented to us for this module. I teach co-taught 9th grade biology and group work is a huge part of our curriculum. In fact, we have always done a lot of collaborative work in the classroom, but really have just begun to experiment with tech based collaboration. I think that although the content drives the course, teaching students to be productive members in society is possibly an even bigger job for the classroom teacher. A big part of being an educated, productive member of society is the ability to work well collaboratively with others. Group projects and labs add a lot to our classroom experience, but also create a lot of problems as well. Especially when it comes to fairness, grading, and cyber ethics.
Recently, this has been magnified with the introduction of technology in the classroom. Students have so much more to work with and the projects have evolved to become much stronger because of technology. At the same time though, it has opened the door for kids to find ways to cheat or copy and created another aspect of the curriculum that teachers need to closely monitor. In our school, we have had issues with students creating groups online that were less about collaboration and more about divide and conquering the work or straight up copying material. One of the topics from our module one resources is plagiarism, specifically with technology tools. These tools often make it much easier to plagiarize material and definitely easier to find work and pass it off as yours whether it be from other classmates or material they found online. I think it is important to continually promote the importance of using your own work or cite other's work that is used appropriately to strengthen your project. I am excited to learn what others in this class have done to combat these issues??
Another aspect of our readings this module discussed was cyber ethics. Again, this is another aspect to consider when assigning a collaborative assignment online. In the past I have used Google Communities or Slides for students to post, then review, and comment on material from their classmates. I am always nervous about what students might post and whether or not they know the difference between constructive criticism and inappropriate comments. Because our school has gone 1:1, and we plan to use the technology in our classrooms more than ever, I took a day at the beginning of the year to talk about Digital Citizenship. In fact, students received 50 points for being a part of the lesson. Those points however are not guaranteed. Every time the student has to be reminded about proper digital citizenship they lose 5 points. At the end of the semester, their remaining points are added in to their grade. I am hoping we have a lot of students with 50 points by the end of the semester but anticipate quite a few learning along the way.
Being able to work collaboratively in the real world is such an important skill to master in school. Some would say it is even more important than some of the content that we teach. Because of this, we work hard in our classroom to ensure that students learn to work collaboratively throughout our curriculum and develop skills that will not only help them succeed in class, but in the real world as well.
Thank you,
Jim Nielsen
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