Communication and Collaboration- the individual in the group (ISTE standard 2)

This week I spent time looking more in depth at ISTE standard 2: Communication and Collaboration. According to this standard, students should "use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others." At my school, my students are very familiar using shared documents like Google Docs, Office 365, and especially OneNote to collaborate on projects and share information. For this reason, I chose to focus on the individual part of the collaboration standard. 

My question is: How can I hold students individually responsible for their work in a group project? I was particularly interested in finding technological tools with which to do this.

This is an example of
OneNote's user tags

In OneNote, I can see a tag on any typed work that tells me who typed it, and when they last worked on that section. What happens frequently in group projects is that either 

a) one student does the typing for the group so I only see her user tag, 

b) one student goes back and does a final edit, thus making it look like she has done all the typing, or 

c) one student copies and pastes information that was sent via email into OneNote, making it look like it was all her work. 

There is a "recent edits" selection, but it only focuses on pages as a whole. Also, if the work is hand-written on the screen, there is no time stamp. This makes OneNote great for sharing, but not for holding students individually accountable.

While OneNote is convenient, I think I might have to begin using Google Docs more extensively for group projects. As a study by Sharples, Arnedillo-Sánchez, Milrad, and Vavoula (2009) notes, "Traditional assessment methods are not appropriate for accrediting learning not directly related to the curriculum or done through informal collaboration" (pp. 8). Before tech made it possible to drag and drop, it was easier to tell who did what on a project. Google has a host of features and plug-ins that allow teachers to track the use of its technology. The "revision history" tool shows when edits where made and by whom, and it blocks off what was changed. There is also a plug-in called Draftback that creates a sort-of video of how a document was created. On the analysis page, it shows who did the edits. Reviews from teachers state that they find it particularly useful to tell when students are copy-and-pasting information, especially in language classes where Google translate can be a bane. If I can set up my assignments properly to include the use of Google docs, these tools will be really helpful.

However, just tracking changes does not make a group project worthwhile or ensure that everyone pulls their own weight. Accusations of inequality, or just plain lack of motivation, are common problems associated with collaborative learning tasks (Kao, 2013). To address these problems, it is important to build positive interdependence within your classroom. When working together, "team members need to think that success of the team depends on the contributions of each member" (The Foundation Coalition). When you have done this, using technology to track changes becomes secondary.

Here are a few extra resources on building positive interdependence and developing quality collaboration:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109018/chapters/Using-Positive-Interdependence.aspx

https://sites.google.com/site/cooperativelearningresources/edss-555/assigningacademicsocialskillroles

References:

The Foundation Coalition. Positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction: Three pillars of cooperative learning. Retrieved from https://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/resources/upload/acl_piiapi.pdf. 

Kao, G.Y. (2013). Enhancing the quality of peer review by reducing student "free riding": Peer assessment with positive interdependence. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44, 1, 112-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01278.x

Sharple, M., Arnedillo-Sánchez, I., Milrad, M., & Vavoula, G.N. (2009, January). Mobile learning. ResearchGate. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9827-7_14

Creativity and Innovation in the Classroom (ISTE Standard 1)

ISTE Standard 1 states that "students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative product and processes using technology." As with all good classroom tech use, the goal is to elevate and move beyond what is possible with a basic pen-and-paper classroom. For this particular standard, students are encouraged to express themselves and share information in a creative way.

In most classrooms, "by tradition, teaching aims at convergence more than divergence" (Soh, 2016, p. 59). This means that students are rewarded for being compliant, for checking boxes, and, in general, for following instructions to the letter. In the past, this has been difficult to conquer as there are only so many ways to make a poster or give a speech. Most students only had access to a textbook or the teacher for information. Through technology, however, students have access to a whole new world of information at their fingertips. It is important that students be allowed to play in this world and to be taught how to do so. Used correctly, the "technology can be used to bring out the very best in how teachers teach and how students learn" (Robin, 2008, p. 221).

For this standard, I elaborated on the assigned question about creative and innovative student use of technology by thinking about a particular project that I do. As part of a unit on Greece and Rome, students summarize their learning by writing journal entries from the point-of-view of a time traveler. They record their observations, including sights, sounds, and smells, and they draw a picture of what they see. I wanted to see if there was a way I could elevate this project to allow students to go deeper with their work and demonstrate greater knowledge, as many of the journal entries I get begin to move beyond a repetition of the textbook info, but don't go very far. Digital stories are often easier to make more engaging than written stories because of its "quick visual displays of information coupled with its engaging images of people, place, and planet" (Dillon, 2014, p. 1).

One source I found to be very interesting was a book by Carolyn Handler Miller called Digital Storytelling: A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment. The first chapter is devoted to a comparison of the myths and stories of ancient civilizations to the type of digital storytelling we do today. This would be a great way to hook my students and teach them a little more about the culture of Ancient Greece! The students like to see the people in history as relatable, and the learning sticks better when they can see themselves in the historical situations. This comparison would be good starting material for explaining the project to my students.

For the nuts and bolts of the project, I would probably use some of the resources from ReadWriteThink's lesson plan on creating digital stories about Greek myths. This lesson plan contains reproducible handouts for the planning, research, and writing stages, as well as a rubric for the digital storytelling project. There is also helpful integration of conversations about plagiarism and proper citation, which is very important when students are set free on the internet. I could see myself using parts of this lesson plan when I teach this lesson next September.

Before I do, though, I will need to think carefully about the atmosphere in my classroom. Thinking creatively is a risky activity, since most classrooms are set up for conformity. My students need to feel safe to take risks in my classroom. Soh (2016) writes that to foster creativity in students you need "to immerse them in a social environment which promotes creativity" (p. 60). Teachers who display creativity, and take risks themselves, can create this type of environment. This means that I need to welcome diverse project ideas, and I need to familiarize myself with various digital tools. ReadWriteThink endorses PowToon, a free-for-education site that allows students and teachers to create animations, for their digital storytelling project. I also want to learn more about creating podcasts, and EdTech has a list of different education-friendly sites. By developing competency in these areas, I can help my students grow and encourage them to think outside the box.

References:

Dillon, B. (2014, Dec. 15). The power of digital story. Edutopia. Retrieved from

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/the-power-of-digital-story-bob-dillon.

Miller, C.H. (2004). Interactive storytelling: A brief history. Digital storytelling: A creator's guide to interactive entertainment. [Google books version]. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=4FQRw8a9qSMC.

Robin, B.R. (2008). Digital storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. Theory and Practice, 47, 220-228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00405840802153916.

Soh, K. (2016). Fostering student creativity through teacher behaviors. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 23, 58-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2016.11.002.

Wickline, K. Digitally telling the story of Greek figures. ReadWriteThink. Retrieved from http://www.readwritethink.org/resources/resource-print.html?id=30805.