Nothing is more frustrating
to a teacher than lack of attention from students. You have spent several weeks
or even months working on some project that you thought would be a
breakthrough, but nothing happens. Situations like this are very common in modern
learning because a lack of interest to engage in teamwork is widespread.
When a group of two or more students work together to
complete an activity, discuss a question, or collaborate on a task, we call it
collaborative learning. The intended consequence of accomplishing tasks
together is to help students learn the complexities of solving a problem and
promote deeper learning through doing.
Group work not only helps students learn the course material
better; it also provides opportunities to develop additional skills. While
working in groups, students need to harness group members' strengths, address
group learning needs, manage time, divide a large project into small tasks,
cooperate, negotiate, resolve conflicts, and reach consensus. These are useful
skills in collaborative workspaces and future careers.
In this article, I will introduce you to 7 online
collaborative tools that can help you to solve the issue of lack of interest
for good.
When I talk about online collaborative tools, I refer to web-based tools that enable teachers and students to perform a wide range of tasks, such as interactive discussions, online collaboration activities, sharing and accessing electronic learning resources, and many more others. Here is the collection of great online collaborative tools that I have gathered for you, enjoy!
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The first tool on my list is a great one for sharing digital
content and improving the engagement of the students. It has two versions (for
school and for business), and provides a controlled learning environment that
helps the teacher to enhance the writing process. Here are some of the
functions you can perform with Padlet:
Teachers can create special brainstorm sessions where they
invite students to discuss some topics, all with excellent opportunities
provided by Padlet, such as sharing Internet findings, ideas, and visual aids.
Book review sessions are another great lesson idea. Create a
session dedicated to a book and invite the students to share their reviews and
comment on the ideas of others.
Students can use Padlet as a portfolio for showcasing their
best school projects on their profile.
It has a feedback tool to provide an assessment of students’
work.
Links to various multimedia resources are provided.
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This is a toolbox for teachers that takes classroom
management to another level. With TodaysMeet, this task becomes so much easier
because of a wide variety of available functions. They include:
Discussion forums
Empowerment of students by letting them have some teaching
responsibilities
Possibility of including an unlimited number of students to
the class
Meetings
Presentations
Online seminars
Movies and silent activities
Review of work by classmates
Virtualizing student content has never been easier!
Socrative is an innovative platform for teachers and students that is
essentially an application for effective classroom management. The developers
of this great app have put a special emphasis on having fun and on interactive
activities, which are perfect for increasing the engagement of
students. The features of Socrative are below.
Activities that engage students
Quizzes featuring the most interesting topics from the
lesson
Reporting to enhance the students’ understanding of the
class on an individual level
Chat and discussion rooms to promote online collaboration
“Space Race” feature that encourages friendly competition
among students with intergalactic quiz bowl
Feedback to improve the experience of the students
throughout the course
One of the most popular online collaborative tools for
teachers is this “web-based meeting playground.” It allows the class to perform
Internet research collaboratively and share their findings with each other and
the teacher. This is a great tool for those teachers who want to prepare K-12
students for writing college papers because it involves a lot of writing
assignments. Here are the tool’s features:
Online meetings
Online discussions
Sharing of images, email, and documents
Voice chat
Screen capture
Unlimited storage
Total moderator control
This is a topic library where teachers can find, create,
share, and download inquiry-based discussions on any educational topic. As a
result, the teacher receives a unique URL which can be sent to the students to
begin the lesson. The teachers are free to:
Select hundreds of pre-written lessons
Create their own lessons
Start a discussion with students
Receive and give feedback
This is another popular tool that received a lot of great
reviews from teachers (you can read them on the website). It is an online
collaboration platform that is perfect for students because it provides many
incentives for teamwork as well as great technology to engage in creative work.
It also allows for adding more classes to one discussion, and you can save the
chat transcript. The main features of Scribblar are:
Online chat
Upload of images and documents
Activities for individual students
Discussions
Separate projects
1. Think-pair-repair
In this twist on think, pair and share, pose an open-ended
question to your class and ask students to come up with their best answer.
Next, pair learners up and get them to agree on a response. Get two pairs
together, and the foursome needs to do the same thing. Continue until half the
group goes head to head with the other half. If your students are online,
breakout rooms in your conferencing software let you do the same thing
virtually.
2. Improv games
If your classroom is museum-level quiet no matter how you
try to liven things up, try some low-stakes (read: not embarrassing) improv
activities. In the three things in common game, pairs figure out the most
unexpected things they share (this can also be done online in breakout rooms). Or
challenge your students to count to 20 as a group with one person saying each
number – but no one is assigned a number, and if two people talk at the same
time, everyone starts again at 1. (If some students are in the room and some
remote, you’ll need classroom audio with full-room coverage for this to
work.
3. Brainwriting
You’ve probably tried brainstorming, but have you tried
brainwriting? In this approach, students are given time to come up with
their own ideas individually before sharing them out loud or posting them to an
online whiteboard or other shared platforms. Building in space for individual
reflection leads to better ideas and less groupthink.
4. Jigsaw
Help students build accountability by teaching each other.
Start by dividing them into “home groups” (4 or 5 people works well). Again,
breakout rooms in Zoom or Google Meet make this simple even if everyone is
remote. Assign each person in the group a different topic to explore – they’ll
regroup to work with all the students from the other groups who are exploring
the same idea. Once they’ve mastered the concept, students return to their home
group and everyone shares newfound expertise.
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5. Concept mapping
Collaborative concept mapping is a great way for students to
step away from their individual perspectives. Groups can do this to review
previous work, or it can help them map ideas for projects and assignments. In
pre-COVID times, you may have covered classroom walls with sticky notes and
chart paper – now there are many online tools that make it simple to map out
connections between ideas.
6. The one-minute paper
How much could you explain in one minute? At the end of
class, set a timer and ask students to record their most eye-opening revelation
or biggest question. This activity lets students reflect on learning and build
writing skills – plus you’ll get a window into their understandings and
misunderstandings.
7. Real-time reactions
When students are watching a video, a mini lecture or
another student’s presentation, have them share their real-time reactions. This
helps students spot trends and consider new points of view. You can set up a
hashtag to allow for live tweeting, or use the chat function in your
conferencing software.
8. Chain notes
Write several questions on pieces of paper and pass each to
a student. The first student adds a response (use a timer to keep things moving
quickly) and then passes the page along to gather more responses. Multiple contributions
help build more complete understanding. A digital alternative involves using
shared documents that multiple students are invited to edit. Then your class
can examine the responses and identify patterns and missing pieces.
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9. Idea line up
Choose a question that has a range of responses, and then
ask students where they stand – literally. If you’re not social distancing,
have them come to the front of the classroom and organize themselves in a line,
based on where on the spectrum of answers they find themselves. In a blended
classroom or a physically distanced one, get them to place themselves on a
virtual number line instead.
10. Mystery quotation
Test how well students can apply their understanding of an
issue or theoretical position. After they’ve explored a topic, show them a
quotation about it they’ve never seen before. Their task is to figure out the
point of view of the person behind the quotation – and justify it to the class.
Students can debate this issue in small breakout groups before beginning a
whole-class discussion.
11. Idea speed dating
Have students cycle through your space, or through breakout
rooms in Zoom or Google Meet, sharing insights about a topic or their elevator
pitch for an upcoming project. As they present their learnings multiple times
on several “Speed dates”, students’ presentation skills and perspectives will
grow.
12. Peer review
The process of peer review is as old as academia, and it’s
never too early to start. Have students swap drafts of their essays, proposals
or lab reports, and then come up with comments and questions for each other.
Make sure to be clear about what the goals are (using rubrics helps). For
example, students could identify compelling arguments, unanswered questions and
holes in logic.
13. Quescussion
Ever played Jeopardy? Then you’re ready for quescussion.
It’s like a standard class discussion but only questions are allowed (students
call “Statement!” if someone slips up). If you play this game at the beginning
of the course, the questions can help shape your course. If you have students
both in the room and calling in from a distance, make sure the remote learners
get equal airtime and that your audio system is picking up student voices
clearly.
14. Sketchnoting
Instead of taking traditional lecture notes, try getting
your students to sketch a picture that represents what they’ve learned
during class. Remember, it’s not about the quality of the art – it’s about how
drawing prompts students to visualize their understanding and look at their
learning from a different perspective.
15. Empathy mapping
Take a page from the designers’ handbook and get students to
explore deeper by embracing a perspective. It’s deceptively simple – write down
what a person says, thinks, does and feels. The ability to slow down and
immerse yourself in another point of view is valuable. In design thinking,
empathy maps help designers create better products for users. But this process
can be just as valuable for analyzing characters from literature, historical figures
or political stances.
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Now it`s up to you
Using proper online collaborative tools is an important
condition for increasing the interest of your students in teamwork. While all
tools listed in this article are suitable for this task, have a look at each of
them to find out which one will work best for your class. As a result, you will
be able to reap all the educational benefits and reach more students than ever
before. Enjoy the world of online education and have fun!
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