X-+Collaborative+Learning

I think it is important we keep an eye on our collaborative learning strategy: This example from the paper in Micheal's class for this week: Squire, Kurt and Klopfer, Eric(2007)' Augmented Reality Simulations on Handheld Computers', Journal of the Learning Sciences,16:3,371 — 413

Has this example - I am under enormous time constraints so will not para-phrase it but will give my thought process afterwards:

"This version of //Environmental Detectives// takes 2 to 3 hr to complete, including introduction, game play, and debriefing, although a teacher might extend or shorten the game in order to meet his or her classroom needs. This time period was chosen for a combination of pedagogical and practical reasons. We wanted the simulation to place realistic constraints on the activity for the students so that they would have to make decisions about their actions. Students often approach such situations with the idea that they need to get all of the information in order to come up with a reasonable solution. This is enforced by many school-based activities in which it is the expectation that students will know all of the information. However, in real situations it is not practical or perhaps even desirable to spend the effort to know everything about a system. It is too resource intensive, or sometimes scientifically impossible, to obtain complete information. Thus, constraining time forces the students to make hard decisions about what they can find out and challenges them to analyze and judge the information that they have to come up with what they define as the best solution"

We are faced with "hard decisions" to come up with the "best solution" with regards our limited resources and time constraints. I urge you all to look at some final change manuals and to decide/discuss/suggest what we can possibly manage to include and how best to look at the "resource intensive" strategies that we may be taking.

PREVIOUS SUGGESTION - posted on Suggested Resources page:

Suggested reading regarding __collaborative learning__ but have written up summary of how it relates to us as an example of "sharing conceptual explanations" and have given some suggestions on how we can apply this to our task: Elements of Collaborative Behaviour that lead to learning gains: Scaffolding group explanation and feedback with handheld technology: impact on students’ mathematics learning Roschelle et al. (2009) Education Tech Research Dev (2010) 58:399–419

Higher learning gains received from.
 * 1) Giving peers conceptual explanations rather than corrective feedback
 * 2) Positive interdependence – individual contributions are needed for group success – we sink or swim together
 * 3) Cognitive elaboration through explaining material to peers
 * 4) Individual accountability – where teacher has the ability to identify and target student deficiencies

Consensus – each student receives same task – Each enters an answer independently (individual accountability) A consensus is then reached on which answer/s are correct ( positive interdependence) - in an ideal situation we would get immediate feedback (formative assessment) if what we have chosen is correct – our milestones don't give us immediate feedback from Lina – but should be nearly on. I think we can ask her to respond quicker

We did this when creating RD and CATWOE – but 2 things may have hindered our learning – 1. ADOBE chat does not really lend itself to us being able to share conceptual explanations – next time if someone is having problems one person could maybe take the time to give this explanation if they are stronger in this section – we could all learn from it. 2. We are very assessment orientated – rightfully so – but rushing to meet the milestones – lets make sure none of us are left behind in the understanding of the base concepts. We can structure our meetings more to a) ensure we all understand concepts b) producing output with everyone giving consensus not because they are piggy backing on someone elses knowledge but because they understand it to!

I think this will give us a better quality output as if we all understand concepts we can benefit from our varied ideas and approaches.

Because of time constraints I suggest that for the following tasks we each take an area and develop it but when we come back together we don’t just insert our work – we take time to explain it to the others so that they learn AND they can then critically analyse it. engaging in explanations is one of the major pathways to conceptual understanding (Chi et al. 1994 ). As quoted in Roschelle ( I can't believe I am actually doing this but there is some sense to it!!)

Also in Roschelle : The technology needs to be more reliable before one could reasonably claim it makes it easier to implement cooperative learning well.

I think we must be realistic that ADOBE, wiki etc is convenient for certain things but we are going to have to have some Face-2-face sessions to really produce work that is the quality that we all want, or at least find a tool that will allow is to interact with each other in a way that replicates better the benefits gained from Face-2-Face.