What about Collaborate and Communicate?

Collaborative learning begins with dependable contribution. In order to collaborate and communicate effectively with our peers we must be visible online while communication and contributing meaningful content in conjunction with others.  There are 3 R's to take into consideration when dealing with collaboration and communication: receive, read, and respond.

STOP & THINK 

If you are wanting to connect and collaborate with someone across the globe, how do you plan to do so? You cannot share your thoughts and ideas without communicating! It's very evident that collaborate and communicate play a key role in each other. 

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Is there a difference between cooperative learning and collaborative learning? 

YES.

Cooperative Learning is an instructional strategy that provides students with the tools to effectively learn from one another the academic and social learning skills. The success of the group depends on everyone in the group pulling their own individual weight. 

Collaborative Learning allows students to work together to look for a solution or understanding, or create an artifact or product of their learning. Collaborative learning redefines the traditional lecture, student to teacher relationship, and classroom setting (Clare, Jayne). 

 

Collaboration is transforming the traditional classroom environment. Collaboration has allowed for us to connect with others across the globe in engaging activities. A lot of educators are introducing Wiki's into the curriculum as a way of collaborating and assessing their students. Wiki's are a collaborative authorizing tool. This means there will be a team of members working asynchronously on the wiki page. Whereas, in a traditional classroom setting when students are working in groups they can collaborate and edit simultaneously. 

Can Collaboration be taught?

Yes, collaboration has fundamentals to be taught such as: communication skills, problem solving, integration, self-control, meta cognition, and inquiry skills.  

 

Reflection #1

Feedly

I absolutely love feedly! I cannot express to you enough how much I am diggin' feedly right now. Feedly is so useful in so many ways. It allows me to find and follow all my favorite blogs and websites, so that I can stay up to date when they post something new. Since I've created my account I've added over hundred educational blogs! I'm telling you...it's introduced me to a whole new world. I love it because I can also add some of my personal favorites like current events and photography. From adding feeds, I learned more about formal assessment tools, technology resources, and behavioral management strategies. I am  thankful fellow educators share their thoughts and ideas, so that we can continue to learn like our students.  I hope to hear back from some of the feeds I left comments on :)

Welcome

Hello everyone!

Welcome everyone! My name is Sarah Allen and I encourage you to follow me on my path to becoming an elementary teacher. This blog will be a great way to connect and share ideas with others in the field of teaching.