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CO-LAB  - Learning Diaries and Learning Designers Repository (Responses)

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Anna Laghigna

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Your Learning Diary is the ideal place where to annotate the most relevant elements of the EUN Mooc that you are attending. In your LD you can keep record of your thoughts and reflections and save links to resources and information suggested by the course experts and other participants.

A good learning diary will show that you have reflected on the questions introduced on the course and that you have engaged with the ideas of others on the course. The diary can include anything you like but we would suggest to collect:

1. Your answers to the questions posed during the modules (usually underneath the videos).

2. Comments, ideas, resources from the course materials and shared by other course participants that you have found interesting or relevant for your own situation.

There is a lot of material on the course and there will be even more once everyone starts discussing and sharing ideas and resources. Not all of this will be relevant to your own situation so keeping a diary of your learning process will help you focus your attention on those areas that are especially relevant for you.

Especially after the completion of the course, your LD will prove a valuable resource should you want to revisit the topics of the course at a later stage. Although all videos and course materials remain open for browsing at any time, your Learning Diary will quickly provide you with a summary of the most relevant contents seen through your own personal perspective.

You can create your Learning Diary in any way you like but make sure that it can be easily shared and is easy to understand as this will allow others to provide you feedback. This will be much easier if you do your learning diary in English as otherwise you have to find course participants speaking your language.

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on EUROPEAN SCHOOLNET ACADEMY MOOCs BLOGGER + Google blog publishing platform + easy to use + allows publishing posts in chronological order + offers various templates - requires some knowledge of HTML language MORE INFO: here GLOGSTER + Great online posters called glogs + Glogs can contain text, images, and multimedia elements.

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Smilebox

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Anyone Can Do It | Cards, Invites, Slideshows & More

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Genial.ly

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Usa Genially, la piattaforma online più completa per creare contenuti interattivi e animati. Sbalordisci con le tue creazioni.

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Carmen Carella

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Module 1 Learning Activity

Reflect on some recent learning activities you have carried out with your class in the past year, which have included some level of collaboration.

MY EXPERIENCE:

1st learning activity ---> high level of collaboration:
Mystery Skype, a guessing game. - 1 hour each session.
My students (aged 13) were engaged in this game VS another class in Europe, via Skype. They had to find out the country and the city where they lived, first by asking yes/no questions, and once they found it, wh- questions.

They were divided in small groups each with different roles/tasks (ex. Geographers, Note-takers, Inquirers, Answerers, Photographers, etc). They all cooperated in order to reach the goal, by working on tablets, maps, time zones. I think this is high level of collaboration because without one of the groups the goal of "guessing the country" could not be reached. The groups needed one another and they had to work fast, simultaneously. It was quiet because they had to listen to what the foreign students said on Skype. It has been a meaningful experience and they all loved it.
Talking about Future Plans. 1 month, 3 hours per week.
2nd learning activity ----> low level of collaboration:

My students (aged 13) were engaged in learning how to talk about their future plans/intentions/decisions. I prepared a Padlet which I embedded into Google Classroom, where I assigned various tasks. We first worked on the Power Point Presentations, where I explained the grammar, in various contexts (school choices, future life choices, jobs). Then I gave many examples of related vocabulary, and assigned them many activities to carry out in class. Then, I divided them in small heterogenous groups, so that the weaker students could be helped by the most confident students. It was a work of researching (new words, phrases, use of verb tenses) learning and sharing in collaboration. I think here the level is low, because it was normal peer tutoring while acquiring knowledge, without any assessment.

THE LEARNING OBJECTIVES # 1 Understand the full meaning of collaborative learning, and that it requires more than teachers simply putting students in groups.
From what I have learnt in this Module:

students have to work towards a common goal

the group work has to foster a positive interdependence

it has to develop interpersonal skills, for example they have to learn how to negotiate

it needs a flexible environment so that they can work better and are free to move around, talk, share, ask, collaborate and cooperate

# 2 Appreciate the key benefits collaborative learning can bring to students and the specific skills it helps develop
Teachers have to implement both collaborative and cooperative learning, each developing the following skills:

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING develops:

academic achievement

students' attitudes ---> openness to diversity

students' engagement

students' retention

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING develops:

The benefits such approach brings, are:

the student become central at any steps and in any activity he/she carries out

they don't get bored but they are dynamically involved

they can ask the teacher's help whenever they need it

they become motivated and engaged

they like using technology

they can plan better while freely moving around the classroom and ask or share with their peers

they understand and retain more

they prefer working with their peers

they can create their own artifacts and be proud of them!

# 3 Appreciate how collaborative learning can be facilitated by a flexible, interactive classroom, and also through project-based learning
Collaborative learning can be easily implemented in a class 3.0, where "space is there to serve them and technology is there to serve them", where students:

can work in teams where they can both collaborate and cooperate

can learn in a flexible interactive environment, with furniture adapted and rearranged to meet their learning needs

can use technology like IWB, tools like Google Classroom and its apps

can work without a textbook because they can create their own material and make researches

can work together without feeling the teacher's pressure

can ask for support freely and there are no barriers with the circular tables and flexible furniture

even weaker students who find it difficult to express themselves in front of the class can work better

FROM THE CREATIVE CLASSROOM LAB The 6 stages of a collaborative PBL:
Students EXPLORE searching information on the Internet , then post on a project blog, like tackk.com

They have to MAP and organize their tasks in a logical way, and then share with their peers. They can use mindmup.com

In the MAKE activities they could create audio or video-clips, they need to record their investigations and share them. They can use wevideo.com

In the ASK phase, they could include an online survey to collect opinions. Here they can use easypolls.net. Also, there's classdojo.com, a class manager that teachers can use to record student progress and share it with them and with their families.

The RE-MAKE activity is a reflection exercise and students redesign the tasks. The teacher monitors the activities, assessing their redesign suggestions and motivating them to improve their proposals.

The SHOW phase: at this stage the results are shown to the class, classmates, family and community. The teacher observes and assesses the work done. The students' final grade is based on the contributions they have made, which can be accessed in the project blog.

THE LEARNING ACTIVITIES
With reference to the 2 learning activities I talked about in Module 1, and taking into account Professor Butler's flow-chart, I am going to assess them by using the 21 CLD Rubric:
HIGH LEVEL ACTIVITY 1 -- > Mystery Skype - a guessing game 1. IS THIS WORKING TOGETHER? YES ----> CODE 2
Each group work on a task (the Geographers, the Photographers, the Inquirers, etc.) and the Runners have to pass information between groups, so that the groups have to cooperate in order to ask the right questions and make guesses and get near the solution, which is guessing the country and the city in Europe where the foreign class live.

2. HAVE STUDENTS SHARED RESPONSIBILITY? YES ---> CODE 3

Students work with their peer in another country, according to the same format, roles and task. They share the responsibility in order to win the game while pursuing the learning objective of a real communication in a foreign language, developing their digital skills and acquiring knowledge

3. DO THEY TAKE SUBSTANTIVE DECISIONS? YES ---> CODE 4

In an ordinary lesson, working together to identify capital cities of particular countries in Europe wouldn't mean taking important decisions, but as the goal of the guessing game IS identifying the country and the city the foreign students call from, this means my students have to be quick in guessing and identifying, according to the information given as an answer from their peers, together with the use of atlases and Google Maps, their peer's place.

4. IS STUDENTS' WORK INTERDEPENDENT? YES ---> CODE 5

Group members each carry out the tasks they are asked for, but at the same time, the different groups have to coordinate each other, and cooperate, in order to reach the same goal. The task may be simple, still the objectives of:

a) communicating in the foreign language

b) collaborating

c) using technology

d) carrying out a meaningful experience

are delivered without even noticing.
LOW LEVEL ACTIVITY ---> Talking about future plans
1. IS THIS WORKING TOGETHER? YES ----> CODE 2

Once assigned the task by projecting the Padlet with all the resources - Power Point Presentations about Be Going To Future and future school choices, relevant vocabulary, different exercises to carry out, which are not grammar exercises but more about expressing their future plans about future school choices and job - the students work in heterogeneous group to carry out the different activities. Here the more confident help the weaker, which is always good.

2. HAVE STUDENTS SHARED RESPONSIBILITY? NO ---> CODE 2

Students give each other feedback: this activity structure implies that only a few students in each group "own" the work, and the others are only being helped.

3. DO THEY TAKE SUBSTANTIVE DECISIONS? NO ---> CODE 3

Student teams assign roles to team members based on the list of roles the educator has defined. The educator has planned the process of their work, not the students.

4. IS STUDENTS' WORK INTERDEPENDENT? NO ---> CODE 4

I often notice my students, while doing this type of activity, properly working on the task/tasks assigned, but in practice the work is not divided fairly, because the more confident not only have to carry out the task, but they also have to help the weaker students here and there. And I often need to use peer tutoring. Besides, they don't have to deliver an interdependent outcome, with a decision that requires information that is distributed across students.

Given the circumstances, this is just working together.

MODULE 2 LEARNING OBJECTIVES A. Understand how to embed collaborative learning into lesson design

I learnt that if we want to properly implement collaborative tasks in the classroom by using technology, we teachers have to understand that all this demands a fundamental change in the way we think and the way we work. Technology is ubiquitous, but for this reason we cannot simply let our students use it, we have to know HOW to make them use it and really collaborate given a meaningful task.

To make a good job, we have to bear in mind 4 aspects:

IF OUR STUDENTS ARE REALLY WORKING TOGETHER

IF THEY SHARE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY WHILE COLLABORATING

IF THEY MAKE SUBSTANTIVE DECISIONS WHILE COLLABORATING
B. Appreciate the four dimensions of collaborative learning concerning group work, shared responsibility, making substantive decisions, and interdependent work.
IF THEIR WORK IS INTERDEPENDENT

Students WORK TOGETHER (either pair or group) when they discuss an issue, when they solve a problem or when they create a product. This collaboration may take place with students in other classes or foreign classes, or experts for example. They can collaborate either by working face to face or by using technology.

They have SHARED RESPONSIBILITY when they work together to deliver a common product or a design or a response, also with the possible outside participants.
C. Understand how the 21st Century Learning Design Collaboration Rubric and Learning Scenarios can help you reflect and design collaborative learning activities.
3. They have to MAKE SUBSTANTIVE DECISIONS together in order to solve important issues together. These decisions may regard the Content, the Process or the Product. But we mustn't overwhelm them by assigning tasks on all of these 3 aspects, but only one, so that they can feel more confident in carrying out the task and build up their expertise.

4. They have to WORK INTERDEPENDENTLY in order for the team to succeed. Often the work is not divided fairly. So if the more the learning activities are solid and well structured, the more they require students to work interdependently, and deliver an interdependent product / outcome. Here the role of each student on the team is essential, they must negotiate and agree on the process, design and conclusion of the work.

The RUBRIC suggested by Professor Butler here becomes essential for 2 aspects:

it can be used for designing learning activities

It can be used for assessment, a feedback to see if students have attained their learning objectives.

All the LEARNING SCENARIOS given as resources follow a taxonomy, the 7 steps that help us plan and structure our learning activities in advance:

DREAM = students can brainstorm, think freely and share ideas.

EXPLORE = students collect information on a certain topic

MAP = they structure their thoughts and ideas and seek to understand how they are related

MAKE = students develop or create a product or practise an activity

ASK = one possible activity for students in this phase is to interview experts and stakeholders

REMAKE = students re-plan or revisit their product, on the basis of the feedback or further information they received

SHOW = students publish and present the results of their work.

This Module learning objectives are:
In a collaborative learning scenario, while being assessed,

- students become aware of their efforts to achieve objectives

- they take responsibility for their own learning, identifying their strength and weaknesses, and try to overcome difficulties

- they increase their commitment to learning.

SELF AND PEER ASSESSMENT are useful when:

a) done during the learning activities

b) use an easy language that students understand

c) do not create obstacles to relationships

d) make sense for students

The benefits of assessment:

a) FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT ---> helps both teachers in improving their strategies and students in receiving immediate feedback. As long as we:

- define clear goals

- select the right assessment tool

- acknowledge the value of the selected tool.

b) SELF ASSESSMENT ----> focuses on the single student, and

- their commitment

- their motivation

- their engagement in the team

- their ability to achieve personal goals.

We can use checklists or level scales at particular points during the learning activity.

c) SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT ---> it

- provides a formal record of student's learning progress

- establishes proficiency levels

- shouldn't be based on tests only

- should be based on learning outcomes, such as artifacts (digital products).

2. APPRECIATE THE VARIOUS CHALLENGES TEACHERS FACE IN ASSESSING COLLABORATIVE LEARNING AND THE TIPS, TOOLS AND SOLUTIONS AVAILABLE.

CHRYSA TSAMAPOULOU'S GROUP-WORK:

In assessing both single students and groups, she realized that:

a) while assessing individuals, the spirit of the team decreased

b) while assessing the groups, some of the students got disengaged.

She tried to solve these 2 problems by:

a) walking around in the class, helping single students and giving advisory feedback

b) at a performance level, she implemented an open discussion by asking relevant questions to the project about the groups' outcomes, possible future tweaking, possible better future plans etc.;

at group-set up level, she tried to encourage and stimulate them.She also distribute self-assessment sheets so that both the teacher and the single students in each group could realize the participation, the inclusion of the other members, the contribution to the team.

Chrysa still needs to know

a) if there is a valid way to assess both group work and the individual contribution to the team

b) if there is a valid way to know how much and what the students have acquired in the learning activity and if they have developed or progressed in their skills

c) if we have to assess individually when we implement a collaborative learning activity.

ANTONIO L. LOPEZ'S ETWINNING PROJECTS

- implemented Etwinning projects to foster a collaborative learning environment in his classes.

-used digital tools for the assessment, like Kahoot! for quizzes, and rubrics and checklists to evaluate students'

a) creativity

b) autonomy

c) cooperation

d) quality of the work

e) presentation of the project.

They were clearly explained to students since the beginning.

He evaluated his students by:

a) individual assessement ----> he observed and analyzed the work produced, but also their participation and contribution. He introduced portfolios ( Lino, Padlet)

b) peer assessment -----> they used TeamUp a group manager, with observations and audio-notes to be shared among the groups.

Pros & Cons of his approach

collaborative learning assessment:

- focuses on the student

- promotes students involvement in the assessment

- promotes students responsibility and motivation

- promotes self-reflection and students argumentation

- promotes students' learning from their peers

- promotes digital literacy through the use of digital tools

- promotes development of 21st century skills and competences.

But there are problems:

- the changing of focus from the teacher to the student

- students may not involve and commit in the assessment

- group assessment VS individual assessment

- making all students participate and collaborate in the group work

- the time needed to prepare and apply assessment of collaboration.

Solutions proposed:

- introducing a more regular communication between peers and peers/teachers

- using digital tools to support teacher's observation and give feedback

- rearranging the classroom space to allow more collaboration-friendly dynamics

- implementing interdisciplinary teaching and sharing of materials amongst teachers to facilitates collaborative teaching.

Antonio Lopez posed a few questions I found of interest:

- Is the way we assess collaborative learning independent of the curriculum and of the student's age group? Can it be applied to all disciplines and classes?

- In collaborative learning environments is it more important to focus on the process or on the product when grading student's performance?

ANNA LAGHIGNA'S PEER REVIEWS

She implements a project-based approach that focuses on peer reviews, using many digital tools.

In projects, you needs a lot of brainstorming and discussions, extra grammar practice if you are an EFL teacher, a lot of group work.

Group work helps:

- decrease the students' sense of failure because they make less mistakes

- students respond better.

A different setting up of groups:

a) to work on the projects students are allowed to choose who to work with

b) to peer-assess the teacher decides, to ensure objectivity.

She implements a lot of digital tools for her flipped class, like:

- Prezi - Tackk - Blendspace - Edmodo - Padlet - Kahoot!

- Google forms - Socrative - Quizalize.

- She makes her students carry out webquests, slides, multimedia presentations, webpages, videos, blogs to show what they can do.

Immediate problem ---> students need to develop collaboration skills that teachers of all the disciplines should implement in class.

I strongly agree on this point, and I think its common at school.

As for the assessment, she introduced:

- rubrics, to help students self-assess how their own work matches up the set criteria.

- Peer reviews, to help students improve through constructive feedback.

ANNA LAGHIGNA'S CHALLENGES:

It's summative assessment:

a) she noticed that when students get a bad mark, they feel frustrated as they were judged at a personal level.

b) the assessment system is not fair then, especially if those students have put a lot of effort in the task.

Anna still needs to know:

- How can we teachers persuade students that assessing for learning can be more relevant than assessment of learning?

- How can we plan assessment for learning as an ongoing process without stopping the spontaneous flowing of ideas and creativity while students are collaborating?
3. UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF USING RUBRICS AND CHECKLISTS FOR ASSESSING COLLABORATIVE LEARNING, AND HOW TO CONSTRUCT THEM.
Find here attached a presentation I made about Dr. Luis Valente's accurate analysis of assessing tools, the scope of their use, the way they have to be built.
4. APPRECIATE THE IMPORTANCE OF INVOLVING STUDENTS IN THE DEFINITION OF ASSESSMENT TOOLS USED FOR COLLABORATIVE LEARNING.
Also at the assessment stage, the expert advises us to involve students in the process, because when they are involved in

- defining the criteria

- identifying quality descriptors,

they are much more able to understand and identify with the assessment objectives.

Personally, I think this may reduce the sense of failure they experience when they get a bad mark or grade. They should think the evaluation is only attributed to the performance but NOT on them as a person.

Besides, this should help them focus on the objective of the task assigned in order to give a valid contribution.

THE CO-LAB GUIDELINES also provide tips on how to involve students in the assessment.

According to Goodrich and Anderson, students working in groups

- may identify the differences between a good work and a bad work

- make a list of what counts in quality work: define the best and the worst levels of quality and add some in the middle

- use self and peer assessment while the students are working on a task and stop them in order to make them realize how they are proceeding and giving them time to revise

- each group may write 4 characteristics of a good work

- after sharing the same criteria, they can reach a consensus.
5. START CREATING ONE OR MORE LESSON PLANS INTEGRATING COLLABORATIVE LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT USING THE LEARNING DESIGNER

Watch the slideshow I made with CANVA, about the instructions of the Lesson Plan of Module 4. Enjoy!

THE LEARNING OBJECTIVES OF MODULE 4
1. Appreciate the benefits of teacher collaboration and how best to take advantage of them, as well as the challenges, and tips and tools for overcoming them.
I have learned that working in a team of teachers is difficult but it can be very rewarding if done with the goal of becoming more flexible in my teaching practices become a model for my students.

From Valentina Marinova's point of view, the CO-TEACHING APPROACH can be helpful whereas you actually work simultaneously with a colleague in the class and help smaller groups by teaching the same information, increasing the students' participation. If students need further practice they can also be helped by older students. This approach helped them to learn new pedagogical methods from each other and they could share any professional concerns. Of course there are challenges, because they needed extra time before and after school to coordinate their efforts, and be flexible to adapt to new methodology.

Reyhan Gunes brought up to our attention the importance of the use of collaborating tools to group together teachers and students, but also big projects like the Etwinning ones that are very common between language teachers, in their desire to reach classes abroad and become global citizens. Besides, she pointed out that MOOCs like this one can be a fun and useful experience to work together following a common goal. She mentioned Epals and Skype, Wikispace, blogs, cloud platforms, and the PLN, to collaborate with educators internationally. But she still would like to know what are the best strategies for digital collaboration, as there seem to be no common digital framework at European level yet.

Finally, we got more precious advice from Deirdre Butler and Majella Dempsey as for the steps to pursue in a true collaboration among teachers:

- CHALLENGE OUR BELIEFS AND ASSUMPTIONS

- CHANGE OUR ATTITUDES AND BE MORE FLEXIBLE

- DEAL WITH CONFLICTS

- FIND SOMETHING THAT MOTIVATES US TO WORK TOGETHER

- FIND NEW OPPORTUNITIES OF COLLABORATION IN MY SCHOOL OR ACROSS NATIONS

- SHOW OUR LEARNING TASK AND GET FEEDBACK FROM COLLEAGUES

- BUILD TRUST AMONG THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE TEAM

- OFFER A SCEPTICAL COLLEAGUE TO SIT AS AN OBSERVER SO THEY MAY BE CONVINCED OF THE POWER OF COLLABORATION

- FIND TECH TOOLS AND PLATFORMS TO LINK UP WITH TEACHERS OR STUDENTS

- DESIGN A TASK TOGETHER WHICH HAS TO BE AUTHENTIC

- STAY UP LATE, IF NEEDED, TO WORK WITH A COLLEAGUE AND FIND TIME TO PLAN AND ORGANIZE

- WORK INTERDISCIPLINARY BETWEEN COLLEAGUES IN THE SAME SCHOOL, THEN IN THE SAME COUNTRY, THEN IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY AND MOVE BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

- USE PRE-ASSESSMENT TASKS WITH STUDENTS BEFORE TEACHING A TOPIC

- MOVE BEYOND SENDING AND DISPLAYING AND MOVE TOWARDS PROCESSING, ANALYZING AND SHARING

- TEST LEARNING ACTIVITIES AT SCHOOL

- REDESIGN LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR THE FUTURE
2. Understand the required skills needed by teachers for effective collaboration, as well as the conditions needed at school level for teacher collaboration to flourish.
Unfortunately working with other people is a big challenge for us, that's why a teacher training expert explained us the skills needed to collaborate effectively:

1.Knowledge

2.Attitudes around wanting to collaborate

3.The skills for communication, for working with others, dealing with conflict

4.A motivation, so there has to be something there that motivates us to want to work together.
3. Understand how technology can facilitate teacher collaboration
I learned from Deirdre Butler how useful are MOOCs and platforms to collaborate among teachers, but also:

So the many collaborative tools, the cloud, the platforms, should be used to effectively and truly collaborate among teachers, because they help us save time, for example instead of going to school to meet face-to-face for planning we could communicate via Skype or share learning activities on Dropbox.
4. Finalize the development of one or more lesson plans integrating collaborative learning and assessment, as well as elements of teacher collaboration, using the Learning Designer.
Reyhan showed us that there are so many opportunities to work together also moving beyond the classroom to create authentic links with classes and teachers around the world.

Click on the button to find:

a) THE LESSON PLAN I PREPARED BY USING THE LEARNING DESIGNER, WHICH CONTAINS SOME ELEMENTS OF COLLABORATION (IN THE LAST PHASE)

c) SOME USEFUL RUBRICS AND CHECKLISTS FOR 2 OF THE PHASES OF THE LESSON PLAN

d) A WEBSITE I CREATED FOR THE ACTUAL MYSTERY SKYPE PROJECT.

The project was carried out in Spring 2016, but I did not use any rubrics or checklists during and after the sessions.

That's why this MOOC gave me a precious opportunity to make a better planning of the project thanks to the Learning Designer and the Rubrics. I am sure there will be improvements in my teaching.

You may click on the buttons to find my peer reviews. I find this very embarassing, either if they are good or bad. Still, there's some scope in other teachers' work appreciation: learning how to improve.

I finally got the 2 reviews to my Lesson Plan, and I must say I was very happy! This means I did a good job! Why not thanking my colleagues with an infographic, then? ---> Easel.ly

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Reflect on some recent learning activities you have carried out with your class in the past year, which have included some level of collaboration. MY EXPERIENCE: 1st learning activity ---> high level of collaboration: Mystery Skype, a guessing game. - 1 hour each session.

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Luisa Caspar - Sway

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This course is designed to give me that opportunity.