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Module 3
I haven't used the tablet in school however the challenge I foresee in using tablets for collaborative activities is time available. We have classes of fixed timings and to have collaborative activities using tablet within that time will be a challenge specially initially when both teacher and students are new to tablets. We will need to give them specific time limits for tasks. Also tablets can be misused by students, hence the apps and websites available will have to be restricted. Activities outside classroom need to be organised within school campus or field trip needs to be organised.

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CHALLENGES OF COLLABORATIVE WORK

I have never worked in a project like this but if I do, I will ensure to divide the groups in small groups and ensure that the students within a group are not friends to avoid them doing something else and as a teacher i will be supervising all the time to make sure they are on the right track.

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For my experience, I think it is important to keep small steps and keep a restrict timeplan. Students of secondary school kan not do for big projekt, it should either divided into different parts and different groups do the different parts, or all the groups get the same task and it should not be too ambitious. Otherwises it takes for long time to finish such a projekt. A restrict timeplan garenteer fair for all the students. If projekt is connected to some degree of score assessment for the students,  then the students will be even more engaged. But the topic should be interesting for the students and is connected to what they need to learn in their subject during the term.

Teachers  advice and technology support are also very important for the students involvement and success to the projekt.

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The most important factor is the leader, you might get to know the students to give each group a leader to keep the track during collaborative projects

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I do not have the opportunity to create this kind of projects in most of the school years, but when I can do this kind of projects the challenges exists because we have few time to apply the projects and students want more. To use tablets I need to ask a company (like Apple) to give me tablets for one class during a month, otherwise I can´t do this kind of projects.

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We work in eTwinning and iTEC projects and my students like to work in teams. They become the theme at at first they have to discuss and dream about what they can do about it. Then they share the work and explore about the theme.

The collobrative work give them the new way to learn together and from each other.

I agree with Marie that we must give

a good plan and clear tasks to the groups

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My pupils work better when they are really motivated and when their activity has a result, they must create and present. I prefer to have groups of 4 and we have roles for these four members. Sometimes they like the task very much, sometimes not much, but it is the same in our lives. I think that there should be a good plan, clear tasks, an interesting topic, time limits for smaller steps and the result that make sense for them.

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We all know that students interact by sharing ideas, knowledge and resources with peers, and I think I do to work my students forming working groups The results will be very positive.

When My students work in groups, collaborating, first they try to understand what they should do, they think and discuss together how to create the product.

In this way they acquire experience without any conflict between them, are able to do:

self-criticism, self-evaluation and self-reflection.

Collaborative learning is important for students in order to develop a range of skills, support communication skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving skills collective the cooperation, teamwork and leadership. In collaborative work it is essential to share the objectives and responsibilities among group members.

My students have different roles  as observer, leader or mediator in case of conflict. In a first moment in autonomy you assign the roles, then they listen with one l 'other to establish common goals and then start to develop activities to achieve the goal they had prefixed.

Finished product, each group comments and evaluates the work done by the other group, and being already able to assess, understand and accept if their work is not better than the one of the other group.

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First, I ask myself: Is my driving problem suitable for such a project? I am not sure if theproject elements are correctly defined, if the driving problem is motivating enough, if I can convince the mentioned partners to take part in the project. Then , I organize small groups with definite roles. Finally, I present the activity in a most exciting way trying to raise interest.

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For example...When we talk with students about labour market, we work in groups. each group create a business company idea and present us the necessity in workers and explain rules for them...then each student has an ability to find a job in these companies...at last we discuss situation in ''our labour market''...I found, that students like similar works, are creative and fell fine, they learn from each other about different professions and find, how strict employers they are at this moment :)...I think next year we'll use tablets in this work...

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In my school we don't have tablets so i can't share no experience. I think that the example of effective group work happening at an Austrian school during the CCL project is very interesting because it's clear that in addition to the social aspect tablets offer numerous technological advantages. With their built-in GPS and cameras, tablets come in handy as mobile devices. Offering a mobile connection to the internet in comparison to the traditional desktop PC, a static learning environment in a traditional IT classroom vanishes.

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I´ve never used project base learning (PBL). I think the student is the main character in this form of collaborative learning. However, the teacher has a role as a key advisor. Spaces and environments are flexible and resources must also be different. The ideas mentioned above are very motivating and creative. However, some disadvantages could be the use of digital resources when the teacher is not directly supervising the teamwork. In addition, I must point out that if the roles, responsibilities equipment and meet the goals and interest marked by a collaborative learning students get. To begin working on projects for the first time, we must consider more simple tasks and gradually get to achieve greater challenges as the example of the video.

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Even when I see that the experience of the video is a success, I share more the opinion of my colleagues giving their opinion.

The thing is that the task must be very clear if we want our students to work with autonomy, if not, we should be there, all the time, to answer their questions (as we are going to be, of course).

I cannot give any other detail about team work with tablets because I have not experience it until the moment.

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Last week I organized a collaborative project in two classes. Student received the task of studying, illustrating and submitting a Keynote or other product about human anatomy. I divided class in five groups. Each student of a group has a role, some respinsabilities and she/he receives exact instructions from the teacher. The activity take place in the classroom at the end of each sitting working the group has to carry out specific tasks.

To obtain informations pupils can use their textbook and apps they have on their tablet or new helpful apps they find. They can have different kind of outputs depending on students creativity and their skills.

When the work is completed each member of a group will illustrate some of the contents to the other classmates for their and my assessment.

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I would like to say that it is not very easy and simple organize and work in a collaborative groups. I tried lots of time. Some to these,, it does not work very well. For example, the last time, for a L2 course fo a Comenius project, I divided the class into small groups to create a "diferent" dialogue: they had to use Dubsmash in Spanish language to create mini dialogue with the tablets or smartphones, and then they had to edit it all together.

Well, they took lot of time to do that, and many of them had to be "encouraged" to participate to the activity. I was very upset about it, because I thought they were going to be happy to do something like that, because they are used to use that app. ç

But Finally, we managed to do the video.

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To keep students focused you can disable other apps, define very especific goals and set time limits for each task.

To ensure all students contribute to the task, roles can be define. You can also made the students explain the process or the results.

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I give my students different kinds of assignements to keep them on track and focused. If we for instance is working on an eTwinningproject I give them different parts to work with so they also can learn from each other, but it is seldom that they work alone. Then they have different pieces which all of them contributes to a bigger picture. Working with qr-codes is something we have done quite a lot since it is a way oc creating curiosity but also realistically to save space on the walls if you have practically none.

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it is very difficult to keep very small classes students committed to their work, but I have noticed that if you give them a topic that interests them stay focused on their work throughout the teaching period

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Challenges of collaborative work are mainly connected with rules/instructions, roles and responsability of participants, leadership and group dynamics and last but not least assessment of individual/group work.

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Beautiful experience of the German school . In my school there are still no tablet, so unfortunately I can not share any work.

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Challenges of Collaboration are various: maintenance of group discipline; members’ difficulties in working together, in respecting the time; negative reactions of members’ constituents; delayed accomplishments; different personalities; discrimination; often the lack of a shared vision.

Therefore, i have to find the driving question and to make sure i am organised and supportive enough. I have to make them responsible, keep in mind the importance of positive interdependence. I have to keep them focused on the task and united!

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It's very difficult be sure that all students take part into a work group. To do that I give everybody a sub-task inside the general one of the grup. So if one of them doesn't work the guroup work doesn't go on. Moreover I used to ask to groups to nominate a leader that have the role to manage the group and supervising the work of everybody.

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I love QR-Codes and I started to use it 3 years ago. At the beginning (the first 2 years) I encode only text, because we didn't have WIFI on our school.
The activity took place in my teaching classroom and ended in less than 30 Minutes. The pupils were divided into 5 or 4 groups, every group had a worksheet with questions and they had to decode the QR-Codes around the classroom walls to find the answers. I used the 3 classroom walls and everyone had a number to help the pupils with the encoding.
After finishing the activity, all pupils in their groups, had to write down an evaluation about this activity.

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Ithink its better to keep students focused on their tracks than in modern projects or classes. I need this new instrument that i will use and the ways I will choose for achieving teaching lessons. Depends on teacher's creativity,

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I try to divide one bigger task into smaller ones and to ask feedback from every student during the process, so I see how far are they with the project.

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To keep focus students during collaborative project it needs to have a task that be flexible and creative. Each student must achieve own goals one at a time.

To provide students the opportunity to use both their own resources and those of peers to achieve own tasks.

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I try to keep my  students focused and on track during collaborative projects by splitting  the activity in phases and defining e a strict concrete timetable.

Each phase is completed when an output is produced.

The accomplishment of a phase is related to a meeting  where students talk about their progress, present their results and can have a feedback. In this way I can frequently  monitor the working progress and check the result of each phase.

I can have different kind of output depending on the phase ( map, chart,  models, code,report, presentation, questionnaire).

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For collaborative work, I plan with students, at the beginning, by negotiating, a timetable or schedule of the work to do, establishing milestones, rules of behaviour, resources needed and outcomes to be accomplished in each milestone. During the work, I'll be tutoring the collaborative Work, reminding the rules and helping with guidance.

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I usually set time limits, rules that students must follow, assessments that are made by the students themselves

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It's very important to create

heterogeneous groups with 3-5 students.

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My strategies for keeping my students focused are all about giving the assignment a value for every individual student within the group. When it´s possible (which is almost every time) I let the students choose form of presentation or style of working process. When collaborating with other students with similar choices we´ve created a common ground to start from. Maybe I´m naive about it, but… When a student see the value of the assignment they start to care about the end result. When they care about that, they often feel a need to be a part of it. In groups they share the same ”baby”, they all want its best and therefore stay contributing to the task.
My work, as the teacher, will be to work formative with a close feedback to keep the tempo up (keep deadline) and pointing their work close to the center of the task (to avoid the risk of making the working field too big).

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I liked the experience shared on video, but I'm concerned about the students outside school without the teacher, I think it is difficult to implement. However, all the process is very interesting and motivating. Trying to answer the questions: I don't know. I think about these questions all the days, during my practices with students. I apply learning style tests in the beginning of the year and I try to present problems related to their lives. I use all elements I have, include feeling, to form groups. I use some tools to help follow the activities as google drive to know who is active in the writing tasks and I talk with them (chat), during the writing. I do all without tablets, and I'm expecting the day to adapt my current practices with the new device.

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prepatory, build-up work

right technical preparation and planing

concrete timeframe

rules that the students and the teacher figure out together and place them somewhere in the room where everybody can see them, having them like a mindmap on the surface of the tablet

having regular meetings with the students to talk about the progress of the tasks and the coordination of the next phases

concrete roles - concrete tasks

students as mediator and observators that keep track of the process and help the teacher to solve problems especially when there are a lot of students involved in the project

questionaries and control sheets help the students monitor their progress

let good students work with less good cooperative students together (it helps sometimes but not always)

give the students tasks according to their learning style, interests and talents in order to have a lot of small success-moments that will keep them going

regular discussion rounds and feedback

maybe a reward system with badges especially for younger and less motivated students

collaboration with a class in an another city or country - the effort is bigger to show them that the students in the class are working successfuly together

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Normally I give my students narrow time spans to do each task and set a good rhythm for the learning story phases. This ensures that they are focused and keep on track. I also work closely accompanying what all the groups and their members are doing. But, if the team is well defined, the team members will keep track of what each one is doing and they will spur up the members that are more lacking. These aspects are then discussed during their own assessment and then my assessment of their work.

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It is difficult to have all the students involved in a group work. There is a lot of diversity and proposing activities or projects all the students like is hard work. That is why it is so important to form the groups. I tell them what we are supposed to learn and ask them what We could do as task. During the process, students decide and ask teacher If help is needed. Teacher does not direct. Each students produces content with their tablet with the app that they preferred.

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To the video: The paper chase is most probably entertaining for the SS and enables them to be independent and active.

I just wonder how to let SS go round the town in groups?We are responsible for them during the instruction and we cannot let them go out like this without the teacher. This issue would be raised when preparing something similar.

SS are focused when: it is motivating, must create a result, the activity makes sense and SS would like to dosomething like this outside the classroom too, it is challenging enough but not so difficult too. If you want all SS to be active directly, you must assign diffrent roles or tasks to individuals. The T should give support to weak SS or make mixed-ability groups. The groups should be of 4 max.

! You can never make an activity interesting for all. People differ in learning styles, interests. On the other hand, SS should be taught also to work on tasks they do not especially favour. In the real life it happens as well. Or do you only do activities that you find hilarious and I do not say by that that we should not try to make a task interesting for them, quite the contrary.

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I try to keep my groups small (3-4 students), I make mixed-ability groups, set the time limit (deadline),

assign (or help assign) roles for each student within the group and personalize tasks if necessary. I explain them that in order to complete the task they have to work together and that each one of them has to participate during the project. Sometimes I award the best projects/students (I use stickers, badges, smiley faces...as I work with young students that actually works :) ) Of course I always try to choose an interesting topic to work on and I try to monitor as much as I can what the students are doing, but in that age they are still very honest and competitive so most of them follow the rules and do what they're supposed to.

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How do you keep your students focused and on track during collaborative projects? For doing that, you have to set up a pack of rules that they must understand and obey, but also choose a topic which can become interesting for them

How do you ensure all students contribute to the task? You must make them fill in a control sheet everyday where they must note down their progress but also all the members of the group must control and evaluate the other members

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We had a LLP project with seven partners from Europe; we used google.docs to work on collaborative isues

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Depending on the activity you want to carry out, members of the group can vary significantly.

A big group does not work if we are trying to work in a cooperative way. Tasks are usually done by the ones that are more predisposed.

If the task requires a PC or tablet, it is better to work in pairs. The roles distribution is clear and they help each other.

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Collaboration entails the whole process of learning. This may include students teaching one another, students teaching the teacher, and of course the teacher teaching the students, too. More importantly, it means that students are responsible for one another's learning as well as their own and that reaching the goal implies that students have helped each other to understand and learn.

When dividing students into groups, it's important to:

1. Keep groups small.

2. Assign roles or encourage students to do so.

3. Warn students about time-consuming stages and tasks.

4. Actively build communication and conflict resolution skills.

5. Designate time in the project schedule for the group to integrate parts.

6. Last but not least, monitoring by teacher to ensure that all students are actively participating.

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Nowadays, I can`t imagine a collaborative work without the internet. It will require a lot of time for teachers and the result of that work it won't the best one. Collaborative work using the internet in different groups can make to get the same numbers of ways than groups working in the task. I think that a good way to get that the learners focus in the activity is set a deadline to finish the work. Getting that all the students works you can make groups which the habilities of each learners are different and all these skills have to be present in the work.

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How do you keep your students focused and on track during collaborative
projects?
I use the strategy suggested in the video, time limit for the task.
How do you ensure all students contribute to the task?
The selected task is usually divided in several parts. The time required to complete these tasks is adapted to the number of students.
For example, a group of four students will have a task that requires 100 minutes to complete, but they only have 25 minutes to do it. The only way to complete it is if all the members of the group work together, sharing ideas, answers and effort.

If you have organised a similar project share your experiences (positive and negative) here.
I also organised a "Paper Chase". Students loved it because the had to use technology in a way they had never used before. Some of their comments where:
"I had no ideia a tablet could do this"
"Math is useful after all"
They only wished the paper chase was bigger!

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Two weeks ago, i used 'Collaborative Learning' tecnique for my 'Nature' unit of 11th grades, and while the pairs were working together to create a unique message about a city's nature issue, i saw that in the groups of 3 students, every group focused on each of their partner's ability as what s/he could do for the project. I think this is the 'key' for the pairs: to focus on the ability. When you relate someone to something that s/he cannot feel 'inside' -a path to that side, maybe-, the pair would collapse eventually.

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I think that the definition of rules with students is critical to the development of the activity . I have never used tablets but already organized orientation races with setting times for students to stay focused on the task.

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It's difficult to keep track during collaborative projects, but I think, as the teacher in the video mentions, to set a time limit is really a key point. Also it is very important that the objectives and the tasks they have to carry out are clear to them.

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How do you keep your students focused and on track during collaborative projects?

I use a tool called Classcraft www.classcraft.com. Students are in teams and they are part of a role playing game which is running during class. There are set rules that the studnets and the Gamemaster (the teacher) have to follow. XP points and Gold Coins are a great incentive. I also monitor what they do and if they work effectively together.

How do you ensure all students contribute to the task?

There is the peer pressure involved due to the game element and that if one member of the team doesn't work,the others quickly remind him to participate or else the whole team may suffer.

If you have organised a similar project share your experiences (positive and negative) here.

I've never organised a similar activity as in the video but it is very interesting to see all the possibilities that such an activity offers.

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I have 23 students in my class and it's very hard to make sure that all students contribute to the tasks. Therefore I used a formative evaluation throughout the project, as well as a checklist of tasks each student. I would like to learn other ways of this course. To motivate students , the project should provide an interesting topic , to make the action plan , groups of students to have the best tools for observation and coordination. Teacher has to asure that students really kow what they are expected to do. To be considered: a good planning of activities , resources, timing, access to IT, internet connection. Finally, it is very important to show the results of students' work and get feedback from all actors involved in our activity.

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Keeping students focused when working in groups can be quite challenging. Thus, I think that students have to be clearly informed about what the goals of the assignment are. The teacher must set a time limit for each of the stages of group work.

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In order to keep my pupils focused and to make sure that all of them contribute to the task, I usually form groups of 5 people; everyone of them has his own task, for example a pupil in each group is respnsible to mantain silence within the group, and again, another pupil has the role to expose the work made by his group.

In this way, I am sure that all the students work properly to acheive their goal.

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Whenever I have to plan a collaborative activity I start by giving them a clear objetive for the task.

Then, I give students an assessment rubric so that they know what they will be evaluated and how they are expected to work during the task. I share those rubrics and in some cases we design them together.

After that, I give each student a clear role within the group, so that they understand that the efficiency and success of the group will depend of each of them paying their parts accordingly.

FInaly, when the task is shown, each students self evaluates their performance and we share our thoughts and impressions, following the rubrics.

Of course, we sometimes find difficulties, but if students know their objetives, their roles and the expected performance we reduce the amount of difficu

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I use classdojo (app) for motivation and feedback throughout the collaborative work. Each student can be assessed, evaluated, motivated and supported with classdojo seperately, and the parents can be informed at the same time . I think it is a very useful and powerful app for digital projects, or even traditional work in class. When you give regular feedback to your students, they stay motivated and reach their goal easily without any challenges related to motivation.

Set rules where eachone is responsible from eachone and state roles so that the task will be accomplished with the effort of each member in the group.Roles should be :

Leader When in this role, students facilitate group success by assessing progress toward the team goal and keeping the team on task and on track. Leaders are responsible for getting all team members to participate and for making sure that all team members understand the concepts and information necessary for the project.
Recorder When in this role, students collect and share the information discussed during team work, create a written record of work being done, write out solutions, keep copies of each member’s work, and prepare the materials for final project submission.

Encourager
When in this role, students encourage other team members by listening carefully, sharing ideas, making connections, and expressing feelings.

Checker
When in this role, students make sure that each team member understands what is being said, what work needs to be completed, and what the group has determined to be the project goals.

Timekeeper When in this role, students make sure that the team is on track to meet deadlines and complete the project on time.

Runner
When in this role, students locate the person or thing which will help answer a question or find the resources team members need to complete project work.

Questioner
When in this role, students should challenge the prevailing ideas, encouraging new ideas and helping the team work in new directions.

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I think the methods proposed in the above video are very interesting and useful. Another method for keeping students focussed is issuing rewards for certain aspects of the lesson whether that be completion, accuracy or evidence of team work. By issuing roles to the various students in the group, you can ensure all students contribute. For example, in the Paperchase activity I would have one group memeber as the Leader, another as the map reader, another as the photographer and the last as the reporter.

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When working with the projcts, I usually give concise instructions to my students and I set time limits to the tasks.

Each student has a different role and they can only use the specific apps we are using in class.

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Time limits for their work and sometimes, I use tablets timers for students come back to class and review work progress with all class. My role in class is as a guide and review students work periodically and discuss with them about their progress, difficulties, remake, and next steps.

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To keep the students focused I use these techniques: - Plan the project carefully and set clear goals. - Give precise instructions and let them know the assessment criteria. - Split the projects into smaller tasks that help them organize their work at shorter term. - Set a time limit for each phase or task of project. On the other , I tend to ensure every student´s contribution by a mix of tools: - I monitor and guide the work to carrying out the the projects and I use an assessment rubric during the process. - At the end of the project, each student must deliver a final report.

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For me it is quite difficult to form groups and make students work in a sharing enviorement. the class space is quite small. Besides that, whenever thay are in groups I let stabish who is the leader of the group and he or she has to be in charge of their peer work. Most of the time, these goes bad and the students get bored so in some cases I have to change some members to activate their attention.

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My ideas on how to keep your students focused and on track during collaborative projects:

· Make it interesting and fun! If they find the topic or the final product interesting, I think you are halfway there.

· Let them have an active part on picking the topic, this way they share the decision with you.

· Use an assessment rubric from the beginning. Decide, with the students preferably, what goals they need to achieve by the end of the project. Also, explain that good collaboration will be also assessed.

·  Set some rules on collaboration. For example, they need to listen to each other, take into consideration their classmates views and respect them.

· Break the project into smaller parts. With big projects they get bored until they get to the creating part of the project, so breaking it into smaller parts may help. Such as with the learning scenario method

mentioned in the previous module, we may explain that by the end of the lesson they should be almost finished with the explore phase for example.

·  Keep the time. They could know that by the end of the day they should have proceed a certain phase of the project. We should respect and provide extra help though to the teams who have difficulties to do so.
· Show their work. If they know that they will communicate their work and that what they do will have a meaning or some effect on someone they might be more motivated.

My ideas on ensuring all students contribute to the task:

·  As other colleagues have already mentioned a good strategy is to assign them roles (such as facilitator, presenter, recorder etc.). Nevertheless, I would emphasize that they need to share the decision making process and work together.

·  Start with smaller groups. In a class that students are not used to working collaboratively, I would start with pairs and as they are getting keener to it, I would put them in bigger groups.

·  Make them feel that their work is appreciated. Students with low self-esteem tend to distance themselves and don’t take active part. They could be assigned a role that would make them more confident and the teacher should provide them with more support to help them open up. Also, some students like to take over the task, usually in a class I work with I would know who they are and explain how important it is to work together.

·  Each student can have a red card that they can use when they feel that the team is not respecting the rules on collaboration. If someone uses the card they need to solve the issue before they move on.

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The group members can play different roles in a project work. using different methods can be used. Because children are very fast thinkers and they can get bored quickly. And also monitoring is the mostimportant think.

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I try to develop tasks in which the group members can play different roles. However using different methods as 'Think-Pair-Share' is also a good way to ensure that all students participate in the collaborative work.

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I'm trying to involve some educational games in every project, in order to be funny and interesting. Another point is that the project must contain both easy and difficult tasks, so every student will feel sutisfied.

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Dana Moraru - Challenges of Collaborative Work

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Dana Moraru - Challenges of Collaborative Work

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I consider that there will not be more ore less challenges to keep students focused on their tracks than in traditional projects or classes. The single difference is the instrument you use and the ways you choose for achieving teaching goals. Depends on teacher's creativity, persuasion, willingness to improve each class after each class.

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Unfortunately group work in schools which have been placed with the use of tablets are still in a dream. We work with group work ... .of older form. I Start by placing the themes to be developed in the frame. I give my students the opportunity to form groups of 4 elements. After the formed groups, i let them choose the theme to develop. As a next step, the project under the timings of work (information search by day ...., Information organization to day ..., choose the output until the final work day ... .and finally present the final work day ....). The work is in its moastlly developed in the classroom using the laptops (which can not leave the school). During the lessons I will following the development of the work, recording information such as who researched, what conclusions retired, who joked ...). The final presentation of the work is also evaluated and all the group members have to participate in it. After each presentation, ask the other colleagues who constructively give their opinion about the work. After all groups have presented and they heard the opinions of colleagues, I ask that each student individually make a critical reflection of its commitment to the work, should mention what was your contribution to the realization of the final product.

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First of all, I like using badges or some kind of gamification techniques to keep the students motivation, but it is also important to avoid classifications or lists, that can be discouraging for some students.

It´s very useful monitoring the students while they are working, telling them what they are doing right and what they need to improve.

Edmodo is a great tool for that, but I also use ClassDojo. OneNote is a great App to keep a learning diary where groups can share their progress, notes and photos in a simple way not only with tablets but also with their smartphones.

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The use of tablets in the learning desenvovimento is an asset for the whole process is more motivating for the student. However I believe that all should be in line and above should exisitir a very clear plan

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I don't have experience in this kind of activities. But I've tried to work with my students with Ubersense app - slowmotion analysyis for coaches, PE teachers. It could be good idea for cooperation with other teachers, form other countries about our students (basketball, voleyball etc) skills. We could compare technical habits for any kind os sport activities. Students would be focused on comparing their and other skills, wrong movement etc. Dividing tasks - no problem: depends on their skills in conrete sport activity.

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It is important to monitor the students while they are working in the groups. Also, for a long term project, students who would like to work together can put into the same group. Telling them that they are going to evaluate each other can be a motivator, too. For the iTEC Cycle 4, we decided to create educational games. I formed the groups of 4 students and each students had a responsibility. For instance, one of them worked on the visuals and the other one worked on the story while the remaining two coded. At the end, when it was time to evaluate each other, some criticized their teammates harshly.

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Group projects are best when all students are engaged and have a role to play.
In traditional group work we may have assigned a recorder,facilitator,time keeper along with a presenter to keep all involved and on task.
With tablets you have so much more and can assign roles so that students share the work or are working to contribute their skills to the final project. With cameras and microphone you can have them record data and create content in a very engaging way.
One device can be shared in groups larger than two; however this can be challenging as group members want to use the device. Time can be lost as members negotiate how to enter or access information and create content.

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Videos like these make me feel depressed. This is an image that unfortunately is so far away from the Greek reality. Anyway it was a great idea and I am sure students enjoyed it and learnt. As for the module question I try to keep students focused, by setting time limits, asking the to deliver small parts of their project while they work through. I really have problem to ensure that all students have contribute to the project. I am really interesting to hear from colleagues how the achieve it.

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To avoid all possible pitfalls, it's very importand to plan collaborative work in great detail. Of course one cannot foresee everything (we cannot expect teachers to be fortunetelleres) but it certainly helps a lot.One crucial thing is also the group size - the bigger group the more idle students. Again - great planning may make work even very large groups, where every member knows exactly their responsibilities etc. Tasks for each group member should be chosen according to students' abilities - too difficult tasks will certainly cause feeling hopeless and thus low motivation.To keep students focused, it's important to set time limit or in case of longer projects, some mid-deadlines. After each step students should to some reflection on what they have learned or how they've been doing. Feedback from both group peers and teacher is also a way to motivate everyone contribute at their best.

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I don't have experience in this kind of projects, but I think that in a group I will put a different task to the members, so all of them have to carry on with a task to make the job correctly.

In this way we make sure that all of our students are engaged with the work and they collaborated in order to make a good task.

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I intend to supervise the group work initially. Firstly, because the concept is new and the students may become overexcited and off-task. The editing and final presentation of their work will be completed in their own time. Secondly, I need to be aware of who is doing what! By observing their group work I will have a better idea of how to assess each individual.

I shall also require the students to assess themselves and each other both within their groups and between groups

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I don´t have experience in the type of collaborative work shown in the video. When the students are working in groups is easy to distract for them so it is important to choose a topic for the project according to their interests in order to maintain their attention on the task. It is also important a good organizational plan. The teacher must have scheduled all the project with a time limit for the activities  and the students must be aware of what is expected from them. It is also good to assigned different roles to each student in order to make them feel that they are sharing the work and they have a responsibility in the task demanded.

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A good organizing of activities is key to success! Teacher has to asure that students really kow what they are expected to do. To be considered: a good planning of activities , resources, timing, access to IT, internet conncetion. Finally, is very important to show the results of students' work and get feedback from all actors involved in our activity.

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When I use collaborative learning in classroom I use jigsaw method. I found this method very useful, students know that their job has to be done or he/she will fail in front of the schoolmates and that is the question of honour or popularity among them.

Here what Wikipedia says about jigsaw :

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The jigsaw technique is a method of organizing classroom activity that makes students dependent on each other to succeed. It breaks classes into groups and breaks assignments into pieces that the group assembles to complete the (jigsaw) puzzle. It was designed by social psychologist Elliot Aronson to help weaken racial cliques in forcibly integrated schools.

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In my school still it has not implemented the use of the tablets but I can foresee to be made in the not too distant future. However , a project like the video , out of school , using tablets is completely unthinkable for the reality of life here . Students run the risk of being robbed to steal the tablet. So we would have to implement a project within the school , though outside the classroom .
A project where different tracks or QR codes in different sites of the college and that this will stop following them for investigation occurs to me .
I think for students to stay focused on the job , it is important that allocations have a well-defined and well- calculated time.
I have put into practice teamwork projects only once with 4 students per group and the biggest problem was that not all team members worked . Some of them took responsibility and not others.

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From the very begining I teach my 7-year-old students to work in groups. I try to determine clearly goals and direction of their activities and set rules for work. Little children need to understand that they have roles assigned. And their single activities will provide success in whole task. I pay attention so that every pupil have assigned a specific role and participate in activities.

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Groups consist of 4-6 students working on tasks that encourage them to cooperate and have different roles within the group. Each team member has their own task, different from the others. If each member of the team does not make its job, the task team as a whole can not be executed.

The success of the team depends on the success of each of its members.

Before they start with the work I read with students all the instructions, in addition to clarify and emphasize what is important, or what instructions might not write. It is important for students to understand written instructions at the beginning of labor.

They know they will evaluate their own work and work of other teams in the end so they are pretty good motivated. Of course, chosing the topic is great motivation for the students. If they are working on something they have interest in then that is the best motivation you can get.

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Students should be involved in the project's planning as much as possible. It gives them a sense of responsibility and provides meaningful learning experiences It is important to set clear goals and topics, set working approaches, strategies and resources, set clear group rules, time limit for the assignments and criteria for reviews.

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Division into groups must be with clearly defined roles and tasks. In this way, students can properly choose team members and their roles.

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I think the key notes to successful group work are clear instructions and time limit. Sometimes I let them write self-reflection about their group work. And I tend to notice that when studets have flexible options like how they choose to solve their tasks then they are highly motivated and focused on their assignment as well.

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One think that definatelly should me taken under consideration is how to keep pupils consitrated on the task. The time limit mentioned in the video is an effective way but not always working. I think a variaty of ways is needed in order to cope with this issue. A project anyway it's not something static, it's a scafold that need to climd in order to be complited. Under this aspect each stage of a project must have several types of activities, tools, target etc, able to hold pupils consitrated on their tasks.

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In my opinion to keep students focused and on track during collaborative projects
I recommended to Divide roles between group members, such as documents, auditor, charge, spectator Inspired by the work of the bee

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Indicative ways of dealing with evaluation problems and ensuring shared responsibility of the team for the progress of all of its members are: • Assign roles to each team member and accounts of his work • Evaluation through observation and review of the progress that we ask be done by each team member (oral or written) periodically. • Each time a different student shows in class work or work progress (eg project). • Each student maintains the folder with the primary material for the work in which he participated, for the information brought to the team. • There is an internal assessment by a group for its members • The final grade for each student is a combination of the degree of the team and its performance (which can be measured by tests among group members concerning the issue faced by the group) • The extent of the group depends on the performance or better than the progress of each team member so as not to be rejected by the group the weak students.

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It is very important how the student groups were made. Sometimes it is better that the students themselves determine with whom they will collaborate in a joint group work. My role is, above all, to clearly emphasize the aim of the activity and check whether the students properly understand it. If the goals are correctly highlighted and clear, if students can select activities from real life which are close to their interests, if we set them proper time limits - there is little chance for students to wander. Student self-evaluation and the ability to publicly display their works is very useful for raising students' motivation for this type of work. You have to have confidence that students are mutually equally divide their tasks and thus contribute to the achievement of common goals. If it were not so, they would regulate themselves among themselves.

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Till now, I was little bit skeptic about one tablet and group of student because I was afraid what will be with tablet, but I will try. Next week we will have collaborative project about sea and live nature near coast. So I will determine one member who will take care about tablet. I don't have problems with student contribution because they all know what to do. We are working in collaborative projects from the first grade so step by step in third grade they are real collaborators, better than me ;)

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Module 3 - Challenges of Collaborative work

In my school each class has 15 students .Organizing group work with tablets for 15 students is feasible with good preparation and anticipated tasks .
Working with tablets offers : cooperation in the group of students , the opportunity to share comments , pictures , videos , assignments between groups and teacher (application Edmondo )
Because the groups are with small number of students there is a possibility of assessment ( formative ( check lists ..... ) and summative through electronic quizzes and assignments, self-evaluation , assessment of individuals , evaluating groups ....

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3.2 I make sure they know exactly what they are going to do, I set time limits and monitor /check progress

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I visit each group three times. First to doublecheck they understand the task fully. Secondly to check on their progress and thirdly to focus them on concluding their work within the allocated timeframe which has been set at the very start.

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3.2. Our students have time limits, so they do not wander off, and they have individual task also, by the group work, so everybody contribute to the task.

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I keep my students focused by several means: I give them a precise time limit thank to my Time Timer, and each students hold a different role in the group. To foster the contribution of each member, I always start with an individual work which lead to the final group work.

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Collaborative work is very challenging in many ways: allocation of responsibilities of each member of the group, motivating every member for keep his/her interest on given task. So when i organize group activity first, together with the students i specify the group activities and allocate a role for every member in the group, during their work i always observe their activities, sometimes have to change their roles in order to provide equal engagement of all members, we have a rule that group activities should be presented to the other groups, and every member of the group should present one activity.

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I give tasks to everyone, so that all students have a thing to do with other components of the group.

I ensure the focus with worksheet and defined tasks.

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M 3.2 How to keep students focused during colaborative projects? Pavel Mátl, 

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M 3.2 How to keep students focused during colaborative projects? Pavel Mátl, 

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I would make small groups and check if everybody is active. I would also demand present of the group "product" in front of the class.

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My pupils have great challenges for cooperative work for their autistic spectrum diagnosis. Tablets are motivating if they can work alone, but challenges appear when they have to work collaboratively. On the other hand they are excellent moments to practice social skills.