Rosalba's learning diary by Rosalba D'Amico

ABOUT ME

rosalba1963 — 2015-10-05 15:11:51 UTC

Hello everybody!! My name's Rosalba and I'm from the south of Italy. I've spent my life in the different parts of Italy: south, north. centre and the isle of Sicily as well. I started my teaching career in Calabria in 1987, then I moved to Parma, where I stayed for eight years. In 2001 I moved to the capital where I teach English at the Vocational Institute for Tourism and Catering "Pellegrino Artusi"

I love teaching and I think this course will give me the opportunity to collect new teaching ideas relevant to my own context and enhance the use of digital technologies in teaching. So let's start!!!😃

rosalba1963 — 2015-10-06 15:44:28 UTC

Appia antica

rosalba1963 — 2015-10-06 19:59:35 UTC

rosalba1963 — 2015-10-10 11:11:42 UTC

MY SCHOOL’S CONTEXT The school I work at is very big and it has four different buildings.There are about 1,700 students aged 14-19, who attend three different courses: cooking, service and hotel reception. These all finish with the Italian State exam.My students study various subjects depending on the courses they have chosen. Class sizes range from 25 to 30 and there are lessons until 2.30 and sometimes 3.30 in the afternoon but no lessons on Saturday morning. Classroom layout is very traditional and students sit in rows in front of the teacher's desk. There are some interactive whiteboards in few classrooms, which can be used only by the students in that class. Where I work there are no projectors, neither tablets or laptop computers.There is a computer lab in three buildings but not in the one I teach in. Fortunately this year there are great chenges: thanks to the funds we got from the PON we have our WiFi connectivity!! This is why I hope my students can use their own devices. I will bring my laptop, tablet and smartphone to school and we’ll share all devices available in class , so to stimulate the creation of their own projects. Any time we want to do groupwork, we need to move desks to arrange for better layout. I’m really excited to start this new experience with my students.

rosalba1963 — 2016-09-20 15:54:27 UTC

Rosalba from Italy

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-11 20:40:21 UTC

COURSE SELFIE !!!

Hello everyone, I'm an English teacher in a secondary school in Rome. I'm really happy to share this experience with you!

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-11 21:11:08 UTC

1.1 What is collaborative learning?

Collaborative learning is a great teaching strategy much appreciated by students. It is centred on students who become the main actors of the learning process. They learn by doing enhancing some important skills such as respecting the times, collecting and choosing sources, sharing ideas and respecting each other.

WHAT IS COLLABORATIVE LEARNING?

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-11 21:14:28 UTC

Caroline Kearney: So in order to have a shared understanding of what collaborative learning means, we think the UNESCO definition is very useful in highlighting some of the aspects just mentioned by Professor Deirdre Butler. Collaborative Learning is a process through which learners at various performance levels work together in small groups toward a common goal. It is a learner-centred approach derived from social learning theories as well as the socio-constructivist perspective on learning. Collaborative learning is a relationship among learners that fosters positive interdependence, individual accountability, and interpersonal skills. For collaborative learning to be effective, teaching must be viewed as a process of developing students’ ability to learn. The teacher’s role is not to transmit information, but to serve as a facilitator for learning. This involves creating and managing meaningful learning experiences and stimulating learners’ thinking through real-world problems. The task must be clearly defined and be guided by specific objectives. Sometimes cooperative and collaborative learning are used interchangeably but cooperative work usually involves dividing work among the team members, whilst collaborative work means all team members tackle the problems together in a coordinated effort. According to research reviews, collaborative learning enhances:
• Academic achievement
• Student attitudes (e.g. openness to diversity)
• Student engagement
• Student retention (Prince, P. 2004; Moreover, c Davidson & Howell Major 2014 )
Collaborative learning contributes to the development of specific skills including:
• Leadership competences
• Selfevaluation
• Listening skills
• Presentation skills
• Skills of persuasion & negotiation
• Team working skills (Jacques & Salmon, 2007)

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-11 21:22:28 UTC

1.2 Collaborative learning in a flexible classroom

I really like the 3.0 classroom, but unfortunately the situation in my school is quite different. However I don't want to complain but rather I'ld like to implement the debate or collaborative strategies exploiting the resourses we have: desks, my tablet, my students' mobiles, but above all focusing on my students' enthusiasm

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-11 21:28:21 UTC

1.3 Collaborative learning through project-based learning
I really like the circle time since it helps the self-assessment...and I agree with the teacher about the importance of technology as it offers the opportunity to share the work and to involve various aspects of learning both receptive and productive

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-11 21:31:31 UTC

1.4 A foreign language teacher’s experience of collaborative learning
I think we have the same problems,which should be turned into our main objectives: teaching them to work in team and making them aware of the importance of what they are doing. Exchanging their role inside the group may help assessing the students individually.

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-11 21:32:57 UTC

1.5 A History & Geography teacher’s experience of collaborative learning
Well I exactly understand what the teacher in the video means: collaboration between Italian teachers is not easy for various reasons: first of all we are not used to work in team except in the primary school; most of the teachers are still jealous of their work and certainly the new school reform does not help. However things are changing and teachers are more aware of the importance of collaboration. If we start teaching our students to work in team we'll probably understand the positive effects of this teaching strategy and its values.
As to the assessment I think that even if evaluating the final product is important, the most important aspect of this teaching strategy is the whole learning process which involves many competences.

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-11 21:34:26 UTC

1.6 Module 1 Learning Activity
I teach English in a vocational institute for chefs, waiting staff and hotel receptionists. Last year after a teaching unit on the different types of menus, I planned a low level collaboration activity by dividing a class of 28 students, aged 17, into six groups. Each group had to create a different type of menu. They worked both at school and at home. All students collaborated and shared their tasks, and above all showed a great enthusiasm.
An activity which required a high level of collaboration in a class of 24 students, aged 18, was a work on the Mediterranean cuisine which involved various subjects: English, French, Cooking, Nutrition Science. Students were divided into five groups of five, and as final product they had to create an interactive image (thinglink) highlighting the main countries and the typical recipes of the Mediterranean cuisine both in English and French. As to cooking they had to prepare the typical dishes, studying the nutritional properties of each dish. They worked with a great team spirit, respecting all their duties.The more they work in team the more they are enthusiastic!

ADDITIONAL RESOURSES

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-11 21:37:24 UTC

http://creative.eun.org/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=003c8898-ba62-456f-9fda-249da083c397&groupId=96459

- Davidson, N., & Major, C. H. (2014). Boundary crossings: Cooperative learning, collaborative learning, and problem-based learning. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 25 (3&4), pp. 7-55.
- Prince, M., (2004). Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93 (3), pp. 223–231.
- Jacques, D., & Salmon, G., Routledge (2007). Learning in groups: A handbook for face-to-face and online environments

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-12 20:45:01 UTC

2.1 Embedding collaborative learning into lesson design

Also in Italy we are going through a wide scale education reform and for the first time we are looking to embed key skills within our school curricula. It is not easy to make teachers accept new teaching methods which go beyond the teacher centred lessons, but I think that developing new teaching strategies, such as collaborative teaching, is an important step towards the acquisition of key skills. Collaborative learning is not just a group work and
it is necessary to understand the same thing under it. As Professor Butler says, having collaborative skills is not a personality trait but can be developed by designing learning activities which develop these skills. I also agree with Professor Butler when he mentions that ‘technology can support new pedagogies that focus on learners as active participants with tools for inquiry-based pedagogies and collaborative work spaces’. After twenty-five years of teaching experience I myself feel the necessity to deepen new strategies which can make students acquire new competences and not just knowledges!

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-12 21:28:53 UTC

2.2 The 4 Collaboration Questions

Four useful questions I'll keep in mind when planning the next collaborative activity:
▪ Are they working together?
▪ Do they have shared responsibility?
▪ Are they making substantive decisions?
▪Is their work interdependent.
Another important tip is customize the activity to the students' actual capacities

2.3 Collaborative Learning Scenario template

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-12 21:32:26 UTC

https://youtu.be/2KPnyxazNco

A Learning Scenario consists of 7 phases: These 7 phases help you as a teacher to plan and structure your learning activities in advance. The 7 phases are Dream, Explore, Map, Make, Ask, Remake and Show. In the first phase “Dream”, students can brainstorm, think freely and share ideas. In the “Explore” phase, students collect information on a certain topic. In the “Map” phase, they structure their thoughts and ideas and seek to understand how they are related. In the “Make” phase, students develop or create a product or practise an activity. One possible activity for students in the “Ask” phase is to interview experts and stakeholders. In the “Remake” phase students replan or revisit their product, on the basis of the feedback or further information they received. In the last phase “Show”, students publish and present the results of their work.

3.1Assessment for improving collaborative learning

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 16:05:58 UTC

I like the following assessment considerations taken from the CO-LAB assessment guidelines.
"It is crucial that assessment doesn’t discourage learners, but rather strengthens their commitment to learning. Assessment should encourage students to learn collaboratively and not encourage
competition. It should also contribute to a collective conscience promoting the belief that we learn better in groups because we can overcome our difficulties more easily when we help one another."
There are three types of assessment:
a) Formative assessment can help to improve teaching strategies and students’ study because it provides very contextualized feedback both to students individually and to groups, as well as to their teachers.
Simple assessment tools can be used for formative assessment, as long as the goals are clearly defined. It is necessary that those involved realize the importance of the selected assessment tools, and acknowledge their value. Feedback must be immediate, to have direct effect on the learning process, so it’s important to use assessment tools which are easy to build, easy to use and provide easy data analysis.

b) Self-assessment should focus on individuals and their commitment, motivation, engagement in teamwork and their ability to achieve personal goals. Group goals can be formulated using checklists or progress level scales applied over a pre-defined timeline systematically or at particular milestones while carrying out projects or tasks.

c) Finally, Summative assessment aims to provide a formal academic record of students’ learning progress and to establish proficiency levels. Often summative assessment is confined to tests only, which is not fair. If students are requested and expected to engage in group work, develop projects and present results, build blogs or other digital products, then summative assessment should consider these type of “artifacts” as learning outcomes to be assessed.
For summative assessment to consider these learning outcomes, we need to assign a weight to each of them in the final summative assessment, so as to take account of students’ work as a whole. It
may be that you are working in a school which does not integrate these types of learning outcomes into the final assessment. This may indicate a need for change through negotiation with relevant
stakeholders, and crucially ensuring that students are involved in defining the assessment model.

3.2 A sports teacher's experience of assessing collaborative learning

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 16:35:03 UTC

I think that making the students participate in the assessment process, just like the sports teacher did, is really helpful to make them more responsible and eager to collaborate in the activity.

3.3 An ICT teacher’s experience of assessing collaborative learning

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 16:53:51 UTC

I perfectly agree with Antonio when he identifies
the following benefits of collaborative learning assessment:
1 – It is a student-centered process
2 - Promotes students involvement in the assessment tasks
3 – Promotes students responsibility and motivation towards the learning process
4 – Promotes self-reflection and students argumentation
5 - Students can learn socially from each other
6 – Promotes digital literacy through the use of digital web 2.0 applications
7 – Promotes development of 21st century skills and competences

3.4 Collaborative learning and student peer reviews

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 17:06:08 UTC

https://youtu.be/Y495vnlX6aY

3.5 How can you assess collaborative learning?

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 17:16:14 UTC

All teachers neeed these guidelines:
http://www.europeanschoolnetacademy.eu/documents/10180/0/CO-LAB+Guidelines+for+Assessing+Collaboration/0c5184cb-3650-48f0-bfe0-51434fe39d80

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 17:18:41 UTC

3.6 Answers to teachers’ questions on assessing collaborative learning
I've never used peer assessment before, but I really liked prof Valente's opinions. I've been implementing collaborative learning for a brief period of time and I'm really glad to deepen all the assessment aspects. I believe that self-assessment and peer one give students the opportunity to better understand the goals of their activities.

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 17:21:39 UTC

4.1 A primary school teacher’s experience of teacher collaboration
I like this teaching model and I would like to try it in my school too, even if I teach in a secondary school where this kind of co-teaching is not implemented. My idea is collaborating with the support teacher thus involving her in the whole class activities, sharing her professionality and making her feel teacher of the class and not only of the students with special needs. Nevertheless students will consider her and the student integrating part of the class..

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 17:24:27 UTC

4.2 A secondary teacher’s experience of teacher collaboration
I really appreciate Reyhan's great enthusiasm to collaborate with other teachers from around the world. In this period of my professional life, that is after 25 years of teaching, I feel particularly enthusiastic in exploring new teaching models and as a teacher of English, collaboration with other teachers from around the world is a great opportunity I would like to share.

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 17:27:16 UTC

4.3 The benefits and challenges of teacher collaboration
As Professor Butler underlines, through teachers' collaboration "you can design really deep meaningful, authentic learning
environments that move beyond the classroom." Furthermore "you yourself then become an effective
modeller of collaboration." In my own experience I started collaborating with my American cousin who teaches Italian to American students. We decided to create teaching units sharing materials and made our students exchange letters. We still collaborate and our students are really enthusiastic. However nowadays there are great opportunities for teachers to collaborate and share experiences.

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 17:32:12 UTC

4.4 Skills and conditions needed for teacher collaboration
Teacher's collaboration is really important even if difficult to reach at a large scale. Increasingly we are planning learning units which involve the participation of more subjects inside the curriculum. The only place where we have discussed the implementation of the learning unit so far, has been the consiglio di classe at the beginning of the school year. It seems that most teachers are skeptical about this new kind of teaching approach but I think that it could be really motivating for our students. Last year I attended a course based on the construction of collaborative learning units through a digital tool, called curriculum mapping which I found very useful for sharing information but above all for analysing the goals each subject pursued for the realization of the final project inside each classroom. I invited my colleagues into the platform and even if very slowly we started collaborating to construct our learning units It's just the beginning of a new slow process which I hope can represent the first step of a greater collaboration.

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 17:34:36 UTC

4.5 How technology can facilitate teacher collaboration
As I wrote in the previous post, one digital tool I found really useful is Curriculum mapping, a platform where you can share your own teaching units and analyse those of other teachers from other schools. I'm also exploring new opportunities, but there are so many and I'm so enthusiastic that I'm spending too much time on the net!! The risk is of course the overengagement, so I'm trying to proceed little by little deepening each one at a time. And now It's the turn of this interesting mooc which I hope I'll complete, differently from the others I couldn't accomplish.

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 17:38:32 UTC

4.6 Irish teachers’ reflections on teacher collaboration
Teacher collaboration is really useful, since it gives you the opportunity to compare with other teachers, to find out new materials, to build new teaching units together and makes teaching really motivating and continuously innovative. I've just entered a new phase of my teaching experience which is characterized by a continuous will to deepen new teaching strategies through the new technological tools and comparing with other teachers.

And finally...my teaching plan!!!

rosalba1963 — 2017-10-31 17:47:00 UTC

https://v.gd/iPJyCL

I'm so glad I've finished this interesting course which gave me the opportunity to enrich and improve my teaching skills!! Thanks to

the European Schoolnet Academy

Elsa Ramos, Portugal

rosalba1963 — 2019-01-26 19:49:14 UTC

It’s all about motivation. The kids need to be interested in learning process. But in this moments, all the information goes to them by the new technology.

To motivate, I try to give skills and tools to increase experiences to learn.

Sometimes, I use mobile phone to search for information. They are able to use that. They know how to use. They can create and produce information with digital media.

In my classroom, the tables are not in traditional way. They are sit by groups. They can made work groups. They can discuss, because I try to use often the project method: 1- Problem, 2-Research, 3-Project, 4- realization,5-Evaluation. They ask questions, they use creativity, they create and they develop critical thinking.

We must listen our students, to know what they want to learn,