Video conferencing capabilities through FaceTime® and other apps allow

students to connect with people throughout the global learning community,

 “For example, if a student is conducting a scientific report,” she

notes, “the student might reach out and conduct a short interview with a

scientist.”

2. Make every instructional minute count.

Educators can use tablets to maximize instruction during potentially wasted

transitions, such as those last five minutes before lunch,

Teachers and administrators can increase learning time by encouraging

students to use the devices to study on their own. Students might choose to

read, practice grammar or math skills, or use educational apps, she suggests.

3. Incorporate tablets into learning areas.

The size and durability of these tablets make them ideal devices for younger

students to use while rotating through their learning groups,

While the teacher is sitting with a small reading group, for example, other

students can deepen their comprehension of specific concepts by using

tablet devices strategically located at learning areas elsewhere in the

classroom. They might work collaboratively on an activity, such as creating a

mind map, or play an educational game together or independently.

4. Create opportunities for students to generate content.

“Tablets really offer endless options in terms of content creation,” . Making

original content is perfect for project-based learning, , pointing

out that students can use the camera on the device to capture images and

videos, and the writing capabilities to create various projects. The device’s

video-mirroring capabilities even allow students to project their work on a

screen, large monitor or interactive whiteboard.

5. Use it as an adaptive technology tool.

Multiple touch functions combined with various apps allow educators

to tailor instruction for students with special needs or language barriers.

Some special needs students, especially those with autism, seem to better

demonstrate their comprehension through various writing-translation apps,

 while non-English-speaking students and their instructors

can communicate better using visual aids as translators.

Tablets are appealing to educators and it’s easy to see why. They’re portable, powerful, connected, colorful, interactive—and kids think they’re cool.

Tablets contain cameras for taking pictures of science projects, video players for watching movies, and apps that allow students to look at 3D models. They play music for humanities classes and voice-overs for language learners. And of course, they offer email and the internet so students can communicate with far-flung experts.

Tablets are less expensive than computers and students can carry them easily from class to class. They carry infinitely more information than a stack of text books—information that doesn’t go out of date—and they weigh a whole lot less.

Students with tablets are no longer tethered to computer labs, and they can’t hide behind a big box to avoid attention from their teachers. They let children move forward with lessons, or review, at their own pace.

As versatile as tablets are for learning, educators are still in the infancy stage of integrating them into their academic curricula. The most important challenges include;

a- Inefficiency of teachers using tablets

b- They are expensive and it will be expensive to upgrade

c- The input may not be enough or suitable

d-Monitoring students might be difficult, requires rules and protocols to be taken

e- Technical challenges

f- How to find the right apps

g-Pedagogical challenges

1. Kids Will Break The (Very Expensive) Tablets

2. When It Comes to Education, The Operating System Matters – a Lot!

3. Children Will Be Online ALL The Time

4. The Battery Will Run Out in An Hour

5. Why On Earth Do Kids Need a “Multi-Media Experience” for Learning?

6. Kids Will Be Able to Access Unsuitable Websites and Apps, and I Can’t Stop Them!

7. With So Many Apps, I Won’t Know Which Ones to Download for School

8. I’m Worried About The Tablets Being a Target for Thieves. Is Children Safety at Risk?

9. Won’t Cyber-Bullying or Approaches by Strange People Increase With Tablet Usage?

10. I really Don’t Want Kids to Lose the Ability to Read a Book, or To Handwrite

11. How can I improve my skills using tablets efficiently

Group work in the classroom: types of small groups

One way to change the pace in your classroom is to do a small group activity. But what type of small group should you use? It depends on the size of your class, the length of time you have available, the physical features of the classroom, and the nature of the group task. Here are several options you could try. Consult the Centre for Teaching Excellence teaching tip “Group Work in the Classroom: Small-Group Tasks” for task ideas.

Buzz groups

• Class size: any
• Time frame: 3-10 minutes
• Setting: no limitations
• Purpose: generate ideas/answers, re-stimulate student interest, gauge student understanding

Description: These groups involve students engaging in short, informal discussions, often in response to a particular sentence starter or question. At a transitional moment in the class, have students turn to 1-3 neighbours to discuss any difficulties in understanding, answer a prepared question, define or give examples of key concepts, or speculate on what will happen next in the class. The best discussions are those in which students make judgments regarding the relative merits, relevance, or usefulness of an aspect of the lecture (Brookfield & Preskill, 1999). Sample questions include, “What’s the most contentious statement you’ve heard so far in the lecture today?” or “What’s the most unsupported assertion you’ve heard in the lecture today?” Reconvene as a class and have a general discussion in which students share ideas or questions that arose within their subgroups.

Comments: This method is very flexible: it is easy to implement in any size of class and in most classrooms, even the most formally arranged lecture hall. Consider how to regain the attention of a large group: turning the lights off and on is one simple yet effective method.

Think-pair-share

• Class size: any
• Time frame: 5-10 minutes
• Setting: no limitations
• Purpose: generate ideas, increase students’ confidence in their answers, encourage broad participation in plenary session

Description: This strategy has three steps. First, students think individually about a particular question or scenario. Then they pair up to discuss and compare their ideas. Finally, they are given the chance to share their ideas in a large class discussion.

Comments: Think-pair-sharing forces all students to attempt an initial response to the question, which they can then clarify and expand as they collaborate. It also gives them a chance to validate their ideas in a small group before mentioning them to the large group, which may help shy students feel more confident participating.

Circle of Voices

• Class size: any
• Time frame: 10-20 minutes
• Setting: moveable chairs preferable
• Purpose: generate ideas, develop listening skills, have all students participate, equalize learning environment

Description: This method involves students taking turns to speak. Students form circles of four or five. Give students a topic, and allow them a few minutes to organize their thoughts about it. Then the discussion begins, with each student having up to three minutes (or choose a different length) of uninterrupted time to speak. During this time, no one else is allowed to say anything. After everyone has spoken once, open the floor within the subgroup for general discussion. Specify that students should only build on what someone else has said, not on their own ideas; also, at this point, they should not introduce new ideas (Brookfield & Preskill, 1999).

Comments: Some shy students might feel uncomfortable having to speak. Lessen their fear by making the topic specific and relevant or by giving each person a relevant quote to speak about. A variation to this method, which encourages students to listen more carefully to each other, involves requiring each person to begin by paraphrasing the comments of the previous student or by showing how his or her remarks relate to those of the previous student. For this variation, students will need less preparation time before the “circle” begins, but they may need more time between speakers.

Rotating trios

• Class size: 15-30
• Time frame: 10 or more minutes
• Setting: a fair bit of space, moveable seating helpful (they could stand) Purpose: introduce students to many of their peers, generate ideas

Description: This strategy involves students discussing issues with many of their fellow classmates in turn. Beforehand, prepare discussion questions. In class, students form trios, with the groups arranged in a large circle or square formation. Give the students a question and suggest that each person take a turn answering. After a suitable time period, ask the trios to assign a 0, 1, or 2 to each of its members. Then direct the #1s to rotate one trio clockwise, the #2s to rotate two trios clockwise, and the #0s to remain in the same place; the result will be completely new trios. Now introduce a new, slightly more difficult question. Rotate trios and introduce new questions as many times as you would like (Silberman, 1996).

Comments: This type of group can be arranged with pairs or foursomes and works well with most subject matter, including computational questions. It would be difficult to implement in a large class, however.

Snowball groups/pyramids

• Class size: 12-50
• Time frame: 15-20 minutes, depending on how many times the groups “snowball”
• Setting: moveable seating required
• Purpose: generate well-vetted ideas, narrow a topic, develop decision-making skills

Description: This method involves progressive doubling: students first work alone, then in pairs, then in fours, and so on. In most cases, after working in fours, students come together for a plenary session in which their conclusions or solutions are pooled. Provide a sequence of increasingly complex tasks so that students do not become bored with repeated discussion at multiple stages. For example, have students record a few questions that relate to the class topic. In pairs, students try to answer one another’s questions. Pairs join together to make fours and identify, depending on the topic, either unanswered questions or areas of controversy or relevant principles based on their previous discussions. Back in the large class group, one representative from each group reports the group’s conclusions (Habeshaw et al, 1984; Jaques, 2000).

Comments: This method takes time to unfold, so should be used only when the concepts under discussion warrant the time. Also, depending on the amount of time allotted, students may feel that certain nuances of their discussions are lost.

Jigsaw

• Class size: 10-50
• Time frame: 20 or more minutes
• Setting: moveable seating required, a lot of space preferable
• Purpose: learn concepts in-depth, develop teamwork, have students teaching students

Description: This strategy involves students becoming “experts” on one aspect of a topic, then sharing their expertise with others. Divide a topic into a few constitutive parts (“puzzle pieces”). Form subgroups of 3-5 and assign each subgroup a different “piece” of the topic (or, if the class is large, assign two or more subgroups to each subtopic). Each group’s task is to develop expertise on its particular subtopic by brainstorming, developing ideas, and if time permits, researching. Once students have become experts on a particular subtopic, shuffle the groups so that the members of each new group have a different area of expertise. Students then take turns sharing their expertise with the other group members, thereby creating a completed “puzzle” of knowledge about the main topic (see Silberman, 1996). A convenient way to assign different areas of expertise is to distribute handouts of different colours. For the first stage of the group work, groups are composed of students with the same colour of handout; for the second stage, each member of the newly formed groups must have a different colour of handout.

Comments: The jigsaw helps to avoid tiresome plenary sessions, because most of the information is shared in small groups. This method can be expanded by having students develop expertise about their subtopics first through independent research outside of class. Then, when they meet with those who have the same subtopic, they can clarify and expand on their expertise before moving to a new group. One potential drawback is that students hear only one group’s expertise on a particular topic and don’t benefit as much from the insight of the whole class; to address this issue, you could collect a written record of each group’s work and create a master document—a truly complete puzzle—on the topic.

Fishbowl

• Class size: 10-50
• Time frame: 15 or more minutes
• Setting: moveable seating and a lot of space preferable; if necessary, have inner group stand/sit at front of lecture hall and the outer group sit in regular lecture hall seats
• Purpose: observe group interaction, provide real illustrations for concepts, provide opportunity for analysis

Description: This method involves one group observing another group. The first group forms a circle and either discusses an issue or topic, does a role play, or performs a brief drama. The second group forms a circle around the inner group. Depending on the inner group’s task and the context of your course, the outer group can look for themes, patterns, soundness of argument, etc., in the inner group’s discussion, analyze the inner group’s functioning as a group, or simply watch and comment on the role play. Debrief with both groups at the end in a plenary to capture their experiences. See Jaques (2000) for several variations on this technique.

Comments: Be aware that the outer group members can become bored if their task is not challenging enough. You could have groups switch places and roles to help with this. Also note that the inner group could feel inhibited by the observers; mitigate this concern by asking for volunteers to participate in the inner circle or by specifying that each student will have a chance to be both inner and outer group members. Although this method is easiest to implement in small classes, you could also expand it so that multiple “fishbowls” are occurring at once.

Learning teams

• Class size: any
• Time frame: any
• Setting: no limitations
• Purpose: foster relationships among students, increase confidence in participating

Description: For this type of group, students are divided into groups at the beginning of the term. When you want to incorporate small group discussion or teamwork into your class, you direct the students to get into these term-long learning groups. Groups of four work well, because each foursome can be subdivided into pairs, depending on the activity.

Comments: Students get to know a small number of their classmates well over the course of the term, and may come to see their team mates as study partners even outside the classroom. Using learning teams eliminates the time it takes to organize students into groups each time you wish to use group work. However, because students will be working with each other over an extended time period, be very careful about how you assign them to groups. Have students submit data cards about themselves at the beginning of term, possibly even completing a short personality inventory. You might want to ask them also to suggest the names of two or three classmates with whom they would and would not like to work.

Group work requires planning

Like most things, group work will run a lot more smoothly if you’re fully prepared.  Group work is quite different to individual or paired working and should be specifically prepared or adapted from existing tasks.  Without proper preparation, group work can be a very disengaging experience for pupils who may not become fully involved with the task in hand.

Think outside the box

Working with groups is a great opportunity to think beyond the usual limits you face within a lesson.  An effective group is able to work together to achieve a lot more than an individual and has a pool of skills and ideas to draw on.  Use this to your advantage by setting especially creative or challenging group tasks.  You’ll find your pupils flourish when faced with a challenging activity that’s achievable if they work together.

Consider group dynamics

It is wise to think about who will make up each group before the lesson.  Allowing pupils to create their own groups can be very effective insofar as pupils may be more motivated to work together when grouped with their friends but this can prevent the mix of skills, personality types and abilities that can make group work really flourish.  So think carefully about whether you want to pre-determine your groups or allow your pupils to group themselves.

Use rewards and competition with care

Introducing an element of competition or reward for the best group can be very motivating for pupils.  However, take care if you decide to go down this route that your groups are evenly matched and therefore all have  a fair chance of winning – pupils will know from the offset if they’re in a group that’s ‘doomed to fail’ and this will demotivate them.  Also be careful that your task is not set up in such a way that you could have a clear ‘runaway winner’ before the task is completed.  Otherwise other groups may become disengaged with the task and not finish it to the best of their abilities.

Establish ground rules for behaviour

Behaviour can be a challenge when working in groups as everyone talks louder and louder to make themselves heard above their own group and those working around them.  It is especially important to re-establish your ground rules for behaviour at the beginning of lessons involving group work and to reinforce these throughout the lesson to ensure that the excitement and noise does prevent pupils working as effectively as they can.

Set and share clear objectives

As with every lesson, it’s important when working with groups to have a clear idea of the aims and objectives of the lesson or task.  Ensure that pupils are fully aware of these objectives.  You can put a spin on this with older / more able groups by enabling them to develop a mission statement or similar for their group.  This sense of ownership of the task can often be a great motivator.

Allow some freedom

Remain open-minded about the best way to complete the task in hand.  Group work situations naturally give rise to brain-storming and idea sharing and sometimes, as a teacher, you will learn a lot about how your pupils will best learn by taking a slightly back seat and observing the learning process as it happens before you.  Pupils may well come up with new ways of approaching things that you’d not considered before.  If it’s practical, allow them the freedom to explore their new methods and support them if appropriate.

Let your learners become teachers

Within every group pupils will have different strengths.  Encourage pupils to play to their strengths and teach their peers about areas which they are particularly comfortable with.  Taking on the role of teacher is not only empowering for the individual but it is a great way to embed learning both for the pupil-teacher and the rest of the group who may be hearing things from a fresh perspective.

Track progress but be flexible

Time tends to run away when you’re working in groups and it can be only too easy to reach the end of the lesson and find you’ve only got half as far as you’d hoped to.  In your planning define how far you’ll need to have got by various points in the lesson so you can ensure that the tasks are on track.  However, don’t be afraid to change your plans if you find that pupils are getting more out of a particular activity than you might have expected, don’t stop simply because your plan says it’s time to move on.  Just take stock and briefly re-plan how you hope to use the rest of the lesson.  It’s important to be flexible, especially if it means pupils can continue to engage in a particularly valuable activity.

Celebrate success

Group work often has the benefit of producing a fairly tangible result or product.  Take time to share every group’s work with the rest of the class and be sure to celebrate what has been achieved and learned.  Often with group work we’re so pushed for time that this step is skipped altogether.  If you don’t’ have time at the end of the lesson, build in a review of group work as the starter of your next lesson.  This can be a very positive way to start a lesson and an excellent way of embedding the learning that happened during the group work

Getting the assessment right is critical. Decisions about how  to structure the assessment of group work need to be focussed  around four factors:

1. whether what is to be assessed is the product  of the group work, the process of the group work, or both (and  if the latter, what proportion of each)
2. what criteria will be used to assess the aspect(s)  of group work of interest (and who will determine this criteria  - lecturer, students or both)
3. who will apply the assessment

1. Product, process or both?

Many staff believe there is a need to assess the processes within  groups as well as the products or outcomes - but what, exactly,  'process' means must be explicit and transparent for students.  For example, if a staff member wants to assess 'the level of interaction',  how might a conscientious student ensure they reach 'an outstanding'  level? What is 'an outstanding' level?

The example above raises the question of how a staff member can  confidently know the level of interaction that has taken place.  Staff would either have to involve themselves intimately in the  workings of each group or rely on student self- or peer-assessment. 

Less often, assessment is focused solely on the product of group  work: 'I don't care what they do in their groups - they're adults.  All I'm interested in is the final product - how they arrive at  it is their business'.

Most commonly, there is an interest in both the process and product  of group work and the decision becomes 'What proportion of assessment  will focus on each?'

2. What criteria and who says so?

Criteria for the assessment of group work can be determined by  staff, students or through consultation between the two. Groups  are most successful when students are involved in establishing  their own criteria for assessment through consultation with teaching  staff. These criteria are then used to assess and grade the group  work.

A clear understanding of the intended learning outcomes of the  subject in which the group work occurs is a useful starting point  for determining criteria for assessment of the group work itself.  Once these broader learning requirements are understood, a consideration  of how the group task, and criteria for assessment of that task,  fit into those broad requirements can then follow.

It is easier to establish criteria separately for the process  and product of group work than to attempt to do both at once.  The generation of criteria for the assessment of products of group  work is relatively straightforward given the similarity between  these and individual assessment submissions (products) in other  contexts. Criteria for process, as appropriate to the subject  and group work objectives, may include, for example:

• regular meeting attendance
• equity of contribution
• evidence of cooperative behaviour
• appropriate time and task management
• application of creative problem solving
• use of a range of working methods
• appropriate level of engagement with task
• development of professional competencies
• evidence of capacity to listen
• responsiveness to feedback/criticism.

3. Who is the assessor - lecturer, student or both?

and

4. Who gets the marks - individuals or the group?

Assessment and grading practices have a central role in optimising  the quality of group interaction and more generally in directing  student learning in group work. In a wide ranging interview about  group assessment, students were asked if they could change one  thing about this experience, what it would be. One 3rd year student  said 'I would get the lecturers to clearly outline their expectations  so that we know what amount of work and effort will get what mark'.  Another said, 'I would make marking of group work consistent'.

 

1. Flexible, Anytime, Everywhere Learning
2. Redefine Teacher Role and Expand "Teacher"
3. Project-Based, Authentic Learning
4. Student-Driven Learning Path
5. Mastery/Competency-Based Progression/Pace

The notion of a flipped classroom draws on such concepts as active learning, student engagement, hybrid course design, and course podcasting. The value of a flipped class is in the repurposing of class time into a workshop where students can inquire about lecture content, test their skills in applying knowledge, and interact with one another in hands-on activities. During class sessions, instructors function as coaches or advisors, encouraging students in individual inquiry and collaborative effort.

The flipped classroom is an easy model to get wrong. Although the idea is straightforward, an effective flip requires careful preparation. Recording lectures requires effort and time on the part of faculty, and out-of-class and in-class elements must be carefully integrated for students to understand the model and be motivated to prepare for class. As a result, introducing a flip can mean additional work and may require new skills for the instructor, although this learning curve could be mitigated by entering the model slowly.

Students, for their part, have been known to complain about the loss of face-to-face lectures, particularly if they feel the assigned video lectures are available to anyone online. Students with this perspective may not immediately appreciate the value of the hands-on portion of the model, wondering what their tuition brings them that they could not have gotten by surfing the web. Those who see themselves as attending class to hear lectures may feel it is safe to skip a class that focuses on activities and might miss the real value of the flip. Finally, even where students embrace the model, their equipment and access might not always support rapid delivery of video.

The flipped classroom constitutes a role change for instructors, who give up their front-of-the-class position in favor of a more collaborative and cooperative contribution to the teaching process. There is a concomitant change in the role of students, many of whom are used to being cast as passive participants in the education process, where instruction is served to them. The flipped model puts more of the responsibility for learning on the shoulders of students while giving them greater impetus to experiment. Activities can be student-led, and communication among students can become the determining dynamic of a session devoted to learning through hands-on work. What the flip does particularly well is to bring about a distinctive shift in priorities— from merely covering material to working toward mastery of it.