Session+7

=Session 7=

=7.1 Collaboration=

Collaboration is the "meeting of the minds" in a beneficial way. Collaboration involves ideas and decision-making happening by more than one person or groups of people to ultimately work towards a common goal.
 * What is collaboration? **

1, Students collaborate in my classroom oftentimes when I assign a group "Do Now" activity. For example, they are expected to come up with a sentence in Spanish using a specified number of vocabulary words given to them on the board.
 * What are 3 ways in which students collaborate in your classroom and are they successful? **

2. Another time that students collaborate in my classroom is when they are presented a particular new idea or concept and I am checking for understanding as a whole class, and I ask them to work with a partner to reteach the new idea to the class. They first must prepare together with their partner to ultimately present the new concept to the class in a unique way.

3. Another time the students collaborate in my classroom is when we are writing a story together as a whole class. I am the "scribe" at the board or at the computer, and the students are giving me ideas to write a story, based on that lesson's vocabulary and they are building on one another's ideas and suggestions to come up with bigger and better ideas for the story, completely student-written.

I would like to think they are successful when they are asked to collaborate. With proper planning and preparation of choosing the teams and partners for each activity, I feel as if I can extract a lot from the students. It does take a lot of observation of the students to see who works well with whom, but I do believe they are as strong as their weakest link and oftentimes, if the reference is made towards a student, that "weakest link" can be built up by the rest of the group and he then in turn may shine!!

=7.2 Video Response=

As we have learned, Project Based Learning is one way for students to gain a deeper understanding of an idea. The ability the students have to really look at a situation and apply it to his own life will allow the students to appreciate it more and call it his own. PBL can be achieved through various methods including technology. The breadth, or the broad range of experience in the word, can also be achieved through technology. The traditional textbook has allowed many of us today to get where we are, but imagine how much further the students of today can go with all they have at their fingertips. Social networking sites, video chat, skype, and youtube to only name a few, have allowed the students of today to see and hear things we couldn't even imagine just a few short years ago. Just thinking about how much they have at their fingertips really gives me goosebumps!
 * How can expanded use of technology help develop depth and breadth for our students?**

Cooperating is allowing each other to not get in one another's way. I think of the PowerPoint presentation that my husband had to "collaboratively" work on with his group of classmates for a Health and Wellness class last semester for an undergraduate course. He basically made three slides toward the presentation as his other three team members did the same, at their discretion, in the privacy of their own homes, with the aid of no one. They they put all the slides together to make a twelve page presentation and out of no one's fault of his or her own (only perhaps the instructor), they truly believed that they worked together to formulate this "group presentation".
 * What is the difference between cooperation and collaboration?**

Collaborating is amplifying the situation. Taking the work done by one member and understanding it (and if it's not understood, having the ability to communicate about it in such a way that understanding could be acheived) accepting the work, accepting the offer to add to the work to make it bigger. The ability to not make judgement about work but rather accept the work and think of how it can be expanded upon.

As above mentioned, collaborating includes having a very open ear. An open, nonjudgemental ear that is willing to listen and try to add to that idea. It's a skill that is taught and must be observed and practiced. This could pose as a challenge to really motivate those students whom quite possibly may not be self-motivated to do the work required to collaborate. It's easier to cooperate than collaborate. Cooperate is much more passive. Collaborate really means getting your hands dirty, learning about what others think and taking that and going with it. I see this as a challenge. The installation of motivation of collaboration will be a challenge to overcome, however, not an obstacle. :)
 * What are the challenges in getting students to collaborate rather than just cooperating?**

=7.3 Voicethread Definition=

Voicethread is an online communication tool that allows users to upload audio, images, video or text to create an audio or text narrative to accompany the video or images. Online users can comment on your Voicethread by leaving an audio, text or video feedback. This feedback is stored around the circumference of the posted video or image in an organized manner for all users to see. I feel as if this tool could be very beneficial for my students in a variety of ways. It could be a an activity where I give the students a prompt such as an image and they have to describe the image in Spanish by either texting an answer or recording their voice response. It could be a short video clip with audio in Spanish and they have to text what they heard or a written account where the students are required to record themselves reading the excerpt. It could also be used as a partner activity where a conversation is displayed for the students and they are expected to perform the conversation and record it into the VoiceThread. These are just a few ways that I can now think to utilize VoiceThread.

=7.4 Immigration Voicethread=

There are positives I can see with Voicethread through this immigration activity. I like how the students are able to listen and watch each others' responses to the prompt as soon as they are posted to Voicethread. If anything was the least bit questioned or doubted, having access to the other responses could be used to clarify. Students are not only expected to be thorough and concise with their answers, but also, they are responding "on stage" so it is going to be seen and heard by all the classmates in the class, forcing them to (hopefully) give it their very best effort.

=7.5 Voicethread in the Classroom=

I really, really liked participating in this Voicethread. I liked how I had three different and "ready" options to contribute. Although I don't have a webcam nor do I have a microphone with my computer, I utilized the call feature and that was pretty cool. I entered my phone number and Voicethread called me within seconds of me submitting my phone number. It gave me three minutes to record my voice response. I however ran out of minutes after my second cartoon. It told me it saved my response. I'm not really quite sure how long it gets saved.

I like how it had that option for the phonecall because I know a lot of students will not have microphones with their home computers. Homework assignments can be done at the library, at the computer lab at the school or at home. Students don't really have the excuse that they couldn't find their homework, they lost it, or it was boring!! I love it. I really do. I can't say enough good about it. Through utilization in my classroom, I think I would have better opportunity to tell of it's flaws.