Virtual Collaboration

As technological advances have opened up the lines of international communication, global, national, and local collaboration have increased drastically. With this increase in collaboration, it is necessary that students learn how to appropriately and successfully collaborate with others online. Three teachers in Joppa, Maryland piloted an online collaborative learning project series between different classes at different schools within their district. Barbara Boksz, one of the teachers on the frontier of online collaborative learning, wrote about this project series in an article entitled Honing the Skill of Virtual Collaboration. Prior to the start of this project, all students participated in a class discussion on netiquette and appropriate online behavior. In this project eighth grade students from different school cites were placed in virtual groups on Edmodo and asked to do virtual introductions using the applications Paint and Microsoft word. Once student introductions were complete, students were taught how to use the application Scratch to create online games. After students had gone through a step by step tutorial of how to create their game, students began to create their own original game about cybersecurity. When students had finished designing their games, they sent their games to the virtual members of their groups. Each member played each of the original games and then offered feedback to the designer regarding limitations, successes, and future suggestions. In addition, sixth grade students also participated in this virtual collaboration project by completing research projects about computers. After students had been placed in groups, and introductions were made, students used Edmodo to research, and write short excerpts about, different parts of a computer. Students then shared their writing and findings with their group, who voted on which information should be included in their online poster. After collaborating and sharing research, students created virtual posters of their findings. Overall, this virtual collaboration project was very successful and provided students with an opportunity to work closely with others in an online environment. 

While I agree that it is important for students to learn to work collaboratively with others, a project of this scale may not be a realistic expectation for most classrooms. This project required many hours of preparation by the teachers beforehand including meeting on unpaid days. In addition, it required a lot of class time which could limit student exposure to different subject matter. With that being said, I do think that the idea of virtual collaboration could be more easily achieved on a smaller scale, say between two classes at one cite. This would allow teachers to coordinate class schedules for work more efficiently and allow teachers to work more closely together. In order for this type of collaboration to be successful, teachers must be adept at using tools such as Edmodo, Diigo, and Google Drive. If I were to implement this activity into my own classroom, I would have students collaborate more during their research, or video game design, instead of after. I would also have my students use Diigo to share their research and findings as it allows for an efficient sharing of resources. I would have also had students collaborate on a subject outside the field of technology, to connect multiple subject matters with STEM curriculum. 

The use of virtual collaboration in the classroom, meets all NETS-S student standards. Students practiced creativity and innovation by designing video games and posters online (standard 1). In addition they practiced communication and online collaboration through the use of tools like Edmodo (standard 2). Moreover students practiced research information fluency, digital citizenship, and technology operations and concepts. Furthermore, this activity meets all NETS-S teacher standards by inspiring student creativity, growing in professional development, modeling digital age work/learning, promoting proper and safe netiquette, and designing technological learning experiences for students. 

Boksz, Barbara. "Honing the Skill of Virtual Collaboration." Learning & Leading with Technology Apr. 2014: 22-26. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

NETS-S (2014). In ISTE NETS-S Advancing Learning in the Digital Age. Retrieved February 12, 2014