The Pedagogy of Collaboration

An Investigative Project

For Academic Technology

Quinnipiac University4/14/08

A Few Collaborative Activities• Writing process

• Peer review• Peer editing• Problem solving• Project

completion• Presentations• Discussion• Pair and share• Interview

• Performance• Production• Evaluation• Teaching• Learning• Inquiry• Community

building• Investigation• Making

knowledge

Performance

Discussion

The Collaborative Disposition

• Hospitality• Participation• Mindfulness• Humility• Mutuality• Deliberation• Appreciation• Hope• Autonomy

Hospitality

Participation

Mindfulness

How Do We Foster

Mindfulness?

Humility

Humility

Mutuality

“No welding, brazing or other "glue" holds the pieces together, just the springiness of the steel. The assembly's coherence relies on the mutual support of the parts.” George Hart, sculptor www.georgehart.com/sculpture/mutual-support.html

Deliberation

Appreciation

Hope

Autono m

y

Autonomy Autono

myymonotuAAutonomy

Auton

om

yAutonomy

Autonomy

Autonom y

Auton

o

my

Autonomy

Autonomy

Autonomy

Autonomy

Au

ton

om

y

PRIORITIESWhat

Comes First?Or is it who?

1.

PEDAGOGYIt doesn’t rhyme with bogey.

Desired Outcomes

• Cognitive Outcomes– What do I want student

to know/understand at the end of the course?

• Affective Outcomes– What habits/attitudes

do I want students to have at the end of the course?

Compare• This is now!–What I do now, how I do it, why I do it this

way• Advantages to current method in terms of

outcomes• Disadvantages to current method

• Wish list–What would address the disadvantages

above?• Advantages to change• Disadvantages to change

In “Content Management Briefing” at www.steptwo.com.au, James Robertson writes:

“There is no one-size-fits-all solution for collaboration needs within an organization. Individual teams … will have very different behaviors and requirements, and this must be reflected in the collaboration tools that are put in place. “To fully meet an organisation’s collaboration needs, a ‘portfolio’ approach, should be taken. This involves providing a range of supported tools and allowing each area to pick the functionality that they require.”

Various Models

The Money Que$tion

Have I exploited available

collaborative opportunitie$ to the

be$t advantage?

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I don’t know whether or not I have exploited available options or not.–Tools in Blackboard–Tools in Office–Other tools

2. Technologya) While pedagogy comes first, sometimes a tool

is useful as in the case of Blackboard to research a pedagogy and examine the practicality of expanding the size of a group between classes and to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the technology we already have in place.

i. We already own Blackboard.ii. It has been tested in terms of what it can do. It

protects document integrity and allows exchange of files and collaboration on documents.

iii. We will find out whether it will be useful for large numbers of students and faculty in a common Blackboard project.

Collaboration Tools in Blackboard

• First it is important to decide what kind of collaboration tool you have in place and the limitations of that tool in support of your pedagogy. Blackboard has several possibilities:– Groups– Blogs–Wikis– Discussion Board

Groups

• Groups afford a space where a select number of students can exchange files, email each other, discuss a topic. This tool is useful for:– Small group discussions– Peer editing– Document collaboration– Collaborative study space– Group assignment work– Student presentation planning

Group Structures

• Groups can be any size– The purpose of the group can determine

its size– Smaller groups great to start, larger

groups for later

Blogs

• Blogs afford a space where a select number of students can exchange files, edit their documents, comment on each other’s posts, and thereby discuss a topic. This tool is useful for:– Discussion especially in an F2F environment– Feedback/Peer review– Creating habits transferrable to F2F

discussion– Problem solving/posing

Wikis• Wikis afford a collaborative space

where a select number of students can create Web pages related to a single site, edit their documents, comment on each other’s posts. This tool is useful for:– Creating a space where each student has

his/her own space that is related to other spaces within a common theme.

– Developing multimedia presentation projects

– Collaborating on themed projects

Discussion Board