Collaborative Learning

This K12 Online Video entitled Parallel Play or Collaboration–Leveraging the Wiki Platform for High Quality Work was presented by Paula White. Her main questions were: What is collaboration? What is engagement? and How do we combine teaching frameworks? To answer he first question White defined collaboration as a way for students to work together. White related engagement to John Antonetti's learning cube. I found the cube very interesting. It is a clear illustration of aspects that are needed to engage students in the learning process. White's last question about combining teaching frameworks was also very interesting. White believes that Wikis are a powerful classroom collaboration tool when used properly. She mentioned several reasons why. The main reason is that wikis are motivating to students. Students get excited about the prospect of having an audience, someone other than the teacher to read the information. In turn they work harder on the projects. Many of White's students were even willing to work through their breaks! Another main reason was that wikis give the student a way to share their passion. Any time a student is passionate about something they will also work harder on the project, and retain more information from it as well. I felt that White's post was very imformative, and easily applicable to the mainstream classroom. In fact, it helped inspire my decisions for my lesson plan assignment.