The activity began with an introduction to Applied Digital Skills, a site that has great resources and I plan on using it and sharing it with colleagues this upcoming year. It amazes me everything that is out there for us to use freely! We had to collaborate in a Google Document, then create a slide presentation, after working on it together digitally. In this activity, I had to work with three other classmates who I didn't know at all. It made me feel for my students who are uncomfortable being put in collaborative groupings with people they may not know well or like. Using technology in this capacity helped me to use the device to communicate where I may have been hesitant to share verbally. It was a great learning lesson!
My team created a great interactive story and I had a lot of fun doing it. I see this as encompassing so many different components of collaborative work, especially to be used early in the school year! First of all, it wasn't threatening since the brainstorming activity allowed for lots of ideas to be shared. It was a random activity meant to be funny so anything was really allowed!! Also, there was time for the team members to help each other with the activity and teaching each other was expected and accepted. It was really an all around great way to teach and use collaboration in so many ways, leaving us all with a sense of accomplishment and connectedness.
