Supporting Practice and Production using a Blended Learning Approach

Welcome to Lesson 4 and this week we are focusing on Collaboration.  We will introduce you to concept of Collaboration and why it is deemed an important skill for living and working in the 21^st century.  We have borrowed heavily this week from the Microsoft 21CLD material and we are sharing 3 videos with you from the online course that is available at Microsoft Education Centre.  The videos will provide a context for Collaboration and they will also introduce you to the Big Ideas associated with Collaboration.  The third video shows Collaboration in action in a school setting in Finland where young people are collaborating to present at a school fair.  This week we also had the pleasure of meeting Dr Maria Garvey online for a chat about Collaboration and how we might start developing such a culture in our school, our centre or our programme.  We have also provided you with some links to additional resources that you might find useful in deepening your own understanding of Collaboration and Co-operative Learning.  So we hope you enjoy this week’s lesson.

Activity 1:  Introduction to Collaboration

Activity 2:  The big ideas in collaboration

It is extremely important that we have a shared understanding of what we mean by collaboration and the 21CLD model provides us with a meta language to engage in informed discussions.  This video provides you with an overview of the 4 big ideas that underpin Collaboration.

Activity 3:  Collaboration in Action

So now we are going to visit Paula’s multi-grade classroom in Oulu, Finland, where we are going to see how she designs a unit of work, Studying the Human Being, which puts collaboration into action.  The video is divided in 3 parts:  the first 8 minutes provides you with an overview of the learning activity; the second part of the video asks you to use the Collaboration Rubric to code the level of collaboration you observe and to provide a rationale; the third part of the video highlights the levels of collaboration and you can see if they align with your own observations.  See how you get on.

Activity 4:  Collaboration Discussion with Deirdre and Maria Garvey

This week we are delighted to welcome Dr Maria Garvey to our podcast where we discuss a number of they key principles behind designing collaborative learning environments.  The discussion captures the importance of developing a culture of collaboration within you learning setting and the key role the teacher plays in establishing such a culture.  We learn how important it is to equip our learners with the skillsets that are required in order for them to collaborate and that we need to be patient, as this does not happen overnight.

Activity 5:  Course Forum

Course forum

Having watched the videos and listened to the podcast is there one idea that resonated with you that you could use with your learners now or in the future to promote collaboration.  Please post your thoughts on the forum.