3.7 Communication & Collaboration
Candidates utilize digital communication and collaboration tools to communicate locally and globally with students, parents, peers, and the larger community. (PSC 3.7/ISTE 3g)
ITEC 8500
Collaborative Journal Research
In ITEC 8500, we were tasked with researching current journal articles that corresponded with the theoretical concept we were interested in studying as a small group. We researched popular journals in our field, read and discussed a range of articles the journal of our choice over five years, and made a concept map of the research we accumulated. Our group of three high school teachers formed a PLC that studied the effectiveness of online learning since all three of us were interested in and were currently serving in a role in our school that dealt with online learning. The concept map we made helped us arrange our research into four categories for future reference. We used an online collaboration tool, Canva, to make our map. The assignment helped me to learn a new digital tool and learning activity that I then used in my own classes and recommended to other teachers.
Canva is a communication and collaboration tool that allows me to design support material with colleagues. Although it is possible to research and discuss journal articles about a topic without displaying them visually, the mapping of concepts does help us to index the topics later on. Finding communication tools that allow for collaboration on an idea are powerful for teams when they are trying to design learning for classes. Tools like Canva intensify the effect of collaboration and record-keeping because of the visual functionality.
Although this artifact was created for an assignment in my class, using Canva for this assignment prompted me to seek other collaborative design and management tools to communicate with peers. I found that tools like Lucidpress and Evernote allowed for collaboration functionality that would be impossible without the tools, and I found that other mapping tools like MindMup were supported by our county and were suitable for students to communicate locally with others as they designed concept maps of their own thinking. When I put Lucidpress into use with a school colleague, we were able to create a bookmark for our classes that they could use to structure their reading. The tool allowed us to make changes in real time and to integrate the digital version of our “bookmark” to our LMS. Students found the interactive content engaging, and even when printed out, they enjoyed the foldable bookmark that my colleague and I had created together. Finally, I suggested to my students that they use MindMup or Canva to make a concept map for one of our class activities; they found the collaborative communication with other students fun and motivating.
In creating this artifact, I learned to use a digital tool that I hadn’t learned before, and I used a teaching technique - mind mapping - that I hadn’t used before. So, I learned two new skills that helped me improve as a teacher. Then, I had underestimated the power of visual mapping as a record of thinking and as a way to communicate with peers. But now, I am aware that visual maps tell a story to a group that often goes unsaid. For instance, in our high school PLC for ITEC 8500, I found out that one colleague valued the discussion of underserved populations much more than I did simply by the way he had organized the sizes of the bubbles on the diagram. I did not know this was an interest of his. Then, I noticed that when I worked on LucidPress with my school colleague that she ordered a series of concepts in a different way than I had ever thought to arrange them. Her visual arrangement suggested a different prioritization of learning than I’d thought of, and we went with her thinking. The visual tool allowed us to communicate and collaborate in a way that made a difference to our teaching.
Collaboration tools clearly allow faculty to design in a way that improves the functionality of a team. However, the artifact that I created through this assignment showed me the power of using a visual tool for team prioritization, both in teacher preference and value of concepts we teach. Further, when I suggested that students use it to record their learning, they truly enjoyed the experience. The visual they created showed the relationships between ideas and the hierarchy of importance in their conceptual understanding. They reported that the visuals had been more powerful in helping them to learn than responding in written form or through discussion alone. This year, I have incorporated visual collaboration tools into my everyday use. In my Theory of Knowledge course, where the discussion of abstract ideas is the aim of the class, we use collaborative mind maps to keeptrack of our trains of thought and the research that will help us to retrace the primary sources that were important to the development of our thinking.
Collaborative Journal Research
In ITEC 8500, we were tasked with researching current journal articles that corresponded with the theoretical concept we were interested in studying as a small group. We researched popular journals in our field, read and discussed a range of articles the journal of our choice over five years, and made a concept map of the research we accumulated. Our group of three high school teachers formed a PLC that studied the effectiveness of online learning since all three of us were interested in and were currently serving in a role in our school that dealt with online learning. The concept map we made helped us arrange our research into four categories for future reference. We used an online collaboration tool, Canva, to make our map. The assignment helped me to learn a new digital tool and learning activity that I then used in my own classes and recommended to other teachers.
Canva is a communication and collaboration tool that allows me to design support material with colleagues. Although it is possible to research and discuss journal articles about a topic without displaying them visually, the mapping of concepts does help us to index the topics later on. Finding communication tools that allow for collaboration on an idea are powerful for teams when they are trying to design learning for classes. Tools like Canva intensify the effect of collaboration and record-keeping because of the visual functionality.
Although this artifact was created for an assignment in my class, using Canva for this assignment prompted me to seek other collaborative design and management tools to communicate with peers. I found that tools like Lucidpress and Evernote allowed for collaboration functionality that would be impossible without the tools, and I found that other mapping tools like MindMup were supported by our county and were suitable for students to communicate locally with others as they designed concept maps of their own thinking. When I put Lucidpress into use with a school colleague, we were able to create a bookmark for our classes that they could use to structure their reading. The tool allowed us to make changes in real time and to integrate the digital version of our “bookmark” to our LMS. Students found the interactive content engaging, and even when printed out, they enjoyed the foldable bookmark that my colleague and I had created together. Finally, I suggested to my students that they use MindMup or Canva to make a concept map for one of our class activities; they found the collaborative communication with other students fun and motivating.
In creating this artifact, I learned to use a digital tool that I hadn’t learned before, and I used a teaching technique - mind mapping - that I hadn’t used before. So, I learned two new skills that helped me improve as a teacher. Then, I had underestimated the power of visual mapping as a record of thinking and as a way to communicate with peers. But now, I am aware that visual maps tell a story to a group that often goes unsaid. For instance, in our high school PLC for ITEC 8500, I found out that one colleague valued the discussion of underserved populations much more than I did simply by the way he had organized the sizes of the bubbles on the diagram. I did not know this was an interest of his. Then, I noticed that when I worked on LucidPress with my school colleague that she ordered a series of concepts in a different way than I had ever thought to arrange them. Her visual arrangement suggested a different prioritization of learning than I’d thought of, and we went with her thinking. The visual tool allowed us to communicate and collaborate in a way that made a difference to our teaching.
Collaboration tools clearly allow faculty to design in a way that improves the functionality of a team. However, the artifact that I created through this assignment showed me the power of using a visual tool for team prioritization, both in teacher preference and value of concepts we teach. Further, when I suggested that students use it to record their learning, they truly enjoyed the experience. The visual they created showed the relationships between ideas and the hierarchy of importance in their conceptual understanding. They reported that the visuals had been more powerful in helping them to learn than responding in written form or through discussion alone. This year, I have incorporated visual collaboration tools into my everyday use. In my Theory of Knowledge course, where the discussion of abstract ideas is the aim of the class, we use collaborative mind maps to keeptrack of our trains of thought and the research that will help us to retrace the primary sources that were important to the development of our thinking.