Session+7

**__Session Seven__**

**7.1: Collaboration**

//1) What is collaboration? // //﻿Collaboration is, quite literally, working together, presumably toward some sort of objective. //

//2) What are three ways in which students collaborate in your classroom, and are they successful? // Sometimes, students in my classroom pair up for question and answer activities involving material being studied in class. They also collaborate when we do jigsaw activities for reading comprehension as well as when we do group writing projects where each person contributes ideas and sentences to create a story or a skit. I would say that these activities are generally successful. When students pair up, they generally do follow through on what they are supposed to do. The same is true for small group jigsaw activities and collaborative writing exercises. I do think, however, that many students struggle with comprehension of directions. This can derail any activity, but I feel like collaborative work is particularly vulnerable because it requires multiple steps and therefore presents multiple opportunities to veer off course.

**7.2: Video Response**

//1) How can expanded use of technology help develop depth and breadth for our students? // ﻿﻿I think the key word to consider here is exposure. If students are exposed to a wide array of subjects as part of their learning experience, they will be more likely to find something about which they are passionate, allowing for potential development of depth, while still gaining a broad albeit less profound knowledge about many other topics. This combination, as Nelson says, is a key to success. //2) What is the difference between cooperation and collaboration? // Cooperation as Nelson describes it is a more isolated, non-confrontational way of working together but not necessarily working in harmonious concert. Different elements of a larger effort might be taken on by different people, but the work of one person is not necessarily dependent upon the successful outcome of someone else's work. Collaboration, on the other hand, is a situation where the sum of the work is greater than its parts. Nelson describes it as a sort of "amplification", where individuals bring separate depths to a situation and are as willing to learn from their colleagues (indicative of their breadth) as they are willing to share their own expertise to help others. //3) What are the challenges in getting students to collaborate rather than just cooperating? // I think the greatest challenges are helping students to recognize and nurture their own talents and providing them with appropriate modeling of what a collaborative effort looks like. The latter may be an even greater challenge than the former, especially because societal and familiar norms seem often trend away from this ideal model.


 * 7.3: Voicethread Definition **

//What is Voicethread? // <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Voicethread is a tool which allows multiple users to comment on and interact around media through text, audio and video presentations. I think that it could be a useful tool in the foreign language classroom to get students to prepare interpersonal speaking presentations and to interact around topics being discussed in class in a non-threatening way. I could also see it as being useful in the creation of speaking portfolios for students.


 * <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">7.4: Immigration Voicethread **

//__<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">﻿+ / ∆ __//

+: <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">* This tool seems to allow a space for all students - regardless of how shy they might be - to comment on a subject being studied and to build off one another's ideas. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">* I really like how this tool allows for collaboration and interaction outside of the classroom. I think it could be great for students in different cities, states or countries to connect and learn from one another through pre-arranged collaborative activities and exercises.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">∆: <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">* Not all students' voices were audible. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">* Not all of the frames were interactive. This made the presentation a bit confusing for me because I kept expecting to hear an audio prompt, but instead, I heard student responses to a text prompt.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**7.5: Voicethread in the Classroom**

media type="custom" key="10143445" <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">I can definitely see myself using Voicethread with my classes. I think it would be useful at all levels for inspiring communication from all students and for allowing them to generate responses at their own pace. This would be especially valuable for quieter, more reserved students. I also think that Voicethread could come in handy for my more advanced students, particularly as they work to prepare for the interpersonal speaking portion of the Advanced Placement exam being rolled out this coming year. In order to prepare effectively, they would have to be timed and working in pairs in the language lab. My only real concern would be the adverse effect of noise interference from neighboring students on recording quality.