Welcome to Module 5!
Password is CSCL
About the Wiki
If you need help with the wiki, you can contact me.
If you would like to make a table, you can use HTML.
Example scenario for this lesson
The Assignment
This assignment will teach you to evaluate collaborative tools for writing, and to determine whether defining roles is effective in group learning situations.
In the first step, you will independently research a collaborative tool for writing, keeping in mind that the purpose is to find a tool that you can have students use in a future assignment.
You will complete 4 steps. You can divide them up by day, such as Day 1 for Step 1, Day 2 for Step 2, or you can choose to finish all four steps in a single day. However, the steps must be done in order.
Step 1: Each member chooses a collaboration tool.
In this step, each student will work independently to research a collaboration tool. The tool can be anything: Skype, a Wiki, a Bulletin Board system, or can be more comprehensive, such as Sakai or Moodle, but it should be a tool that would be appropriate for collaborating on a writing assignment. The group will have to work minimally together to make sure each person chooses a different tool, but other than that, this part of the project is to be done independently.
Keep in mind the following questions when picking and writing about the tool:
- How will this tool facilitate communication?
- Does this tool introduce any barriers to communication?
- Will the students be able to adapt to this tool easily, or is there a steep learning curve?
- Is this a tool the college needs to support (such as Sakai or Moodle) or is it on its own website (such as PBWiki or Google Docs)? Are there concerns with asking students to use a tool that is not under control of the school?
Step 2: Decide what role each student will play in writing the comparison.
You will decide as a group how to define and assign the roles each will play for Step 3. You can discuss the question of roles on the wiki itself, through email, the bulletin board, or through another medium of your choice. These roles can be divided up however the group wants, but the group must provide justification for the reasoning.
The purpose of this part of the assignment is to determine whether defining roles beforehand helps in the collaborative process.
Example: The group decide that Lucy, who considers herself a great organizer, will make a chart showing the similarities and differences of the three tools, and she will post that on the same wiki page showing the research findings. Frank will put Lucy's chart in narrative form, since he considers himself a good writer, and George will edit the text for grammar, punctuation, and clarity since he is an English professor. Since the role assignment process, the second component of the lesson, was conducted off the wiki, they are to post a brief statement on the second page of the wiki telling how they went about dividing the task. George volunteers to do that.
Step 3: Compare the collaboration tools chosen in step 1.
In this step, you will apply the research you did in step 1 and the role definition from step 2. You will collaboratively write a brief paper describing the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three tools you researched, which tool is best suited for a writing task, and why you chose that tool. Outside links are encouraged, but not required. Keep in mind the questions from step 1.
Step 4: Reflection.
In this step, each of you will reflect on the project. The reflections will be posted on the wiki, but the reflections themselves are done independently. Answer these questions in your reflection:
- How did you feel about the role definitions and assignments?
- How did you feel about the role you played in the report?
- Would you take that role again? Why or why not?
- How do you think that defining the roles before completing the collaboratively written report affected the project?
- What would you change about this learning experience?
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