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Collaboration as a Vehicle for Student Success
Presented by Aram Kabodian February 17, 2009 2:00-3:30 pm.

__Let's begin with some writing__
In Word, on a piece of paper, or in [|a Google doc], **take 5 minutes** to respond to the following question:

A. Read the "Scenario" from [[file:7 Things You Should Know About Collaborative Writing.pdf]] together aloud

 * Discuss how the scenario fits with some of our pros and cons from the writing prompt.

**B. This video explains how Google Docs can change how we keep our documents organized and how we work together on documents**
__media type="youtube" key="eRqUE6IHTEA" height="344" width="425"

video from__ http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/collaboration.html#docs

**C. This video has several teachers and some students explaining how they use Google Docs and how it has improved the way they teach, learn, and work together.**
media type="file" key="Google For Educators - Google Docs.flv" video from http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html


 * There are many [|examples of teachers using Google Docs]

**D. This link takes you through how to get started using Google Docs in the classroom.**
[|Using Google Docs in the Classroom: Simple as ABC]
 * You may want to have Google Docs open in another window when you go to this website so that you can try the steps as you read them.

**E. This link offers ways to organize and facilitate best use of Google Docs in the classroom**
[|Using Google Docs in the Classroom: Tips and Tricks]

**F. Time to get a Google Account started and play with Docs (2:35-2:50)**

 * = ** 5 MINUTE BREAK ** ||

B. How are teachers using wikis to facilitate collaboration between students?

 * An example of how four New Zealand Primary Schools use a wiki to collaborate across schools
 * [|5th grade class uses a wiki to respond to Look Homeward, Hannalee]
 * Kevin Hodgson
 * [|UMass Mystery Story]
 * [|The Mole in the Hole] -- Sixth Grade collaborative story
 * [|Six Word Story]
 * Paul Allison
 * [|Youth Voices]
 * [|How Teachers Use Wikis in the Classroom]
 * [|Using Wikis in Math Classes] article
 * List of Educational Wikis as examples
 * [|Kabodian's Room 207 class wiki]
 * You, too, can edit [|Wikipedia].

C. How do I present wikis to my students?

 * The most deliberate, comprehensive "lesson plan" is an article from Classroom Notes Plus by [|Troy Hicks] called "Exploring Copyright through Collaborative Wiki Writing." If you are an NCTE member, follow [|this link]and type in your password.
 * Below is an excerpt from the article in which Hicks reframes another writer's thinking on the types of collaborative writing:
 * "In //Writing Together: Collaborative Learning in the Writing Classroom,// Tori Haring-Smith (1994) suggests that collaborative writing can take many forms, from the traditional peer response/editing and brainstorming/planning that group might do all the way through writing with one another. She defines three forms of collaborative writing that may take place once students move beyond these phases of talk and support for each others' writing:
 * Serial writing --- in this mode of collaborative writing, a "train of individuals" works on a text. This could take the form of employees creating individual sections to a report that the supervisor compiles and sends out without further collaboration. This would be cooperation at its basic level.
 * Compiled writing --- here, individuals all add components of the text and retain "some control over part of the final text" so the reader can tell who wrote what. This might be a collection of essays or poems. This would be a more advanced form of cooperation, because all the parts have to fit, but there is not a great deal of negotiation among all the writers that goes into this kind of writing.
 * Co-Authored writing --- in this type of writing, "it is difficult (indeed, often impossible) to distinguish the work of one writer from another." In terms of collaboration, this would be a text where all the authors have a stake in what is said. There is often one facilitator here who coordinates the final draft of the text, but everyone is expected to contribute equally in terms of the content, revision, and editing. (p. 361-5 of Haring Smith)" (p. 13 of Hicks)
 * One of the websites that Troy Hicks mentions in his article is [|"Wiki While You Work"]--- this is Mark Wagner's presentation at the K12 Online Conference from 2006.
 * Another website Hicks references is an interesting discussion about Wikipedia called [|"Get Me Rewrite."]

D.Time to get your wiki account and play with a wiki (3:15-3:30)

 * [|pbwiki]
 * [|Differentiation Workshop on pbwiki](Check out the differentiation strategies list)
 * [|wikispaces]
 * Help from the wikispaces people
 * [|wetpaint]

__Related Resources__

 * "[|World Without Walls]: How to teach when learning is everywhere" by Will Richardson
 * From LD (Learning Disabilities) Online, an article called [|"Adapting Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science Materials for the Inclusive Classroom"]. Though geared toward Special Education teachers and students, this article is instructive for us General Education teachers also in terms of differentiating instruction for all students.
 * [|Teachers Teaching Teachers w]eekly webcast about using technology in the classroom
 * How can I differentiate instruction using technology? [[file:DifferentiatingTechnology.doc]]
 * Digital Storytelling Update: Last year, I presented a session on digital storytelling and I wanted to let you know that the Pearson Foundation and Digital Arts Alliance have updated their website. At the following website they take you through all the steps of the digital storytelling process offering information, worksheets, and video examples. It's very well done. Check out the links on the left of the [|Digital Arts Alliance Teacher Resources page.]

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