Collaboration is as much a buzz word in educational circles and professional communities as it ever has been. We have never really produced in a vacuum, but we now see collaboration as a skill with a position on par with reading comprehension, study strategies, or any other typical skill learned in the traditional classroom. And, it's not as if great teachers have not required and instructed this skill for decades; they have, and they've done it well. However, with the virtual world flattening the working space, destroying typical borders, and allowing ideas to be generated quicker and with multiple minds involved in the engendering and creative processes, the need for successful collaboration (in concert with individual competence) seems of paramount importance in order to be successful in the world a decade from today. I'm struck by the many futurists (insightful people who posit the real future and the changes the world will experience as a predictor for governments, think-tanks, corporations, etc.) who see humans working more and more as a hive-mind as thoughts and ideas begin to be generated and developed by multiple intelligences, virtually linked at a basic level and including the artificial and possibly even the deceased (we can argue the possible moral complications of this later!). To bring us back to 2025, though the world will not be a Borg Collective of linked hive-minds, collaboration is essential, and St. John's is replete with the teaching of collaborative inquiry, critical thinking, problem solving, and creative presentations of ideas.
As I have watched technology change and grow, capabilities rise and even fall, I have endeavored to continue to produce collaborative opportunities. We work together on presentations involving independent reading, Greek Mythology, poetry, debate, and myriad small group and class activities that are surely similar in scope and purpose to what so many wonderful teachers do at our school. Technology began to present opportunities that were new, or at least it provided the methods to attempt to accomplish what before might have seemed impossible. Barriers or constraints that had existed in the traditional classroom might be breached and overcome. And, collaboration across distance and even language became possible; students could visit far away places; and teachers were sharing ideas so quickly that information could become overwhelming. But, there was one barrier that we have always worked hard at eliminating, stretching, or at least cheating- the constraint of time. We could break down physical walls, pass over thousands of ocean miles in seconds, possess the wealth of human knowledge and opinion about any one subject with a simple hand motion, and yet we needed to find a way to break down the barrier of time as well as space.
This began by employing technology in a way that allowed students to collaborate virtually on the same project or problem even though they were in different traveling groups or sections. Now, several different classes were working together toward a common goal, even though they held no actual English time in common. We used wikis and Google Docs to accomplish this. We wanted students to engage in conversations about literature in a way that would allow each of them an opportunity to gain knowledge and insight from the entire grade; we were able to find programs that allowed this. I wanted to bring in experts and people of experience during our Debate/Witch Trial unit, and Blogs served this purpose. Technology was helping to break down barriers, but there was something missing. A lot of the work began to feel cold, dispassionate, detached. And, even though I still use most of these methods, I really wanted the discussion and sharing of ideas to move to something physical, something semi-permanent yet malleable and modular that provided a platform for idea sharing that could span the different class periods and eliminate time from the list of prohibitive elements. So, what is old is new again! The Idea Wall I have written of previously was an answer, and it is now becoming so much more than a simple depository of student humor or a useful space for activities, as shown in the last post. Taking a cue from a passing comment from our Head of School, the students took it over, transformed it into a concept map or mind map of their collective experiences during our novel discussion on "The Watsons Go to Birmingham- 1963." They brainstormed concept categories, voted and chose five, had an illustration challenge to determine the artists who would illustrate each category, then selected quotations that represented those categorized emotions or concepts. By the final chapter, students were coming in at lunch and break to add their thoughts, and by our final essay, students were using the collective mind-map as a resource for selecting quotations in their formal, analytical writing. It's time I begin thinking about providing more usable physical space, more student space, more collaborative space in my room. It should be space that echoes the vastness of the virtual world that is at their fingertips. A place for them to explore, discern, create, and refine. Right now my eyes are searching; I will find room for more!
The Video below provides a time lapse series of pictures with students moving through the mind-map of our novel.
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