TCH 401

Before you begin: IDENTIFY a unit in your curriculum that would benefit from collaborating with others outside your school. CONSIDER the focus of the unit, as well as the goals you have in mind for your students. Then, ASK YOURSELF who you might collaborate with and what you want to accomplish through the collaboration.

 

Questions to consider:

• Are there community organizations or businesses that could enhance student understanding of the unit?

• Would parent/guardian collaboration create a stronger school to home link?

• Can you better connect your curriculum to authentic experiences by collaborating with experts?

• Is there a way to elevate student voice through this collaboration?

• Can you incorporate cross-generational learning through this collaboration?

• Can you use this collaboration to solve a problem within your local community?

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Consider creating a community resource map to help you brainstorm potential partners for your collaboration.

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In the moment: DEVELOP the collaborative experience for your students. IDENTIFY at least one digital tool you will have students use to facilitate the collaboration (*this lesson is focused on collaboration so be sure to explore new to you collaboration tools).  You can visit the Resources section to find links to new tools. Then, DEVELOP the handout(s) and/or presentation that you would provide to students to describe the experience, its purpose, and how they will use technology to accomplish their goals.

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Complete the challenge: Create a Teacher as Collaborator post on your blog. Link your handout(s) and/or presentation to this post. Then, compose a reflection that explores connections your plan makes to the ideas in the Teacher as Collaborator lesson. At minimum be sure to address: 

1. Which of the ISTE sub-standards does it connect to?

2. How does it connect to the two readings and/or video?

3. Which of the above questions (the ones in "Before you Begin" does it address?  ​

4. Include a conversation of what two new to you tools you explored for this challenge.   What was your experience with each tool? Would you use it again? Why/How? What helped you make a decision about what you ultimately chose? 

5. Where does this collaborative lesson  land on the Technology Integration Matrix? What about SAMR? Refer back to the Teacher as Learner lesson if needed. 

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NEW To You tools: We are all entering this course with a different set of tech tools that we regularly use. The idea in this course is to move beyond those that are familiar, and try tools you are not familiar with. Not only will that help you widen your tool box, it will also give you time to play and the opportunity to get the "new user" experience that your students might have when using new tools. Each tool is bringing with it affordances and obstacles that impact teaching and learning. Being able to recognize those helps you to know what tool is best. For each challenge I will ask that you ALWAYS explore at least TWO new tools for each challenge. You will describe these in your "complete the challenge" blog post. Hopefully you will use one of those tools in the challenge, but if those tools will not work for what you are trying to accomplish, and you discuss that, you are free to use the tool that would work best in your classroom. This should be more rare than not. Please do not plan to rely on only the Google Suite throughout the course.