Cooperative Learning through Google…Hopefully!

This coming school is going to be a new beginning, in some ways, for me. Certain changes happen because they must, while others seem quite unclear to me. However, one change I am excited for, one that will hopefully enhance my students' experience in the fifth grade is Google. This coming school year my entire fifth grade team is "piloting" the use of Google and all of its many tools in our classrooms. Students and teachers will be given a GMail account, giving them access to Google Docs, Blogger, Google Reader, Google Books, Google Maps, Google Sites, and more! My mind is exploding with ideas. To be honest, this pilot has had me on the edge of excitement since it was merely in the "idea" stage last January. I think Google's tools will open up a totally new avenue of learning that my incoming fifth graders will not have known is possible. Additionally, it will definitely effect the way I instruct my students in any subject matter, because it would seem as though the possibilities are about to become endless.

In Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works this week I read about cooperative learning. Early in the chapter the authors claim that "When students work in cooperative groups, they make sense of, or construct meaning for, new knowledge by interacting with others" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007, p. 139). In my experience this statement could not be more true. My students get the most out of classroom experiences through mathematics and science. The reason I know this is because their math curriculum (Everyday Mathematics) requires quite a bit of cooperative group work on a daily basis. Children get the opportunity to teach and be taught by peers. Groupings vary in size and ability.

Our science curriculum uses the Einstein Project, which brings hands on science into the classroom. Our students are introduced to these kits in kindergarten and use them all the way through middle school. Each kit comes complete with enough "stuff" to have each child work in groups, no larger than five, to complete various science experiments. Nearly every unit ends with a real world problem that the groups must solve, based on what they learned over the duration of the science unit.

I think both Everyday Mathematics and Einstein Kits will easily coordinate with the various programs that Google has to offer. This week, I watched a student use VoiceThread to talk about an end of the unit math problem she had made up, also showing visuals of how to complete the project. While VoiceThread will be useful for this in my own room, I am hoping to find a similar application within Google. If this sounds right, I would like Google to serve as a second "homeroom" for my students this coming year. It can be a place to store, share, and collaborate on their "stuff."

The good news is that I think Google will also open up the doors for more cooperative group work in the other core subject areas, Language Arts and Social Studies. I think my students will have more time to reflect on writing projects, because they will not have to spend as much time writing and re-writing by hand. Like it or not, most of our students can, or will be able to, type faster than they can write. I know this is true for me. I could not tell you the last time I hand wrote a paper of any sort. If I would do that for my current masters course, I would never meet any deadlines. Additionally, through the use of Google Docs, my students will be able to share and publish their papers. They will be able to understand peer comments. Peers will hopefully be more likely to research whether or not a word is spelled correctly, or used correctly. Additionally, losing notebooks (AHHH!) should no longer be an issue.

Social Studies notes can be put online by myself or another teacher. These notes would have the potential to be modified at any time by the teacher or student. Notes could have useful links to gather more information. Notes could also lead students to various Webquests on the net that are based on the specific topic.

In my brief and recent experience of comparing various learning theories to current classroom practices, I think it is safe to say that cooperative learning ties in quite well with the social constructivist learning theory, which essentially says: knowledge is created through interaction. I think it is important to note Lev Vygotsky's thoughts on the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and More Knowledge Other (MKO). Vygotsky's three tiers within the ZPD create a "frame of 'things' that a particular child can learn" (Laureate Education Inc., 2007). The lower tier would be what a child already knows. The middle tier is what a child is ready to learn. The top tier would be something a child is unable to learn at the time. More importantly, the top tier can only be learned through MKO...a person who helps a child learn the top tier; such as a teacher or classmate. To me, this sounds exactly like cooperative group work. Thus, Vygotsky's work with social learning theories correlates quite well with collaboration.

As of I have stated in past blog posts, I think that applying various learning theories to my classroom toolbox is an important step in becoming a master, effective teacher. I am hoping that by truly adopting the social learning theory this coming school year, largely through the use of Google, my students will become better teammates inside and outside of school. I am hoping that they are able to learn to respect one another, help when another, and listen to one another. My gut instinct tells me that while this coming school year is going to be very new, and challenging, it is also going to be my best school year yet. We'll see!

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009) Creating an Effective Classroom Learning Environment [Film Strip]. Social Learning Theory. Los Angeles: Laureate Education, Inc.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.