ETL501 Web 2.0

I thought I would share a recent success from my own teaching using web tools- Google Docs

I have VCE classes with a max of 15 students so this activity worked well, however larger groups may not work as well as this did. 

I set up a basic template for a PowerPoint using Google Docs, this allows students to edit a PowerPoint presentation simultaneously. The initial few slide were questions for students to answer individually, each question has been assigned to a student. Academically weaker students were given more structured reading comprehension questions which could be located in the textbook. This was to allow for participation in the activity and to boost confidence in answering questions publicly. Stronger students were given questions requiring an analysis of ideas which could be shared with the rest of the class. I then introduced a new element of collaboration by assigning pairs of students to questions, these questions needed more in depth responses. Finally, I set up a page for the whole class to edit. This section could be edited by anyone in the class as we are doing the activity. 

Issues: 
There were issues with students tampering with other students work, however after the first 5 minutes the novelty of this wore off and they stuck to their own pages. When pages were edited by groups of people, or the whole class, students had to add their own textboxes otherwise the programme became very slow to respond and students struggled to work out who was writing where. 

To combat this: 
Providing students with clear expectations of behaviour online and when collaborating with others. There needs to be consequences if students are not participating in a way that the supports the learning of others.

It was good to see students negotiate which sections they would contribute with their partner. This was a quick verbal exchange and they got on with the activity.