Weeks Summary

This week we covered module five wich was about community and collaboration in an online course. The way the course is set up and how the teachers expect the students to communicate with one another plays an important role in how well the students will collaborate with one another. It is important for an online course to include collaboration so the students can feel for involved in the class. I think group projects are a good idea to help students collaborate with one another. However, I think it is very importance to have rules, expectations, and guidelines for the students to refer to when working collaboratively. Peer assessment is another way to ensure collaboration. I think peer assessment can be beneficial but I do not think peers should actually grade one another's work. This could lead to students not wanting to work with others or even to them dropping out. They should just provide feedback to one another. I think discussion boards are another way to have student collaboration.

Item of Interest

I think I am going to have my students participate in weekly discussions. They will also have a discussion board they can always go to post questions they may have about the homework, classwork, material, or just the course in general. I have also considered having my students create some type of game that covers what they have learned at the end of the course. This would be something the students would talk about outside the class and inside the class. They will more than likely construct the game in the classroom. I think this would be a great way to have the students collaborate with one another while reflecting back to what they learned in the course.

Problem or Concern

I have concerned with two things. The first is how well third graders will be able to participate in discussion boards. The second is, would having the students create a game be too advance for third grade. If these two things are too advance for collaboration activities, do any of you have any recommendations for collaboration activities.