|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
In education, teachers are getting away from teaching subjects in isolation. Integrating more than one subject in a unit or lesson is considered to be more pertinent to children because it most resembles real life. Rarely in life are we expected to know or use math skills, social studies skills or science skills in isolation. A person working for a corporation may specialize in one specific area, but that person will still have to work with other people, usually as part of a team. In today's companies, offices and buildings are connected through local area networks (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) which allows for easier collaboration on projects. Even people in different departments can work on one single project and save their sections to one central server. Technology is quickly integrating all major facets of society and it only stands to reason that our children learn how to compete in a technologically global world. Online collaborative projects provide children with the real-life skills and experience they will eventually be expected to have. Picture a typical school day where children come to class and while the teacher is taking attendance, students get together into small groups or committees. Each committee may have a group leader who is responsible for reviewing the prior day's work and set the stage for the work to come. The teacher may have scheduled time in the school's computer lab for the committees to conduct their online research, email community members or field experts for information, answer a question posted on a discussion forum by students working on the same project from another city, state or country, use a word processor to revise, edit or add information to the project report, and maintain or add to the project web page to publish their works where anyone in the world with an Internet connection can access the data they have prepared. While doing this the students put to use math skills, science skills, social studies skills and language arts skills either to reinforce something already taught or learning something new, but these students are also learning how to work as part of a team and how to collaborate with other children, no matter where they are, to reach the goals of the project. This may be a project that will be ongoing throughout the entire school year. Long term, team projects are a reality in our world and quick text assignments or worksheets will not prepare our children sufficiently. It has been reported by hiring teams of major corporations that they are looking for young people who have some experience working on long term projects instead of straight A students who are used to successfully accomplishing short term goals that may one right answer only. Creativity is key and the collaborative project provides our children with experiences they will need to become better people and to be better prepared to enter the workforce. Collaborative projects also teach our children how to cooperate and be part of a team, as well as to respect the technologies that are bringing the world closer together. Collaborative projects will keep students interested in working hard because it is real and uses the very technologies that kids are most interested in. So why collaborate? Because it is inherently best for our children.  |