Blog 6. Technology Use It!

  

I have had a lot of experience with group projects at work and at school. Group work is great when all members do their part. However, at university, I have been surprised that some students go completely AWOL only to log in to Google Docs to put their names on an assignment they had no contribution to.  Despite my negative experience with group work, I have had some positive experiences with group work. My positive experience has come from paid work and school work that had a greater purpose aside from just trying to learn a simple skill.  

 

During my second year of college, I had a great time doing group work in my methods course. I was placed in a group with a member who wanted to work on a proposal for creating a space for Indigenous men. This project was essential to my group member because he was fulfilling a dream of his to help his community. This was a positive experience, and we formed a relationship because the purpose of the project extended outside the classroom and fulfilled a need in society. Group work can build relationships and create a great culture if the context is beyond just fulfilling the time and resource needs of the educator.     

 

As a teacher, I find group work to be a great strategy for stretching resources and time. If you are finding that your unit is going faster than you intended you can create a group project to slow it down. Since students all have different standards and ideas this allows tasks to get done slower. If your school is stretched for resources, you can create group projects to save money on materials and resources. Furthermore, teachers can use group work to save time on marking assignments; fewer assignments, less marking. Moreover, you will often have a student who hardly completes anything, so group work can add work to portfolios for students who don’t have a lot of work to show. Since Alberta is chronically increasing class sizes and stretching resources it would be beneficial for educators to use the “collaboration” label in their lesson plans. I know this paragraph is deviating away from the fluff-filled language that we have all grown comfortable with. but I feel like we need to be real with what we are experiencing as educators.   

 

If university professors insist that you need to design a rubric with 5 other people it would be nice if professors would make you hand in screenshots or reports of the different contribution logs that you find on Google Docs. Although technology can point out contribution records, I have never had a professor ask for proof of contribution. Personally, I am someone who wants to keep the peace rather than call out-group members for coasting. Professors should include a contribution grade since Google provides the tools to know if someone is contributing or not.  

 

When I finally worked up the courage to upgrade my mathematics, my professor emphasized group math assignments. This was a horrible experience for me because our group consisted of people with different mathematical abilities. This led to two people doing all the work and increased resentment between members. I think group work and collaboration can be a beautiful and beneficial experience, but don’t just ram it into spaces where it's just going to create problems.

 Collaboration is a great skill, but don’t turn group work into a stressful punishment that will make me or others hate working together. We need to create group projects that can create a sense of pride and purpose. If groups create and build something that extends beyond the classroom then students will learn the skill of collaboration. 

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