Collaborative learning

This week was a big tech week for me at work. I ran two peer editing sessions online using Turnitin, led a station rotation activity using Chromebook™ computers, observed students collaborating with Span™ software and our massive Nureva™ Wall, and delivered an online quiz using Google™ Forms and Google Classroom. I collaborated on curriculum with a colleague on a shared Google Docs™ program, shared interactive PDF documents with my principal and connected with students via email. And, yes, I did have face-to-face interactions with students and fellow teachers while doing all of this, thanks to apps like Nearpod.

Just another teaching week in 2018.

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Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is one of Europe’s top technology institutes with a reputation for world-class research and high-quality education programs. As it looks for new ways to educate and inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers, the 175-year-old university is now focused on modernizing its learning spaces and exploring new technology tools. The goal is to help students build the strong collaboration skills they’ll need to tackle society’s most complex problems.

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Whenever Andrew Edwards gets the opportunity to teach, he has one main goal: to ignite his students’ passion for learning. “It’s what we all strive to do day-to-day – capture that interest,” says Andrew, who is deputy headteacher at Hadlow Rural Community School in the village of Hadlow in southeastern England.

He’s a strong believer in the power of technology to get today’s students excited about learning. “I think it’s important to keep up with technology to make sure lessons are vibrant, inspiring and moving the next generation towards bigger and better things.”

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There’s nothing quite like an education conference.

Why? It might be the feeling you get sitting in a keynote, knowing that hundreds of teachers are sharing the same aha moments. Maybe it’s the chance to finally get a handle on design thinking or find inspiration for your collaborative learning spaces. Or maybe, it’s simply being freed from the day-to-day routines of teaching, planning and marking to actually talk with fellow teachers.

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At Warren County High School in Warrenton, North Carolina, students aren’t just working on a high school diploma; they’re getting a head start on a future career.

The school’s innovative approach to career and college preparation gives students a clearer view of what lies beyond high school. It is an opportunity to develop key skills like collaboration, creativity and problem solving that will help them be successful in their careers or future studies.

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Are you intrigued by design thinking but have questions about using it in your school? Need new ideas for turning your students into problem finders and problem solvers? Then you’ll want to hear from Dr. Salvatore Menzo, superintendent of Wallingford Public Schools, about the journey his students and teachers have taken.

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At Wallingford Public Schools in Connecticut, design thinking helps educators create authentic learning experiences and achieve the ambitious goals they set for student and community engagement.

The Wallingford 100 Program is a set of guiding principles that raises the bar for the district’s 12 schools, aiming for 100% in three key areas: community involvement, student engagement and student success in school and beyond.

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Patricia Klafki, a second-grade teacher at Turner Valley School in Alberta, Canada, knows that collaboration can be challenging. Even as adults, we sometimes want to hold our ideas tight and do everything ourselves. For young students, it can be even harder.

But Patricia also knows just how important collaboration is for school and beyond. That’s why she’s a fan of Nureva visual collaboration solutions, which include an interactive wall and collaboration software to enable student-led learning like never before.

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The University of Missouri College of Education draws on its 150-year history to prepare future teachers for the demands of the 21^st-century classroom. A key part of that involves showing them how technology can transform learning and improve the quality of online collaboration.

The College of Education’s recent implementation of Nureva visual collaboration solutions and the HDL300 audio conferencing system is designed to accomplish both. The university is using the combined power of the products to enhance the learning experience for student teachers and expand the professional development and outreach services it provides to teachers and school districts across the state.

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Do you remember your high school library? It’s been 25 years, but I still remember mine. Full of books and card catalogs, with a few computers (back then, that felt cutting edge). It was a place for individual study. And despite having a few tables for groups to use, if anyone tried to have a conversation, we were quickly shushed by a librarian on a mission to keep her space as quiet as teenagerly possible.

What a difference a quarter century makes! The libraries I see today couldn’t be more different – full of spaces for students to communicate, solve problems – perhaps even create in a makerspace or compose a song. The books are still there, but there’s so much more.

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