Kim added me to the groups so we could see what students see, plus then I can see how they progress. (I'm curious since I started this - I want to see how it ends!) We had a great discussion and brainstorming session when setting the groups up. A couple things we discussed:
1. The kids will keep track of what they've researched each day and post it to the update section of the group. Kim decided she liked that element so that she can keep them on task. After some discussion, she also decided to have them include the link to where they found the information for a couple reasons. A) to keep them accountable and B) so they have their sources in one spot and can easily go back and do a bibliography without worrying about where they found the information. It would look like this:
Then, for grading purposes, Kim could either "like" the post or comment on it. That would give her a visual for both the student and herself that it's been graded. We did think it would be nice if there was a checkbox option (or something turns color, etc) to make it more noticeable that it's been graded.
2. There was a moment when Kim wasn't sure this would be the best way to accomplish what she wanted. Through more discussion, what became clear was she wasn't sure the group element would work with the students. A few things that made her question whether Schoology Groups was the best tool to use with this assignment:
- While you can record directly on the group page, you cannot pause it. So, if four students are presenting the Life of Julius Caesar and each one is responsible for one part of that research, there would be lag time on the video as they switched people.
- Internet in her room is spotty and, with multiple groups needing to record at the same time, there isn't space at the high school right now for them to separate and record without interfering with another group.
- How do you ensure it's a group project, when someone may not pull their own weight? (This is not a Schoology Group issue, but it was part of our conversation)
After our discussion, Kim decided to do the following:
- Give the groups two options: record all together or have each student record their section of research
- Create an assignment for the recording so that she can easily see who submitted and who didn't (they can record straight into the assignment, just like they would have done on the group page)
- Each student will be graded based on their part of the recording for that part of the project
- Schoology Groups will still be utilized to gather the information because she can keep track of who is doing their research. If one student finishes quickly, they can help their groupmates (since some of the topics may be more difficult to find information on) and they will know what has already been found.
Student ownership definitely came up several times as we discussed this project. Giving them the option of individually recording or recording as a group gives them ownership. They chose the topic they wanted to research, which is also giving them ownership.
**One issue we did come across that has nothing to do with Schoology Groups, but may be an issue if students have Chromebooks in the future. They can record on a Chromebook (that was the issue I ran across last time and found a way to fix that), but once the recording is done and inserted into Schoology, they cannot play the video. It does give you options for extensions, but I wasn't able to get them to work yesterday. The video does play on the teacher laptops, though. I'm not sure about the current student laptops since we didn't have one to use.
I know this isn't a new tech tool and it wasn't one that I put on the Google Keep, but without a classroom, I didn't have a way to test out something new. However, Janelle and I are going to hold a virtual meeting on Friday using Google Hangouts and that will be a new tech tool for me.
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