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Creating Interdependence
Why?
It
is important to create interdependence in this course because you will
be working together on team projects that require everyone's input. Build
trust through routine and consistent communication. Establish your own
routine for learning and share it with your team. Establish posting deadlines
as a team. Stick to them or say why you can't. Explain by posting a message
such as, "I will be out of town next week the 15th-18th and won't
be online. Catch you all when I get back on Friday."
Expectations
Discuss
your expectations for contributions with your team. How will you share
responsibility for reviewing resources? Will each of you try to study
at least three sources and post synopses in Week B: Teacher as Scholar?
How will you give and receive feedback in Week C: Teacher As Designer?
Will you provide feedback to everyone on the team, or only one other person?
How will you get your teammates' best ideas into the discussion? Will
you each do a summary--"It seems to me we are saying..." or
will doing summaries be optional?
Deadlines
This
course is designed to be asynchronous, which means that you can join the
discussions at any time, day or night; no one needs to meet you in real
time. However, as a rule of thumb, all activities for a week should be
completed by midnight on Sunday.
Roles
This
course may be your opportunity to play a different team role. Are you
always the leader? Try being the last to contribute. Do you always put
the most ideas out? Try providing more feedback. Do you seldom synthesize
for a group? Be the first and last to do it for your team.
Team Building
You
may want to do a round robin of questions in your team. It goes like this:
each person posts a question and answers it, then everyone else answers
it, too. Questions might include: the best class I ever had, or the worst
teaching day of my life, or what I think we should be teaching in primary
science. Plan to do it after an assignment is finished as a break - like
talking after class.
You can establish
a "meet me in Course Space" routine where you share what you
think or know about something every week at the beginning of the week.
Some teams could even have regular "water cooler" activities
(that's code for "off task" or sidebar conversations) like,
"If I won the lottery..." or "If I had 3 wishes..."
or "If I could add a day to the week..." or "If I ran the
school..."
[
Where to Start ] [ Joining
the Community ]
[ Knowing Your Facilitator ] [
Creating Interdependence ]
[ Sitting in the Front ] [
Showing What You Don't Know ]
[ Helping Others ] [ Being
an Active Learner ]
[ Learning Cooperatively ]
[
Home ] [ Intro
] [ Outline ] [
Classroom ]
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