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Learning Cooperatively
Your success in this
course depends in part (40%) on your participation in a cooperative team.
To make the most of virtual cooperative learning, apply these big ideas
used in face-to-face cooperative learning:
- Be responsible for your own learning.
- Share your knowledge freely.
- Learn what you can from others.
- Foster interdependence by asking for and giving
help.
- Believe that 2+2=5.
- Believe and practice the axiom: We each learn
more when we all learn well.
- Express your ideas openly.
- Listen carefully to feedback.
- Be a good critical friend.
- Share responsibility for
the summaries of your team's best thinking.
Meeting your team
You
will use the virtual discussion spaces in the Classroom
to communicate with your teammates about your assignments. The first time
you meet them will be in Week 2 in Course Space. Go there to find out
what team you are, then greet your team members. Check out their brief
biographical introductions and make a connection when you introduce yourself.
Do you share an interest, teach the same grade level, or make similar
kinds of jokes? Have you visited their region? Would you like to?
Choosing a Name
Yes,
this is a warmup for building consensus, but it is also better to have
a name you choose than to call yourselves "Team B."
- Start by brainstorming - everyone list several
ideas with a reason - with no evaluative comments. Try to get everyone
to contribute, even if you have to send email with a special request.
Get into the habit of requiring everyone on your team to participate.
Bring some local color into the team name discussion with lines like,
"Where I come from, we say ... " or "Around here, we have ..." Let your
style show with the names you suggest, the questions you ask, or the
comments you make. Set a deadline for that initial posting.
- Evaluate the list of ideas. Have each person
choose their first two choices for names and see if you have overlap.
Reduce the list as much as you can - say to five names.
- Discuss - don't vote! Ask each person to give a
pro and con for each of the top five names. Based on this analysis,
choose your top two and post again. Look for overlap. Do pros and cons
on the top two (by count). One of your top two may even be a hybrid or a
modification of one of the names.
- Decide - each person makes
a proposal for the top name and others chime in with support. You may
need to modify the name if someone has a problem with it.
If this seems like a lot of
discussion to decide on a silly name, remember it is for practicing consensus
building. It is more important when you are considering a list of criteria
you all will have to use to evaluate activities. Try to build your interest
in the process and practice being constructive and a good online listener.
That will serve you well when you are asked to be a "critical friend"
to your classmates.
Consensus Building
The
key to building consensus is to start with the goal and requirements.
Discuss how you will elicit everyone's ideas. You may want to allow all
teammates to post and then offer syntheses one by one, or you may want
to have ongoing, cumulative syntheses as ideas are presented. Remember
these ideas in building consensus about the criteria for effective concept-building
activities:
- Hear from everyone. All members must contribute,
or you cannot agree on the criteria.
- Look for commonalties and differences. Use your
observations as a litmus test on any differences. Look for what the
differences teach you about the problem.
- Combine ideas to address
differences by using the "either"/"or" approach.
When you are upset
If you are experiencing a problem with one of the course participants,
please DO NOT air your grievances, or "flame" someone in a discussion
space. It's like yelling at someone in class, and it tears the fabric
of the team. If you have a problem with a teammate or the facilitator,
talk to him or her about it in a private email.
[
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 ]
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Home ] [ Intro
] [ Outline ] [
Classroom ]
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