This post is the third of six in a series with ideas and resources on how to make computing lessons engaging and demanding for as many students as possible. Click here for the original post.
Ideas and resources for collaborative computing lessons
Some people love group work, some people loathe it. Collaboration doesn’t have to mean working in pairs or small groups. Any form of guided interaction between students – online / face to face / written / email – comes with its own challenges but also potential to boost learning and understanding.
The collaboration doesn’t have to be between students either: it’s a great way to involve parents, grand-parents, neighbours or foreign exchange students if you choose your opportunities and platforms for collaboration carefully.
Too much collaboration and a lesson can descend into chaos. A short, focused and well managed collaborative activity though can boost the overall learning and progress well beyond the sum of the individual parts.
Ideas:
- Set a homework for students to explain a concept to a relative or neighbour who’s rubbish with technology.
e.g. “Find someone who’s never written a program before and teach them the difference between a string and an integer data type. Get them to write down an example of each”
- Try silent group work where all communication takes place via email / forum / shared folder / whatever.
e.g. “I’ve emailed you a list of partner: you’ll be working with someone who sits on the other side of the class to you. There’s an attachment with a presentation that needs completing. You need to contact your partner by email, agree who’s working on each slide, share the research and complete the presentation.”
- Set up a questions & answers forum / shared document and ask students to nominate the person who has been most helpful on it at the end of a lesson where it’s used.
e.g. “While we create our games, I’m not going to help anyone until I can see that you’ve written your question in the Q&A forum. If three people reply to say they don’t know how to help you then I’ll come and help. Otherwise, it’s up to you to explore, discover and support each other. Remember to share links to useful websites and tutorials you find.”
Key questions:
Who is too dependent on me as their teacher? Who is to proud or afraid to ask anyone for help?
Example activity: Tech recommendation project
Advise-a-gadget project
Split the class into groups. Each group must research and recommend the most suitable piece of technology (e.g. tablet / phone / laptop / desktop) for
- A successful businesswomen looking to work on the commute from York to London
- A teenage gamer wanting to play the latest games with the best possible graphics
- An elderly relative who’s not used the Internet before but wants to keep in touch with relatives and read / watch the news
The group will have to present their recommendations and answer questions from the rest of the class. Each person in the group must say something and have contributed something to whatever you choose to display on the projector screen during the presentation.
Research and further reading
This paper recommends a “Trio of best practice” for reducing the number of students who drop out from a computing course (at the University of California). Two of their three recommended strategies involve collaboration between students: peer instruction and pair programming.
Leo Porter and Beth Simon. 2013
