Building Collaboration...One Idea at a Time!

Building Collaboration...One Idea at a Time!

Looking Back by James Centeno
 
Start with an Idea
 
 
 
As last school year came to an end, students from three LAUSD 1:1 Instructional Technology Initiative schools, 42nd Street Elementary, Humphreys Avenue Elementary, and San Pascual STEAM Magnet, had the opportunity to collaborate in real-time across campuses thanks to a wonderful app named Padlet. As you can imagine, learning experiences that create opportunities for collaboration offer students a wealth of benefits such as reinforcing key speaking and listening skills, and exposure to multiple perspectives, which we know by now, is at the cornerstone of a Common Core education.
 
 
So, how did this opportunity to collaborate in real-time across campuses come to be?
  
It simply started with an idea. An idea someone had to make learning exciting again by leveraging technology to support teaching and learning for elementary school students. As a result, when all was said and done, students from four classrooms, at three different school sites were able to experience what most professionals experience on a daily basis, the opportunity to think critically, communicate ideas, collaborate with each other, and create products or solutions to some of today’s challenges and needs.
 
 

Set it in Motion

 Good ideas are contagious! This one certainly was. The idea that students could collaborate, in real-time, with students from other schools miles away in other parts of the city, managed to hook four teachers into participating.
 
 
This set the idea in motion.
 
 The four teachers, along with their school’s Instructional Technology Facilitators, decided on a timeline for this learning experience. They agreed on a one week window to take students through this collaborative process. The process would involve delivering a lesson on opinion writing to students, and participating in a live Padlet session at the end of the week where students from all four classrooms could read each others’ opinions about a given topic and offer feedback. To support this effort, Padlet was chosen as the app that would help drive this collaboration and learning, for its user- friendly interface and simplicity in learning. Think of the app as a digital bulletin board, one where users can post their thoughts, ideas, or learnings, by typing them in and adding media to help express them, while allowing for viewer commenting.
 
 
As planned, the teachers and Instructional Technology Facilitators delivered the opinion writing lessons to students during the week. When Friday arrived, classes joined the live Padlet session hosted by one of the teachers. The excitement on students’ faces as they posted their opinion writing and started receiving feedback from students miles away across town was amazing! At that moment, it was evident that the four teachers had become facilitators of learning, as students took an active role in their own learning by reflecting on the feedback they received, and the suggestions they were making to other young writers to help them improve their craft.