Webspiration

            I found that the Webspiration activity was useful in that it helped to map out our ideas of what a Millennial Kid is.  We were able to brainstorm and organize our collective thoughts in a way that broke down the different aspects we’ve been discussing in class. By creating the Webspiration, we were able to physically make the connections and see a product of our thoughts.  We were able to discuss these things through IM. We could also go into the Webspiration later and edit the map afterwards when we thought of additional ideas. It’s useful to have a physical embodiment of our brainstorm thoughts to go back to and reference again and again.

            Collaborative group work is helpful in that we were able to get new ideas from each other and think about Millennial Kids from different perspectives.  Group work can be difficult when trying to work with others while getting your own ideas across.  I think working collaboratively on a project through utilizing technology is a very important skill to have, especially for life as a professional worker.  I currently work in a corporate setting and we are constantly collaborating on Power Point  presentations, creating Live Meetings, and issuing tutorial videos.  It’s important that my coworkers and I work as a team to collaborate and map out what information is important. We are always working together at team meetings to find best practices and ways of handling the business.  By using tools, such as Webspiration, to work together and map out ideas, students will have a better understanding of the academic content as well as gain skills to be a successful professional in the 21^st Century.

I was looking through You Tube at some videos about collaborative group work.  There was a lot of interesting infromation that I came across, and some I did not necessarily agree with.

I did find a video, shown below, of a tabletop interface created by a teacher.  The interface benefits collaborative learning for young students ages 6 - 7. According to the designer, Richard White, a computer interface is projected onto the table top and is combined with a sequencing game. The students work in pairs to build a story board out of 12 images that are in the center of the table. Six images create one narrative, while the other six create a completely different storyline.  The students must work together, sometimes trading images with other teams, to create the storyboard and complete the narrative. I thought this was an innovative and useful way to use technology hand in hand with collaborative group work to learn story sequencing.