This got me thinking, what if our grades were based on the level of collaboration we did rather than the 'final' product? I though of this because a number of us had some great team work and collaboration the night before the exam. A bunch of us went on skype in a chatroom and to audiochat. We answered questions for each other and tried to explain and work things out as a group. We then continued to write an extensive google doc together. The final product, which I used to study from, was an eloquently long study guide we had compiled together. The document morphed into the early morning hours as the majority of the class added their knowledge and questions.
I think that, generally, this experience helped all of us on our exam. Although I still don't know how i did on it, I feel I did better than I expected. However, I think the truly brilliant aspect of this assignment came not in class on Wednesday, but Tuesday night when we all worked together. We've had many opportunities to collaborate before whether it be with a small group, the entire class, the entire academy, or even people around the world. Some of these instances have been complete and utter failures. At first I thought collaboration is simple, but I was incredibly wrong.
I think what we did on our own Tuesday night attests to how far we have come in our work with collaboration. I think we did a great job and have really begun to collaborate effectively. While collaboration is not a skill I anticipated to gain from the Academy, it is perhaps one of my newest and most beneficial skills.
It would be interesting to be graded on collaboration, and I think as education continues to evolve this will become more and more common. Mr. Bretag did a presentation for the Student Advisory Board about technology and the group mentioned that collaboration would become a huge part of education and technology. In the TED projects we did this year, collaboration was part of the grade. I think this was done pretty well, but still has room for improvement.
Collaboration is an important tool in school and the real world. I think every class should find a way to incorporate collaboration into the curriculum.
6 comments:
Jamie,
I agree with you that collaboration should take a more central role in both the educational experience as well as the grades. I'm very interested to see how that would work out, seeing as that would require Mr. Allen to basically be on skype with us, observing our chats. That grading process would have to be refined, of course, but I think your proposal is note-worthy.
I can't help but think that many of our teachers would have a real problem with grading based on collaboration. I think Mr. Allen is probably an exception among most teachers, who feel that the only objective way to evaluate students is with a number and a letter. So I believe that many teachers would have to be replaced (or just reeducated).
I believe that your idea will eventually emerge as a more prevalent form of education and evaluation. Until then, it's all tests. But I think we can use our collaboration to help our test grades.
Great job!
Daniel
Jamie-
I found your post really interesting. I completely agree that, in some ways, judging our collaborative skills would be a more fair assessment than an in-class essay or some other form of test. I know that my dad always talks about how important collaboration is in his job, and I think we should be taught how to collaborate the right way, so we're prepared for the real world.
Like you said, collaboration is difficult to judge, and a perfect system of evaluation hasn't been developed yet, as far as I know. I'd like to think, though, that educators are trying to find a way to teach and evaluate this essential life lesson.
Anyways, I really enjoyed reading what you had to say about the topic!
-Kate
Jamie,
I completely agree! I think the skills that we learn in academy really help our real life experiences, and our ability to study for other classes. Collaboration should be what we're graded on. We put so much work into our opinions and our collaboration and discussion, we should get SOMETHING for it. My grade wasn't disaterous on this test but I think I can vocalize my opinions a lot better than I can write them.
Have you ever experienced being graded on collaboration?
Ms. G,
I have been graded on collaboration for this one project although I found it was not too objective. Mr. Allen and our class, however, are working on creating a website all about collaboration in order to help make it "work" in classes. Recently, we wrote a Jane Eyre collaborative essay which I blogged about as well!
Jamie,
I came across your post via Twitter and really enjoyed reading what you had to say. I completely agree that collaboration is a huge part of education and will continue to be important in other (if not most) facets of your life. I love the system you guys worked out for studying together! It is a far more valid reflection of how the professional world works than a test is.
It can be very challenging to give a grade for collaboration but the tools you used would certainly help. For starters, your teacher could see the Google doc you all created. If you had used a wiki the teacher could actually see what each of you had contributed and/or corrected in the page history. Teachers have been grading group projects for years, why couldn't we apply those same techniques to other collaborations?
Thanks for sharing! I am going to pass your post along to some of the other teachers at my school.
Robin Beaver
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