Using technology to learn collaboration

The document ICT in the PYP lists important ICT skills for inquiry.  These include being able to connect globally and explore different perspectives.  Collaborating is one of the six ICT skills - and is also a transdisciplinary skill to support learning as well as being a valuable life skill.  The question is often asked, how do you teach collaboration through technology?  The answer, it seems, is to use digital media and environments to participate in the creation and sharing of knowledge.

Here is a good example today from Grade 2, who were using Google Docs.  Students were working in groups of twos on collaborative writing and there were three steps involved:

• Create a Google Doc with a name and share it with your partner
• Spend 15 minutes planning your story or poem
• One of the pair should move to a different space, yet you should write together

This was a great introduction for the students who had to learn to collaborate online using technology, and such an activity could be a good starting point for eventually being able to collaborate on a document with students in other schools and other countries.

Photo Credit:  Pudú by Lisette Greco,  2006