LTGR Ep. #65 - “Learning & Working in Groups”
Sunday, August 16th, 2009In this episode, Susan asks Dan for his thoughts on building group projects into courses. She’s been getting feedback regarding students who are resistant to working in groups. It seems the millennials don’t want to work together!
Show Notes:
In this episode, Susan asks Dan for his thoughts on building group projects into courses. She’s been getting feedback regarding students who are resistant to working in groups. It seems the millennials don’t want to work together! Susan points out that ordinarily these same students are highly social and adept at using digital tools.
That reminded Dan of a recent event watching kids playing networked Nintendo DS’s and the audience watching them. They learn to interact electronically at a young age!
Yes, students use the same tolls and skills we ask them to in online projects, but somehow we’ve sucked the fun right out of it! The pair talk about motivation and whether kids are stymied by structure. Dan still votes for structure.
The issue of trust comes up. We often ask learners to start working together before they’ve had a chance to develop trusting relationships. Susan turns that back to Dan’s experience in the work place where people who are successful are those who learn to build relationships quickly.
Susan’s still in favor of asking students to work together as long as it is explained that the skills are needed in the future. Dan suggests a guest lecturer to reinforce the idea of the transfer of skills. You could even spin off the expert’s experience in designing authentic real-world (real solution) projects that have value to the community.
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