How are we taking what we teach our students aboutĀ 

face-to-face collaboration to carry over to their group work done virtually? Teaching students working in groups about setting roles, expectations, and norms, along with communicating clear assessment criteria for individuals and the group, is invaluable for project collaboration and life as we skill students how to work in teams. One can ask the same question about teachers as some teaching teams are moving into virtual collaboration.

So why do I bring this topic up? In the past month, one of my sons shared about a group project he was working on in college. I asked about guidelines, expectations, and rubrics for teamwork and the final project, along with possible lessons on collaboration, especially as most of the work would be done virtually. My son shared that nothing was offered, so he was stepping in to use some of his organizational skills learned from his side job and from his being president of a student organization.

A second occasion was in speaking to some friends from our days in Asia. They shared about an incredible program their daughter experienced to teach her to become a mediator and facilitator of discussions at a conference for youth from a border region where refugees were crossing to find safety and a better future. They noted that the year-long training equipped their daughter for collaboration and group work, while her regular school group virtual projects had no scaffolding. They noted that sometimes, with her virtual group projects, teachers needed to teach communication skills, help set roles, or offer clear expectations. This, at times, led to the domination of the groups by some students, while others wishing to contribute did not speak as they pulled back from participation.

For teachers and collaboration, I remember my time in the early 90s at the Saudi Arabian International School-Riyadh when we went from junior high to middle school. The administrators provided excellent guidance and training for the transition process. The training included learning how the new grade-level teams would operate most effectively by developing structures and processes. While we were not working together virtually (no Internet allowed in Saudi Arabia then), I learned a great deal as a counselor working with and watching the teams learn and grow together, especially with their communication skills. Those experiences would lay the groundwork for articles on curriculum collaboration:

As a big believer in blended-to-virtual learning that includes virtual collaboration, I hope educators take their lessons and frameworks for student in-class teamwork and adapt them to our students’ digital workspaces. The same can be said of our teaching teams, along with training in how to use the technology of the digital work areas as curriculum mapping tools, LMSs, and collaboration tools via Google Docs and maybe even carryovers from the business world likeĀ Slack.

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