Article 8: Collaborative Projects: What Does It Mean to 'Co-construct'?

Collaborative Projects: What Does It Mean to ‘Co-construct’?

by peter skillen

I can see where he is going with this but I don't see how to go about doing this in an effective way. Sure enough, it would be successful if students would/could go ahead and take charge of their own learning and work with other individuals to build on what they know. This happens in real life all the time for them. They discover something interesting or funny and they share it with others. They go on to research on a certain topic because it interests them. The deal now is how to channel that energy to something content related where they do want to move beyond and work together to learn new things. Isn't that ultimately what we want for them as educators? Easier said than done...It happens but I guess that's what we are learning about now. What tools can we use to grab their attention to motivate them to learn. What topics will scream at them.

This whole summer has been spent creating blogs and gathering thoughts on all sorts of topics. I could say that I am over-blogged but I am actually more enthused to use it in the classroom. I am in the library so it saddens me a little that I cannot experiment on my own, however, I am full of fire to pass on the great things I've learned. The best part of blogging for me is the contribution part. It really appeals to me how something so simple as commenting can really get the kids thinking a lot more and helping each other on a whole different level. Skillen sees it as a way to "bootstrap ALL classroom members to a higher level of understanding both the content and processes of learning." This goes for all the different social media out there. It just needs a little help to guide them to that higher level of thinking. The future is all about collaboration and working together. They need to learn how to do that.