Monday, October 18, 2010

Reading Response #2

          Telecollaborative assignments help students of any age to engage the highest levels thinking (according to Bloom's taxonomy). The highest levels of thinking are synthesis and evaluation. The ability to synthesize means that students have the ability to originate, integrate and combine ideas into a product, plan or proposal that is new to them ("Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain"). Students working on telecollaborative assignments are able to tap into this skill because they are able to work with other students and exchange ideas. In doing so, each student is being forced to interpret the idea's of others against their own which in turn will help students to learn how to have a discussion in a non-judgemental manner and explore others ideas which can establish ownership of the material ("Commonly Asked Questions about Teaching Collaborative Activities").

          The highest level of thinking is the ability to evaluate. Evaluation is when a student appraises, assesses or critiques on a basis of specific standards and criteria ("Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Development"). Telecollaborative assignments are extremely valuable in helping students to tap into this highest level of thinking because at the conclusion of their experience working with the group the students are able to look back and evaluate themselves and the overall group. Students are able to evaluate if they as well as their group members were successful at fulfilling their role (an important part of collaborative activities is when the teacher assigns individual students roles to fulfill within the group). However, evaluation goes beyond simply stating whether or not someone fulfilled their role, it expands to questioning and judging what it was that someone did or didn't do to fulfill their duties. Peer assessment forms can be a very valuable tool that teachers use in order to help the students evaluate their experience in a group.

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