Session+7

=Session 7=

7.1 Collaboration

 * 1) What is collaboration? Collaboration is when two or more people work together to create a finished product
 * 2) What are 3 ways in which students collaborate in your classroom and are they successful? In my classroom, students collaborate in the following three ways:
 * 3) Students work together to try to figure out the meaning of material presented in class. Together they decipher the meaning (gist) of a text, work to figure out grammar rules, work to use grammar/vocabulary in a meaningful sense, etc.
 * 4) Students work together to produce a dialogue based on a topic given
 * 5) Students collaborate answer exercises

7.2 Video Response

 * 1) How can expanded use of technology help develop depth and breadth for our students? By expanding our use of technology through the use of videos and presentations, students will have a wider, deeper knowledge of the content area (depth). Through the use of projects (glogster) and presentations (prezis) they will also have a better understanding of each other and each others' interests (breadth).
 * 2) What is the difference between cooperation and collaboration? When students cooperate it means that they are able to work together. They are able to listen to each other ideas then come up with one finished product. when students collaborate it is like many pieces of a puzzle coming together. For each piece of the puzzle, it doesn't matter to the finished product as much HOW each piece is done, just that it IS done. When collaborating, it is important that students listen to each other and accept each others' ideas and to not try to improve on them. In a collaborative effort, students will each have a job to do and will then put it together into a finished product.
 * 3) What are the challenges in getting students to collaborate rather than just cooperating? The biggest challenge will be getting students to accept each other ideas and not to try to improve upon them, but to listen to each other and come up with the best possible finished product they can come up with as a group. Another challenge will be to find which students work the best together to complete these pieces of the puzzle. To create groups, or to teach students to create their own groups, which create the largest amount of depth and breadth

**7.3 Voicethread Definition**
Voicethread is an internet-based program that allows people to discuss a topic presented through a text or audio. Wow - this is an incredible tool for a foreign language classroom. This would be an amazing homework assignment, as it gets students speaking the language and communicating with each other outside of the classroom. It applies to their interests since it can be done using a cell phone. I will definitely use this one.

**7.4 Immigration Voicethread**
I thought it was pretty amazing how students were able to collaborate to come up with one response to submit to the voice thread. I didn't like that it was pre-prepared and students seemed to be reading a script in some cases. I think it would be better for students to have a general idea as to the topic but not to know the question. This way they would have ideas on how to answer but wouldn't have a canned answer. Some of the students sounded way too informed, which I think would be intimidating to other students. One other problem I noticed is that some students did not seem to speak into the microphone as clearly as others and were therefore hard to understand. Students should listen to their recording before submitting it for the final version.

7.5 Voicethread in the classroom
As a teacher who is always looking for students to speak more frequently in the target language, but having limited time in the classroom, this is an incredible tool. There are a multitude of ways I will be able to use voice thread. I could use it for students to comment on a picture (they could describe the picture, give an opinion, etc). I could also use it as a discussion, similarly to a written forum, where students are asked to respond to a discussion prompt. I could use it for students to describe or give an opinion on French art. For foreign language, this is perhaps one of the most useful tools we have studied. I found it mostly easy to use, especially the phone feature. I don't normally like the phone, but the fact that voicethread calls you makes it so user-friendly. The only thing I had trouble with was my webcam. When I clicked to use it, the voicethread froze up on me, so I was unable to comment on the third cartoon.

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