Tuesday 7 May 2019

Educational Issues, Current Affairs and Articles: Collaboration Tools to the Rescue!

Educational Issues, Current Affairs and Articles: Collaboration Tools to the Rescue!: At times teachers are overcome with students who demand new ways of being taught, teachers are literally running out of ideas...

Collaboration Tools to the Rescue!







At times teachers are overcome with students who demand new ways of being taught, teachers are literally running out of ideas to bring new content to the classroom.  As good as teachers can be, there are times they need great assistance in keeping students interested in learning.  Teachers are often demanded to find creative innovations to keep the classrooms excited and at times it feels as if they are about to slip into the raging river of despair! However, there is a lifeline that is ever thrown at teachers, and it is called collaboration. 

Collaboration among teachers helps to creative positives impacts among themselves and others that can significantly contribute towards school improvement (ASU, 2017).  This is more than just conducting a seminar or workshop in a conference or staff room.  As twenty-first century educators, we can now use digital gadgets or collaborative tools that can help use to collaborate quicker, faster and cheaper to reach out to other individuals.  This can help teaching professionals or resource persons to share ideas and updated information in the raging classrooms, preventing waves of boredom from capsizing the ship of learning.





 There are many collaborative tools in the digital world. Sometimes the amount out there is very intimidating and may cause people to resist adopting or trying them (Martin 2017).   However, there are some collaborative tools to the rescue that are very useful for teachers to use to help share relevant information and ideas amongst themselves:
i.            Google Docs - (Bika, nd).  Share documents online where persons at different locations can view and edit documents instantly allowing persons to share their lesson planning ideas for others to use.
ii.            Slack – (Martin, 2017).  Promotes virtual connections with other individuals to promote information exchange.
iii.            Whatsapp – (Elcom, 2018).  With the use of WhatsApp Web or a good smartphone files from teachers can be shared with shared.  Whatsapp groups can be formed with subject teachers to share content matter simultaneously.
iv.            Red Pen – (Time Doctor, 2019). Good with visual arts teachers, help to design collaboratively and share those designs into the classrooms. Students can use the same software for group work.
v.            Skype – (Time Doctor, 2019).  This helps in collaborating with teachers and specialists instantly with teachers world-wide and locally.
vi.            Google Drive – (Pappas, 2013).  It is a shared account, which allows teachers within an organization much-needed documents that have been placed in the space for others to use.
vii.            Thinkbinder - (Pappas, 2013).  A group platform that allows posts and updates on projects, used for promotion of unconventional ideas and with the use of calendars mark dates for set goals and honour due dates.  Files are amongst users.

The list goes on! Being in the classroom myself, there are times my colleagues and I forget that we can seek and get much-needed help.  This link is for Ad employees but it is applicable to teachers who need to know the collaborative tools that exist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-LVPOK91Tc.  We unnecessary find ourselves drowning in the abyss of boredom, ignorance, mental fatigue and lack of creativity.  It is always good to form a community of persons who can collaborate with, and re-energize the minds for creative and stimulate ourselves to steady the waters in the classroom and in our minds (ASU, 2017).  It is always good to collaborate with the use of the right tools, therefore before selecting, one be mindful of the reason for selecting them.





Collaboration does not only happen among teachers but also among students who need support and good productive learning environments to sail into the sunset of the acquisition of knowledge.  There are so many benefits education can get from using online tools https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SC8SL7LxoI.  I am of the view that the proper use of using collaborative tools  help in the promotion of a healthy productive learning environment.  It helps to put the exhausted teacher on to a raft that  assists in facilitating such a stable, creative and enjoyable environment, and therefore, in other words, rescue the teaching-learning environment from death by boredom!



Reference
Arkensas State University (2017). The importance of teacher collaboration 

            https://degree.astate.edu/articles/k-12-education/importance-of-teacher-

collaboration.aspx

Avandale Inc. (2017).  Guidance on Microsoft Collaboration Tools for Avanade Employees. 

          Retrieved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-LVPOK91Tc

Bika, N., (nd)14 collaboration tools for productive teams.  Retrieved

 

Elcom (2018) The importance of collaboration in today’s workplace.  Retrieved https://www.elcomcms.com/resources/blog/the-importance-of-collaboration-in-todays-workplace

Martin, A., (2017). How to pick the right collaboration tools. Retrieved https://www-computerworld-             com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.computerworld.com/article/3209184/
            how-to-pick-the-right-collaboration-tools.amp.html?usqp=mq331AQCCAE%3
            D&amp_js_v=0.1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_
            tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2
            Fwww.computerworld.com%2Farticle%2F3209184%2Fhow-to-pick-the-right-collaboration-
            tools.html
Pappas, C., (2013) The 5 best free collaboration tools for teachers. Retrieved https://elearningindustry.com/the-5-best-free-collaboration-tools-for-teachers
Teaching and Learning Resources for Me .(2016).  Retrieved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
            SC8SL7LxoI
Time Doctor, (nd). 53 online collaboration tools to help your team be more productive.  Retrieved
            https://biz30.timedoctor.com/online-collaboration-tools/

“MOOC,” The Whirl Wind We Must Weather!


Introduction
The twenty-first century, that is now nineteen years old, came with the whizzing sound of digital clicks, which has weathered the landscape of our education system as we know it.  We find that our educational institutions that we have lead, and developed had to move with the turbulence in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).  This has caused us to improve our levels of digital literacy so that we meet the demands of the learner and teachers to provide a differential style of learning to the classrooms.  As educational leaders, we should use our positions within our weather stations to watch the trends and the issues the turbulence brings and find ways and means in dealing with them.
Gratitude must be expressed to the Ministry of Education to stage this conference for Principals, Deans, and Heads of Department who are present from the various colleges and universities for them to become aware and reminded of changes the winds brought and still are bringing to education, and how to re-scope the landscape of our classrooms and teaching practice within our colleges and universities. This began with the building of Instructional Technology (IT) labs, installing internet and servers and the purchasing of equipment appropriate and sometimes not so appropriate for both our teachers and students to use.  That in itself came with another set of a whirlwind where a technology plan had to be developed and executed for the schools to help educational stakeholders to be digitally literate in order to improve on content delivery, student learning assessments and best practices in our “Classrooms.”  Now, our rafters are being shaken again with a different kind of wind, which we truly cannot ignore.  It is called Massive Open Online Classrooms (MOOCs).


Description
During the 1990s, the puffs of wind blew in the form of the Open Educational Resources (OER) which was viewed as the staring process of MOOCs (Gracia, 2015 ).  The name MOOC that was viewed as an online course format was finally developed and launched at the University of Manitoba under the heading, “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (Liyanagunawardena, Adams and Williams, 2013).  Zawachi-Richer, et-al (2018) described MOOC as not an independent phenomenon from other areas of open and distant, but has the potential to develop lifelong learning. David Cormier was credited for this design when he and his team developed a twelve-week online course in Canada in 2008 (Garica, 2015).  They also saw that it provided more opportunities for persons to gain access to content and knowledge.  Educase (2011) describes MOOC as a platform for giving content for people to learn online to just about anyone who is desirous of learning new things.
According to Loechx, (2016) the society blew life into the MOOC movement by providing four pillars of existence: a) technology – mobile ubiquitous cloud, b) culture – digital natives, c) society – globalization, and d) economy – creative society.  These pillars help to form the turbulence that has been reshaping education by fully comprehending the movement of online distance learning and how it reshape the education process.  There are a few institutions that have taken on the MOOC course format and so far, they seemed to be successful.  Many times, we have seen their advertisements online whenever we surf the web.  They are Coursea, Khan Academy, Udacity, and edX (Garcia, 2015).  We have found that many of our administrative staff have signed on to at least one of these platforms, participated, and are now asking many our educational leaders to redesign our programmes to give others an opportunity for more persons to upgrade their skills and knowledge. 
The design of MOOCs is said to be offered on a weekly basis with an average offering of approximately six to ten weeks in duration.  With this comes short lecture videos, supplemental readings, and assignments that are problem-solving in nature (Garcia, 2015).  Garcia, also describes that there are forums where online discussions are had with the facilitators moderating them closely and responsively.  The beauty about this is that individuals are given the liberty to do their work in a timely fashion unlike the traditional system that we run and the learning atmosphere is relaxed, however, if one wants to complete the course, they must participate. Here is where the turbulence comes, because the traditional way of teaching in a face-to-face fashion becomes battered with the strong winds of MOOCs.  Chiecher and Donolo (2013) refer to the shift of traditional delivery as moving away from the traditional mode of teaching and questions whether or not certain “training needs” can truly be met. 
There is worry about the role of the facilitator in the MOOC storm.  Many lecturers have been approaching our leaders about their employment and expressed fear in using a new digital feature in teaching.  There are fears that their purpose will be reduced if our colleges and universities do embrace this breezy phenomenon in our institutions, but their role  will now become of a facilitator by collecting, analyzing, condensing and reflecting the actions of the learning participant when submissions are made (Garica, 2015).
There is one issue that the MOOC whirlwind brings, and that is copyright.  So much content that can be constructed by many persons and this is the topic of discussion from many of our educational leaders.  Our colleagues from the universities abroad who use MOOCs had initially voiced their concern.  However, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) state that the professors who construct MOOC courses own the rights to the material and do modifications where it is necessary (Educase, 2013).  Instructional design and other resources are added to ensure quality and reliability.  This is one area our institutions can be part of the wind by ensuring that we form linkages with the universities who offer MOOCs and be brave to create courses that can attract audiences outside of the traditional face to face setting. 
Usefulness of the MOOC to Institutions
Many systematic studies have gone into the research of this persistent turbulence of MOOC to find how useful this mode of teaching can be to our institutions that we lead.  Chen (2014) recognized that there are opportunities for participants and institutions for more persons to learn.   Zawacki-Richter, O., Bozkurt, A., Alturki, Aldraiweesh, A., (2018) thought that MOOC is a good way of making learning easier, creating equality amongst the participants and that knowledge is liberated to persons local and worldwide.  Although research has shown wherein the early stages MOOC was placed in one platform, due to the turbulence it caused,  it developed and still developing into a more formalized and financial potential for facilitators and institutions to gain diverse benefits. 
MOOC can become useful in our institutions where digitally literate instructors of various disciplines can design and produce instructional materials video clips/flip classrooms and additional resources for courses and online programmes that they offer as a high-quality package to their clients (Educause, 2013).   With that, the copyright concerns of content packages, especially when a person transfers to another institution or retires would have to be looked at.
 These are still strong questions asked, but with quality assurance teams in place within institutions, those legalities will be worked out just as other innovations that had come before us.  In addition, whenever third-party sources are used, that the requisite permissions have been gained and acknowledged so that our institutions do not fall into legal issues with original content writers. What is clear is that if the educational leaders plan carefully and collaborate with other stakeholders, our own MOOCs can be as popular is Coursera, edX, etc.
Conclusion and Recommendations
In this whirlwind of MOOC and its series of turbulence, we as educational leaders can either get blown away, watch our institutions become redundant and  irrelevant, or we  collaborate and ensure that we stay grounded and become part of the change in the way we teach and deliver our content.  With each decade comes with “disruptive innovations” (Christensen, 2013) where a new set of customers from a traditional dimension transfers into a new market and such is MOOC.  
Fears are natural when innovations happen quickly; however, with collaborations and training sessions with resource persons, the inclusion of MOOC into our institutions can increase the chances of student intake and good quality education gained.
The inclusions of social media plug-ins such as Twitter, wikis, etc, MOOC within our institutions can help to reshape and improve the two-way process of learning (Garcia 2015).
Continuous professional development must be done to ensure that a certain level of digital literacy must be maintained in an ever-evolving technology-filled world.  Today, a new device can be created, and within two years, it is no longer relevant.  Professional development will aid in our institutions be part of the cutting edge of digital learning and due to our leadership, we can become paid consultants to other establishments who would like to collaborate or partner with us.  It can even lead to us becoming content developers for private sector institutions where copyrighted materials can be uploaded for their MOOC platforms (Educause, 2013).
            Our institutions are facing the storms, we are adjusting to the weathering, we have a responsibility to the students who we are “remixing” our approaches in order for them to become beneficiaries of quality education.  In one shape or form, we ourselves have been exposed to the winds while we have pursued our studies, now, it has come to us in our educational weather stations.  Developing a good and ongoing quality assurance team amongst ourselves, and with the input of other stake-holders, our institutions will not become rubbles in education but beacons in the eyes of the world of students who are in the whirlwind of digital change.



Reference
Chen, Y. (2014). Investigating MOOCs through blog mining. The International Review of
Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 15(2), 85–106. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v15i2.1695
Chiecher, A., & Donolo, D. (2013). Trabajo grupal mediado por foros. Aportes para el análisis
            de la presencia social, cognitiva y didáctica en la comunicación asincrónica. In A. C.
            Chiecher, D. S. Donolo, & J. L. Córica (Eds.), Entornos virtuales y aprendizaje. Nuevas
            perspectivas de estudioe investigaciones (pp. 151-198). Mendoza, Argentina: Editorial
Christensen, C. M. (2013). The Innovator’s Dilemma. Brighton, MA: Harvard Business
            Publishing.
EDUCAUSE (2013, July 29). Copyright Challenges in a MOOC Environment. Retrieved
EDUCAUSE (2011). 7 things you should know about MOOCs. EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative.
Garcia, I., (2015).  Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): theoretical education and
            pedagogical foundation.  Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net
/publication/321360956_Massive_Open_Online_Courses_MOOCs_theoretical_education
_and_pedagogical_foundation_cafvir2015submission61
Liyanagunawardena, T., Adams, A., & Williams, S. (2013). MOOCs: A systematic study of the
            published literature 2008-2012. The International Review of Research in Open and
            Distributed Learning, 14(3), 202–227. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v14i3.1455
Loeckx, J., (2016).  Blurring Boundaries in Education: Context and Impact of MOOCs
International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2016, Vol.17(3),
p.92-121
Zawacki-Richter, O., Bozkurt, A., Alturki, Aldraiweesh, A., (2018). What Research Says about
            MOOCs--An Explorative Content Analysis.  International Review of Research in Open
            and Distance Learning 1492-3831 vol:19 iss:1 pg:242 -259