Reflections on using Collabedit
While I have not used Collabedit with my students, I have used it for a lesson I ran for my classmates at UOIT. From this experience I have learned the benefits and downfalls of using Collabedit.
The technology is incredibly easy to use and we did not encounter any technical difficulties. When running the activity for my students, I would require them to use their first name and last initial when signing into their specific URL. Collabedit worked perfectly for the lesson I designed, because it allowed my classmates to learn from each other. The anonymity gave people room to make mistakes as well. As the person leading the activity, I was able to point out mistakes without embarrassing any of my classmates, yet giving them the opportunity to improve upon their written work. My classmates also felt they could look to each other for inspiration, guidance and help so it provided an atmosphere for peer-to-peer learning.
One challenge I experienced was monitoring activity and engagement. Because it does not show who is contributing what, a student could be not doing any work while the rest of his group works. I have attempted to combat this problem by splitting my class into groups of four and running the writing portion of the lesson in the computer lab. This way I can circulate the room ensuring student involvement. As well, I will add myself to each URL to ensure that the groups are progressing and that no inappropriate language is being used.
Overall the activity was a success. We were able to write a poem in about 10 minutes and my classmates felt proud of it because they had created it together. As well, they were all brought to the same level of understanding because they had to follow certain criteria in order to produce the proper poem. As well, they felt a sense of pride and community as they had created sometime collaboratively and not individually.
The only downfall to this technology is the fact that it does not track who is contributing and what they are writing. Overall, though, it was a positive experience and would use this tech tool again in the future.
The technology is incredibly easy to use and we did not encounter any technical difficulties. When running the activity for my students, I would require them to use their first name and last initial when signing into their specific URL. Collabedit worked perfectly for the lesson I designed, because it allowed my classmates to learn from each other. The anonymity gave people room to make mistakes as well. As the person leading the activity, I was able to point out mistakes without embarrassing any of my classmates, yet giving them the opportunity to improve upon their written work. My classmates also felt they could look to each other for inspiration, guidance and help so it provided an atmosphere for peer-to-peer learning.
One challenge I experienced was monitoring activity and engagement. Because it does not show who is contributing what, a student could be not doing any work while the rest of his group works. I have attempted to combat this problem by splitting my class into groups of four and running the writing portion of the lesson in the computer lab. This way I can circulate the room ensuring student involvement. As well, I will add myself to each URL to ensure that the groups are progressing and that no inappropriate language is being used.
Overall the activity was a success. We were able to write a poem in about 10 minutes and my classmates felt proud of it because they had created it together. As well, they were all brought to the same level of understanding because they had to follow certain criteria in order to produce the proper poem. As well, they felt a sense of pride and community as they had created sometime collaboratively and not individually.
The only downfall to this technology is the fact that it does not track who is contributing and what they are writing. Overall, though, it was a positive experience and would use this tech tool again in the future.