Week 3 Back Pocket Strategies

Mini session: Choosing Your Tools

Ideas for facilitating this activity

One way to approach this tool exploration is to ask participants to approach the same topic, using different tools... then see what happens!

Here's an example:

Design an activity that has 2-3 issues or topics to explore. For example:

Brainstorm the advantages of online learning, then prioritize the list as you believe the advantages might appeal to first year college students. Re-prioritize the list for mid-career professionals. (Recent retirees? Students living in remote villages? Downtown Vancouver?)

List 5 important things for Teams to consider before they begin a team project, then draft a sample team charter (1-2 paragraphs)

List 5-10 differences between teaching face-to-face and teaching online then draft a statement of philosophy for teaching online

Identify 3-5 different Collaboration tools - be sure to have a mix of synchronous and asynchronous tools. Choose tools that are in Moodle or are readily available to all students. For instance: Discussion forum, Wiki, Blackboard Collaborate, Skype.

Divide the class into 3-5 teams and assign a different tool to each team. Teams should be given strict instructions to use only the one tool assigned to their team to complete the assignment.

Finally, craft a sharing and reflection activity that gets at the learning outcomes for this unit. Examples:

• Conduct a Collaborate session where the class shares and discusses the strengths & challenges of various online collaboration tools
• Post a survey (Fluid Survey?) to gather the ideas (Share results with the class)
• Use a discussion forum to share and reflect
• Create a table in a wiki and invite participants to construct a matrix of strengths & challenges of various online collaboration tools or kinds of learning activities best suited for synchronous or asynchronous online engagement