Cultivating Intentional Global Collaborations with Students

Purpose & objective

Participants will leave with an understanding of what makes a quality global collaboration activity for students. They will use provided brainstorming prompts and organizational tools to intentionally work through a desired collaboration activity they can use in their work. They will learn a new way to think through choosing a collaborator so they are maximizing the potential learning opportunities for the given goals. Participants will leave the session with the skills to strategically identify a collaboration that addresses the many facets of a student’s needs.

Outline

Participants will begin by sharing with each other their experiences collaborating with another class/school and how it enriched the learning experience of the students. They will learn about the components, spectrum and benefits of global collaboration for student learning through looking at an article from ISTE and exposure to other research. Two examples of collaboration activities between schools will be showcased to introduce the reasoning for the particular collaboration and how intentional choosing of the collaborator supported students’ deeper understandings. Strategies and importance for intentionally seeking out and choosing collaborators will be introduced and discussed. Finally, participants will work with those around them to discuss what work they have during the school year that would benefit from collaboration in various ways. They will use a graphic organizer to begin to formulate the components of a global collaboration activity so the students will grow in content, skills and empathy. Participants will focus on the broad strokes in order to identify the ideal global collaborator. By identifying the global collaborator, participants will be able to begin to explore their networking options in order to intentionally reach out to potential collaborators. Finally, they will share with like grade-level and subject participants about their potential collaborator outline emphasizing why this collaboration will support the intended academic and social-emotional goals.

Supporting research

Global collaboration is a must for our modern age. Beyond the social and political global components of our world, the modern workforce relies on the ability to collaborate easily with others all over the world in order to innovate and complete tasks. However, just adding collaboration activities into a classroom can feel like trying to add another item to an already full plate. By approaching the collaboration opportunities with specific intentions, those global collaboration opportunities can enrich the learning experiences of the students. The global collaboration opportunities support the student development of empathy and negotiation skills.
The Edublogger’s Guide to Global Collaboration (Kathleen Morris, 2018)
Global Collaboration Projects that Go Way Beyond Skype (Stephen Noonoo, 2014)

Innovation through Global Collaboration: A New Source of Competitive Advantage (Alan MacCormack, 2007)

Nurturing global collaboration and networked learning in higher education (Cronin, Cochrane and Gordan, 2016)