Participate and share: Interactive session 
Participants interested in rethinking the structure and style of classroom discussions will build familiarity with several online whiteboards and develop strategies for how to use them to increase student engagement and student agency. Socratic seminars have the pedagogical advantage of highlighting the power of inquiry and letting students practice critical thinking in a collaborative and student-centered setting. However, planning these discussions often proves difficult due to limited time in class, groups of students large enough so that not all voices are easily heard, and teachers not always being able to remain facilitators rather than leaders of discussion. Online whiteboards, while invaluable during teacher-led remote teaching, can also be leveraged to redesign and reframe classroom discussion. Tools like Miro and Canva Whiteboard allow a class to “talk” on an infinite canvas by adding text, images, audio, and more, both in real time as well as asynchronously. In this reimagined discussion space, reticent students have more opportunities to contribute to the conversation, the whiteboard becomes an artifact that demonstrates student learning, the educator can interact with the whiteboard and foster productive discussion while letting students remain the leaders of discussion, and students practice good digital citizenship and online communication and collaboration skills. This session will take the model of the fishbowl seminar and demonstrate how it can be reimagined using an online whiteboard. Participants will be taken through a demonstration of a sample lesson plan. First, they will play the role of students engaging in a virtual discussion. Next, they will be shown the planning that went behind the discussion and start to develop techniques to apply this approach to their own classroom discussions. At the end of the session, participants will have seen first hand the flexibility and versatility of using online whiteboards in Socratic discussions, have experienced a demonstration through a student’s perspective, and be able to take this model and apply it to their own teaching.
- Setting the stage by reflecting on traditional classroom discussions’ advantages and disadvantages - peer-to-peer and group discussion (5 mins)
- Overview of how online whiteboards can be used to facilitate discussion (5 mins)
- Quick tutorial of Miro and Canva Whiteboard (10 mins)
- Simulation: participants play the role of students in a virtual discussion (20 mins)
- Unpacking the simulation: participants are shown the planning behind the virtual discussion (15 mins)
- Reflection and making connections: participants are given time to reflect upon their experience and to share out ideas of how to apply the model to their respective classrooms (5 mins)
- Emma Lind Martinez - "How to Empower Every Student to Speak in Class--and Why It Matters” (Education Next)
- The Power of the Socratic Classroom - Charles Ames Fischer
- Cathy Davidson and Christina Katopodis - “Trust Your Students to be Active Participants in Their Learning” (The Higher Education)
| Related exhibitors: | Canva for Education |
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