Thursday, September 30, 2010
Collaborative Learning Process
This week's post deals with your thoughts about the collaborative learning process. We will continue to use the collaborative learning process throughout the semester. What did you think about the process? Did you like the use of expert groups & home groups? How can we make this process better for use in the future?
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I personally really liked this way of learning. It helped to hear what other people thought about a specific topic or how they understood something compared to how I understood it. I definitely liked the expert and home groups. Then I was able to put together my thoughts about one topic with others who were researching the same thing.Then getting together with our home groups and explaining and describing our information with the people in our home groups who don't know what that topic is about. I liked learning about the other topics that the others in my home group talked about. I don't really know what could make this process better. I thought it was really good and I look forward to doing more processes like this.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the collaborative learning process and how we used it during class. I think I learned more by doing this because I was able to focus on my topic and then after getting all my research done, I got to teach my "home" family and also be taught. Being taught by classmates also was helpful because the new information was taught in ways that were easy for me to understand. I personally liked the use of the expert groups and home groups. It was a completely new process to me and I thought that it was beneficial and prepared very well. I don't think there is anything that we should change about the process because I thought it was overall very efficient and helpful.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the home and expert groups in our project, cause it gave me a chance to learn more about with my subject. To get a better grip or understanding, I felt that it was really helpful and I enjoyed the time spent finding the information. It was a lot easier to talk with others who had the same subject and shared the same ideas you had. Towards the end of the expert group project, I had a much better idea and understanding on the Abbasside Empire. Then I was able to take this information that I learned and explain it to my home group. Then to find information on their subject, and get a better understanding on how Islam was spread and the different ideas of Islam. I really enjoyed the whole group and hope that in another activity that the class could use the same method.
ReplyDeleteI thought the collaborative process was a good idea. For the questions I still had my expert group answered it. I learned more this way because I was able to focus on just that topic and not have to think about the others. After I got done researching I was able to teach my home group as well as learn from them. Having my classmates explain things to me made it easier to understand. This was a completely new process for me and I personally liked it. I don't think there is anything we should change about the process.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I really liked the expert groups because it gave me different points of view about the topics. I also think that it was planned very well. The reason is because we did had to research the topics and also discuss things with other people. This actually made it easier to remember things because I tend to learn more stuff when I talk to people. I liked the home groups too because it was learning from other places too. I think it would work out better if we had more time to talk with our home groups and do more talking. That is my point of view. Other than that it was a great thing we did.
ReplyDeletePersonally I really liked the collaborative learning process. I learned a lot more then I do usually because I can focus on one topic at a time. I do not have to take notes over everything and only understand part of it. I learned about the Abassids. I didn't have to focus on the 4 caliphs and everything till after I was done researching my topic and became an expert on the Abassids with my expert group. The use of expert group and home groups allowed me to learn more about my topic then when I got back together with my home group everything went back together and it made sense.I think make it more useful we should start of right away with our expert groups and come up with the information then we should go to our home groups after we become experts on our subjects then explain this would probably save more time and the expert group could go more into detail. Other then that one change I think this process was really informative.
ReplyDeleteI definitely like the collaborative learning process. It helps me see what other people have to say about the different topics. Being in home groups first then expert groups made it way easier to learn. We get to interact with a lot more people, so the information will stay in our heads because we hear the topics again and again from the different classmates. I totally think that you should keep using this process because I believe it's a success. I really do feel like I learned a lot more. The sad part, is that I can't really think of what to say for improving the collaborative learning process. The only thing i can say is that more time with the expert groups could help! This was fun.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the collaborative learning process a lot. It gave me a chance to see if I had the right information. I also liked what other people had to say. That also gave me a chance to add to the information that I already had. Being in the expert groups and home groups helped me learn better in a way. A way that we can make it better is if maybe the teacher could go around and tell us a little more about the topic in the expert groups and also to clear up a few things. Overall I really liked it.
ReplyDeleteI found the collaborative groups to be very useful. I liked how there was a home group and an expert group. The part of having to research and explain your research to your home group was good because then we would go with our expert groups and shared what we discovered. We can make it better by finding a way to get along in our home groups and not argue.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the collaborative learning process, i think it was much easier to have each person from a group research one topic and getting together with the people researching the same topic. I think it helped because like Mr. Bell said, "We become the masters of the topic" and when we return to our original groups we know what to say. Also with the collaborative groups we don't get more pressure than necessary; we just focus on one topic and then we put everything together. At least thats what I think, if that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the collaborative groups was actually a good way for us to pertain to our topic and us interacting with each other and making us find information on our topic. The use of expert groups and home groups is good because then we don't all try finding the same thing and learn something and when we get together we can all learn from what the others have learned on their topics. I can't thing of a way to improve this process as long as people actually do their own work at the start.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the way we used the collaborative learning process. I wasn't searching for a mound of information and doing it by myself, I was searching for only information on one topic. I was able to take in that information and learn it thoroughly and become an "expert" on the topic. I learned the other information when we got back into our home groups which was good because instead of listening to one person talk over the whole thing, Kelli and I discussed our topics then had Mr. Bell come over and explain the other two. That way, when I'm trying to recall information, I can remember it more easily by recalling who gave that information to us. The whole process was not as overwhelming as it would be if we hadn't used the collaborative learning process. Something that I think would work better is to have everyone participate somehow when we meet in our "expert groups."
ReplyDeleteI liked the way that the groups were set up. How each person in their home group had one topic. Each person had to expand on the subject they were given, and I think that it really helped when we got into our specific groups. The one thing that I think I didn't really like was that I felt like I didn't know enough information when we got into our expert groups. However, by the time that we had discussed every topic, I did learn many new things that I didn't even know when I was researching. I just hope that maybe next time we will learn more about the other groups because I feel like I learned to much about my topic, but not enough about the others.
ReplyDeleteKeyli-
ReplyDeleteI agree. I did help us interact with people. I actually felt like I knew what I was talking about when we were in our expert groups. I also don't know how we could improve on this, but I think the more that we do it, the better we will get at it.
Isabel-
I like the way you think. That is a very good point. I think that it was less stressful only having to do research on one topic than on four. Like I said to Keyli, I think the more that we do this, the better we will get at it.
I actually really enjoyed the collaborative group porcess. For me personally it gave me the chance to compare facts about my topic, in the case the Four Caliphs, with other people of my expert group. Also if I was unsure of something or had any questions, I could ask someone from the expert group. So in that case I did like the ideas of the expert groups. I also liked the idea of the home groups, because I was then able to share with them information about my topic and vise versa. Also, because of the expert groups I felt like there wasn't enough pressure on me from people of my home groups, to know every single fact and detail about my topic. I'm not really sure what could be done differently in the future in regards to the collaborative process. But what I can say is that I look forward to using the process again.
ReplyDeleteThere were many positives about the process we used for our projects this week. I really liked the concept of experts groups simply because its easy to miss some information when researching such a large topic. However, if there are six people working on a topic as opposed to one, less important details will be missed. Creating the actual project with your expert group was a slight challenge because organizing and sorting so much information was somewhat difficult. Being in a group I think its important that one takes the initiative to do as much as they possibly can to help their group, and I believe that concept will come as we do this process more. Last, I think returning to our home groups and sharing our topics was a very effective way of learning about the topics.
ReplyDeleteSally,
ReplyDeleteI also liked this way of learning and the expert and home groups. Like you I don't think there is a way to make this process better and I'm also looking forward to doing more of these processes.
Teresita,
I also liked the collaborative learning process. Being in those home and expert groups made learning better. Before I read your blog I hadn't thought about the teacher going around and helping us out a little but that would be something that would make this better.
I thought the collaborative learning process worked great. It gave time for personal study, group discussion, and the chance to teach and be taught. I thought the concept of having expert groups and home groups was pretty clever. It provided an opportunity for a group of people (expert group) to reach an agreement on what should be shared with the home group. I don't think there's anything that could be done to improve it. All in all, I think this was a pretty neat process, and I look forward to doing it again.
ReplyDeleteOlivia... I too think that the expert groups were great because it's easy to miss some key information when studying alone. It was a slight challenge when creating the presentation and I think that's because it was our first time doing this. The problem will most likely be solved once we start doing this process more.
ReplyDeleteKeyli...I also liked how this process involved lots of interacting with people. I think you summed up what all of us think about this process when you said that it made it easier to learn more, because we kept hearing the topic over and over again. I also liked how Mr. Bell led a class discussion at the end so that we could also learn some of the stuff that he knows.
I like this process because it allowed us to really focus on one topic and get quite a bit learned, since we were "experts." Then we were able to get back with our "home groups" and share what we had studied. We got a lot learned quickly, which made it easier to compare and contrast the different dynasties/rulers. Also, if there was something that I did need help with or didn't understand about my topic, there were others that were able to help me. It also forced everyone in our home groups to cooperate so that there wasn't just one person doing all the work, which happens occasionally in other classes...Overall I enjoyed this process.
ReplyDeleteTeresita,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that I liked this process, and also that it really helped to learn a lot about our topics. I think your idea of Mr. Bell coming around and helping us out or answering our questions is smart because sometimes, there were things that weren't perfectly clear to me.
Madi,
Like you, I kind of enjoyed this process. I also agree that I really didn't learn that much about the other topics until we went over them all together with the whole class. Maybe next time we should spend more time with our home groups explaining everything.
Keyli, I agree with you that this project was exciting and fun to do. I learned a lot from Mr. Bell summing everything up at the end and also a lot from my "home" group at the end of the presenting.
ReplyDeleteDeep, I agree with you when you said maybe it'd be best to go with our expert groups first. This way, like you said, we'd have more detailed information and we could divide the concepts we needed to cover up so it'd be more detailed. Overall though, I agree that this topic was successful.
I personally really liked using the expert groups. It was nice to just be able to research one aspect of a subject, then combine what we learned, rather than having to learn all about it all at once. Sharing the work between our expert groups to make the presentation was also nice, because in addition to making our research more complete, it helped to make the work load much easier.
ReplyDeleteKeyli, I agree the project was a lot of fun to do. I learned a lot from dividing the work up with our groups, and the presentations.
ReplyDeleteMadi, I also enjoyed the process we used to do the work. I agree that we should maybe spend more time learning about the other subjects too, because until our home groups met again, I didn't really know anything about the other subjects.
I really liked the collaborative learning process. I thought it worked really well and we were able to learn and accomplish alot in a short period of time. I liked the use of expert groups because it gave us a chance to compare and discuss information which in turn helped us become more familiar with the subject. One of the things we did in our expert groups was when working on our powerpoint we each were assigned a slide, yes this was easier to get done, but when presenting to my home group I found that I wasn't as familiar with some of the topics as I thought.
ReplyDeleteKelli B.-- I agree with what you said, the expert groups did make the work load easier and also less overwhelming I think.
ReplyDeleteMadi-- I also felt like while in my expert group i was able to learn alot about our topic. I learned stuff that I didn't find while doing my own research. I agree and think that I didn't learn as much about the other topics as much as I did about the Seljuk Turks.
I must say that I really liked the collaborate learning process. Doing this method helped me out so much, because I only needed to concentrate on one topic. My topic was the Seljuk Turks. I really like the idea of having an expert group, because then we can discuss ONLY on that topic and give our opinions on that specific topic. Not only does it help you understand a lot more, but I noticed too that while you start to research and understand more of your topic, is that you also noticed that all other topics are linked. So it you can say that it helps you not only know your topic but also have a skeptical idea of the other topics that are involved. For ideas to make this a better way to learn, would probably be to have more time on our expert groups, so if then people have more time to look for things and ask Mr. Bell for something that is unsure of.
ReplyDeleteDeep: I agree that we should get in our expert groups first, so we can have more time on our topic, but also, going into our home groups is better so we can pick what topic we want.
ReplyDeleteJessica: I agree, when doing this, each person in a home group has to do his/her own work. So this indeed is a good process for everyone.
Teresita:
ReplyDeleteYou're right, some things did get messed up in our expert groups because we didn't understand some information. Having someone clear that up really helped it "click" more and heightened our understanding of the topic, and from there we were able to discuss it more by ourselves.
Alex:
I agree in that the information that was taught to us by our classmates was in terms that we were more likely to understand than that of a teacher. Since we are all classmates, we know how we comprehend information ourselves.
Keyli-
ReplyDeleteI agree with you a lot. It was a fun thing to do. Also, hearing things over and over again from other people over one topic does help to remember things.
Jessica-
It is true that other people made things more clear about something that you were not sure about. I also agree with you because not just one person did the work, because it usually does happen that way.
carlos,
ReplyDeleteI also found the collaborative groups useful and i also think it helped having two groups; expert and home.
Kelli
ReplyDeletei agree with you, i learned more on one topic rather than trying to absorb everything at once from every topic.
Carlos,
ReplyDeleteOne of the main objectives of the collaborative learning process is to learn how to get along with your group members, that is a skill all in itself!
Isabel,
What I think we'll do is give more time to the expert groups, the individual research time is crucial because it allows you to do the digging yourself-it's about being accountable to your expert group.
Teresita,
What I get from your post is that you would like to have a little heads up about your topic that way you are not 'going in blind' when you start. I'll see what I can come up with the next time we do this.
Teresita,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we should get to know some information before we get into our topics.
Keyli
I agree that this process helps because it gets stuck in our heads after people repeat it over and over again.
Franklin: I liked the Collaborative groups also. I think focusing on one topic and know a little bit about the groups also helped. I think going to the expert groups for a longer period of time would help also.
ReplyDeleteCarlos: I found the collaborative groups to be very useful also. I like the home groups and expert groups also. I agree becoming an expert and explain also helped. I think my home group did a good job and did not argue. I think the only thing we would need is more time with Expert groups.
I think the collaboration process worked very well. I didn’t have to research this vast and vague topic, I just needed to know about one subject and expand from there. I think it is a great method to use throughout the year. The divided sub groups called expert groups worked wonderful. If you had a question you could ask anyone in your group because they were sitting there doing the exact same thing you were doing. It didn’t feel overwhelming at all. The home groups worked as well, each person knew and did their part and then we just conversed as a group on it. Then when we worked on group notes together, we now had more knowledge of the subject. As for changes that I would make to the process I don’t really know. I think that in order to properly make any changes to any process you have to see how it progresses though out the year. Then you have a better understanding of what needs to stay and what needs to go go.
ReplyDeleteTeresita de los arboles- Teresita- I am completely with you on the fact that it’s hard to find out everything by yourself and when you are in a group you can all help each other out. I can honestly say that some of the things I had no idea what it meant until we got into groups.
ReplyDeleteGreat Job!
Isabel- I thoroughly enjoyed your comment. I think you encompassed the feeling of all of the class into a to the point answer. Good job!
Rosie- I agree with your opinion somewhat. I liked that you made your opinion straight to the point. Though I think that this process should be refined. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteCarlos- Your opinion was well stated. I understood it. Though I do not agree with what you said at the end. My group did not argue a lot. Great work!
Isabel,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that not being the only 'expert' on your topic was stress relieving. It was a lot easier to focus on the facts that you found knowing that if you were to miss some minor details you would have other people to fill in those blanks. I also liked discussing our time periods amongst our groups because it allowed me to get a better understanding of their topics.
Zulema,
I agree that this process was beneficial because we were able to get a lot done in a short period of time. However, I think that if everyone in the group had accomplished what they were supposed to there wouldn't have been a problem on discussing every aspect of your topic because of the discussions prior to creating the powerpoint. I believe if we continue to use this process than that aspect will become less of an issue as people realize it.
Sally,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said, mainly because I also enjoyed this way or learning too. It really gave me a chance to compare what I knew about my topic with other people who were researching the same thing. The process of using expert and home groups also made topics easier to learn, because we got to hear from our peers and what they thought about the information. Lastly, I also look forward to using the process again.
Hugo,
I have to agree with you with what you said about the collaborative groups being a good way for us to research our topic. It is a bit easier using the process to research because, like you mentioned, we can all learn from each other in some way. Plus, not everyone is researching the same thing.
Hugo..I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteMadi..I agree with you too :)
The process of using other groups actually helped alot. It gave me the chance of being able to compare ideas with the other people we were assigned with. It also gave me the chance of knowing what i actually knew about the topic. I enjoyed this very much because i also got to discuss and have with my friends. The home was great as well. Although i didnt do much explaining to my home group, im pretty sure i would be able to explain enough information to them that they would feel comfortable with what they had learned.
ReplyDelete