What have teachers said about this collaborative connection?
„Thank you so much again for the opportunity to work with you and your students on this collaboration! I think it was a tremendous success, and truly enabled the students to work on a wide variety of skills…. I can’t express enough how much I believe that this has improved not only my student’s skills, but allowed me to rethink some of my teaching strategies and tools as well!” ~ Ben Rinne, Sekolah Bogor Raya, Bogor, Indonesia.
“I enjoyed the freedom with which students could work, the way our students both rehearsed and wrote scripts/notes for their Flipgrid posts, and sometimes did them in pairs. They were very conscious of making a good impression and using correct English. We had to face a number of challenges and be resilient and go to a Plan B when necessary. The unit really developed a focus and generated a lot of higher order discussion not just between schools, but also within our class. Many thanks to you for inviting us to use such a great website and ideas.” ~ Katherine Davidsen, British School of Jakarta, Indonesia.
“When I told my students about it, they were really excited to connect with other schools… If you’re going to ask me if I want to do it again – absolutely yes! So what are you waiting for, Connect2Learn!” ~ Leizel Placer, Jakarta Intercultural School, Indonesia.
“I think that the authenticity of the types of materials being used and the skills being exercised are all integrated well with this unit. I especially appreciated the built in differentiation for each of the tasks, where the students were allowed to create, write, and reply to the extent that they were most comfortable with, while still providing them with specific targets to achieve.” ~ Ben Rinne, Sekolah Bogor Raya, Bogor, Indonesia.
My students found the collaboration enjoyable and interesting. At the beginning they didn’t know where and how to upload the videos but it didn’t take them long to figure it out. The activities and tasks were educational and eye opening for them. They hoped for more online synchronous cooperation and felt a bit disappointed it didn’t work out that way but still were eager to complete the tasks. Certainly it was something different from a regular lesson they had a chance to be creative and resourceful and they also had fun. Moreover, they were able to work at their own pace and mostly independently. It was refreshing for them. It was also a great opportunity to revise the topic as we actually did it last year. Personally I think it’s great!” ~ Izabela Gorol-Wilk, Katowice, Poland
Here are some excerpts from student reflections:
“I personally find this collaborative learning as a wonderful experience because it has given me an opportunity to develop as an individual through different mediums. I improved my communication skills, for both writing and speaking; improved how I deliver my ideas and give my opinion verbally; improve my writing skills in terms of being able to take away 3 key points and write it in a more concise structure. Also, having other students challenge my opinion (through the replies) encouraged me to think a little bit deeper so that I would be able to justify myself. Hence, I thought that this collaborative online learning unit was such an enjoyable learning process.
“I was able to create new friends and a project in which we not only explored deeper about a topic we were interested in, but also had the opportunity to be as creative as we wanted for our outcome.”
“I got to try out something that I haven’t tried out before, which allowed me to be more open minded in terms of giving opinions on a topic.”
„It was a very fun and interactive way to gain a better understanding of a topic from multiple perspectives. I got to work together with students from outside my school. Through this interaction, I was introduced and challenged to new ideas.”