Reading Response #2

How do quality telecollaborative projects develop students’ critical thinking skills (the highest levels on the Bloom’s Taxonomy pyramid)?

Telecollaborative projects push students to critically think about their work in a new dynamic area. Huit said, “…research has shown that students remember more when they have learned to handle the topic at the higher levels of the taxonomy…because more elaboration is required, a principle of learning based on finding from the information processing approach to learning”. In a telecollaborative project students are asked to work together to complete a goal. They do research, summarize the content, combine, and present the information as a group or in some other form of presentation.

A telecollaborative project allows students to exchange work easily and quickly. A website can also be used to help foster the project. The teacher can also present the steps and roles expected of the group and individually online. Enerson, Johnson, Milner, and Plank said, “The site supports students as they learn to plan and run a productive meeting, use action plans and progress reports and perform self-assessment to track the progress of the team ”. This kind of a project pushes students to rely on each other, and to use tools available to them through the internet. To achieve the end product students will have needed to analyze each other’s work, and be able to create something as a whole. Print Page in IE