I have the privilege of teaching five classes of 10th grade students daily. In this capacity, I have perspective both in creating opportunities for small group interaction and to observe how students interact organically, before and during class. Small group dynamics in all of my classrooms are interesting. In every class there are groups that congregate with each other, usually not more than 3 to 5 students per group. Then, there are several who shun or are shunned by these groups and tend to work alone, even when grouped. In one class last semester, a student e-mailed me to tell me that she wished not to be put into any group, because it caused her anxiety. The existing dynamics are often very difficult to overcome. I can force integration of different groupings, but that tends to negatively affect the “group” working environment and generate complaints. Group dynamics would definitely be a factor to consider when assigning, for example, a collaborative digital project. Beyond the personality preferences inherent in small group dynamics, there are matters of ability level and motivation to consider. I wonder if a collaborative digital project is better left to self-selected groups – even though that might limit the number and variety of perspectives in the group. Doug Gould did not specifically address this component of grouping in his co-authored article about incorporating digital media projects in his trigonometry class, mentioning only that the students worked in groups of two or three. (Gould and Schmidt, 2010). The implication seems to be that the groups were self-selected, thereby allowing groups to build stories around common experiences, like swimming. If I were to institute a project, I think allowing students to gravitate around common experiences would motivate participation, and so I would be inclined toward allowing self-selection of groups.
I have both observed and asked students about their use of social media. Tik Tok, Instagram and Snapchat are huge social media exchanges. Students use their phones for music, videos (YouTube) and games. Periodically, I invite students to use apps like Desmos. Not shockingly, although there are blocks on Chromebooks, students have figured out a set of games they can play on them. I often catch them, during breaks in content, playing Tetris or the like. The students are very familiar using social media apps – which would be a benefit in implementing a digital media project. Not only are students (largely) comfortable promoting themselves in digital media, but they are familiar with the process of taking, editing and uploading basic photos and video. As this component (ie., using technology) of the project is one more familiar to my students than me, it would be fascinating to me to see how the students would use the digital media tools to create material or a project for class.
Recently I had the students collaborate in a poster project for a test that was coming up. The students really seemed to enjoy the project (notwithstanding some groups that struggled to meld together). In the end, the feedback was positive. I can definitely foresee incorporating digital components into a future project and suspect that it might be quite successful, if introduced in a somewhat limited and scaffolded manner. One concern from Gould’s article is simply the amount of time he allocated for the project. While the article mentioned 6 days in the lab, it also mentions days spent in project overview, brainstorming, and then refining ideas – even before entering the lab. (Gould and Schmidt, 2010). Right now, the content burdens and testing requirements are creating a crush at the end of the year. I am not certain that a comprehensive digital project like Gould’s would fit into the existing curriculum, but a more tailored project certainly could.
Gould, D. and Schmidt, D. A. (2010). trigonometry comes alive through DIGITAL STORYTELLING. The Mathematics Teacher. 104(4). 296-301.
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