activity+6

Designing for collaboration is a key step in creating authentic learning activities. Moreover,constructivist learning theories suggest that social interactions are seen to play a fundamental role in the learning process. The following two activities will be incorporated into an online occupational therapy group for residents at Bonaventure House, a transitional living facility for individuals impacted by HIV, homelessness, and drug addiction.

__Activity 1:__

Title: Text-to-Movie Public Service Announcement

Task: Activity 1 is a collaborative movie making task requiring participants to create a short public service announcement about the importance of learning how to use the computer. This activity also attempts to incorporate the learners' goals into the experience. To give the participants a preview of how their movie might turn out, I have embedded the directions in a text-to-movie.

Method: asynchronous

Tool(s): personal email to establish an account with xtranormal.com; xtranormal.com tools; group wiki

Instructions: Watch the video

media type="custom" key="9101020" Due: end of week 1

Course connection: The participant is expected to: A) use xtranormal.com tools to create a public service text-to-movie announcement B) reflect on why it is important to learn how to use the computer C) increase familiarity with basic keyboarding and computer literacy skills D) increase familiarity with collaborative online assignments

__Activity 2__

Title: Two At A Time Rhyme

Task: Activity 2 is a collaborative poetry making activity. Participants are asked to publish a six line poem to the group wiki with a partner. The partner who has lived in the house the shortest amount of time will start by writing the first line of the poem in red text. Then, the other partner will write a responding line in blue text that creates an end rhyme. The sillier the better! After your team creates a poem, make sure that each of you post a comment on another posted poem within the week. Sign your posting with your initials.

Method: Asynchronous

Tool(s): group wiki

Instructions: 1. Log into the group wiki and create a new page. Give the wiki page the same title as your poem. 2. The newest house guest will type the first line of the poem in red text and save it. 3. The most senior house guest in the dyad will respond with the second line in blue text that creates an end rhyme with the first line. 4. partners will continue in this alternating fashion until a six-line poem is created. 5. Each team member will post on another posted poem within the week.

Due: end of week 1

Course connection: The participant is expected to: A) continue to practice logging into the group wiki B) use the text feature of the wiki to change the color of the font C) post to the group wiki and post a response to another participant D) increase familiarity with basic keyboarding and computer literacy skills E) increase familiarity with working with a partner to complete online tasks

Example: The shoe on my left foot was way too tight I tried and tried with all of my might To loosen the laces with no luck Despite my effort this shoe was stuck I kicked and thrashed my foot all about There was nothing left to do but wait and pout

= If you need directions for changing the font color, listen to this audioboo! = media type="custom" key="9102874"

Reflection

Learning activities influence learning outcomes and how learners will engage with the course materials (Oliver, 2000). By design, collaborative learning activities provide opportunities for engaging dynamically with the course content. In the two activities I designed, I was focused on creating experiences that increased the interactivity among learners while proportionally decreasing my level of involvement. To increase the likelihood that all learners would experience success in this module, I purposefully created subtasks along a continuum of difficulty level. As such, if learners are unable to successfully create and publish their xtranormal video, they can still post a comment on other learners’ videos. Making sure that learners have experiences of success will be particularly necessary in maintaining their motivation to engage in the learning process.

Peer partnership activities should be simple (Conrad and Donaldson, 2004). Both of my activities, while multi-stepped, are straightforward and require the use of three basic tools: email, wiki, and the World Wide Web. The first activity was designed to not only encourage collaboration but to also reiterate some of the learners’ personal goals for participating in this online occupational therapy group. In reflecting on why it is important to increase one’s familiarity with the computer, the learners will inevitably reinforce many of the secondary goals of the group. In the second activity, learners are also encouraged to be more self-directed by determining whether or not they need to hear the facilitator’s directions.

During the design phase, I referenced the checklist for authentic activities (Reeves, Herrington, & Oliver, 2002). Specifically, I believe that my activities meet the following criteria: examining tasks from different perspectives, providing an opportunity to collaborate, allowing for competing solutions and diversity of outcome, and creating polished products (video and poem) that have value in their own right.

References: Conrad, R. and Donaldson, J. (2004). //Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction.// San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Oliver, R. (2000). Developing online learning environments that support knowledge construction, in A Blended Approach to Active Learning, EdTec.