How I and the students used Google Docs.
This project centred on my
teaching a Level 1 Economics class. The
class I was teaching consisted of a group of students who had all failed this
and at least 2 other courses previously.
If they failed any courses this semester they would be dismissed from
HCT. They were in a tangible sense
sitting in the “last chance saloon”. It
was the toughest course in the semester and the general feeling was that
students with weak English or Math skills were lambs to the slaughter.
The premise seemed
great. The students had a 30% project to
complete. 10% for the written
report. 20% for an oral Q&A designed
to ensure they had individually participated and could demonstrate the learning
outcomes. Google Docs seemed an ideal
way for them to work together and to enable me to monitor their progress. There was only 1 problem. They didn’t use it. At all.
They didn’t even try to pretend to use it to try to make me think they
were using it.
And strangely enough I
feel really positive about that and feel that I have learned and understood
more about using technology in the classroom from this experience than if the
project had worked brilliantly.
Here is my (probably
flawed) thinking. Firstly, I got
everything back to front. The project
was designed and run by other teachers the previous semester. It is a really good project to enable
students to apply some basic economic theory but – and it is a big but – it was
not designed with an underlying assumption that students would collaborate
using Google Docs to put it together.
The students’ grade largely depended on their individual ability to
answer questions about any area of the project.
That being the case, on reflection I find it difficult to identify any
reason how a student benefits from doing one part of the project whilst someone
else does another. It may be a good way
to complete formative assessment but probably not a good way to grade
summatively. If I had been a student I
would probably have preferred to complete the project on my own.
Secondly, as I completed
the literature review I found there was quite a bit of research where academics
had used Google Docs with their students.
But all of the reading that I found indicated that students pretty much
hated using it and that there was absolutely no evidence that it was a good collaborative
tool which supported student learning.
If I had read this at the outset, I probably would not have used Google
Docs as my project! But that was my own
fault. Another thing that struck me is
that I was being pretty disingenuous asking students to use a tool that I had
very little experience of using myself.
Google Docs is supposed to be a tool which enables long distance real
time collaboration. HCT is an organisation
where faculty and managers could really benefit from using it. It could even be used by participants on the
PGCHE. But we don’t really use it –
preferring to send word document attachments to our emails.
Student Reaction:
At the end of the
semester, things got a bit chaotic and I didn’t have the opportunity to get
formal feedback from my students about how they used Google Docs. The best I could do was to ask them
informally in a revision session at the end of the class. A summary of their most common thoughts is as
follows:
When they write a project
they all sit together and complete it so they didn’t need to use Google
Docs. This makes sense for 2
reasons. Firstly as their average IELTS
writing band is 5.0 they naturally find writing in English challenging. Their method of collaboration is actually the
most effective way for them to complete a written project rather than work on
it separately. So instead of helping them collaborate, Google Docs actually
made it harder.
As they see each other
every day they can work on the project in their breaks or after classes. Again, this makes sense as Google Docs is a
tool for those not physically in each others presence.
Most students complete the
project at the last minute so getting feedback from the teacher on an ongoing
basis is not going to happen. I had to
admit that was a fair point.
Reflections
So the summary of all of
that was that I think in retrospect I learned that Google Docs is not an
appropriate format for Level 1 HCT students to collaborate on a project. To be honest, if I had had thought about it beforehand
I probably would have said that anyway!
I could try to make a justification that it is good for them to
experience using this tool as it enhances their technological and collaborative
skills, but I don’t buy that for a second.
If the tool does not directly enhance their ability to demonstrate the
learning outcomes of the course, then they should not be using it at this
time. It’s no use for me as a teacher to
say to the student “ Mohamed, you really use Google Docs well. I look forward to you doing it even better
next semester when you retake Economics.”
However, learning that something doesn’t work is not a failure. It could be even said to be a success. So here are the main points about what I
think I learned – or more accurately here is what I already knew which was
reinforced
Everything has to be
thought through and put together before the course starts. The project and rubric was already
planned. Coming in after the event and
telling my students I wanted them to do it in a certain way was not appropriate. If I want the students to use Google Docs or
any other tool, that has to be built in to the assessment design
Unless you are grading
collaboration (which is not an assessable learning outcome in most courses at
HCT) don’t try to force students to collaborate in a specific way. They should be supported and allowed to work
in the way which most helps them to achieve the learning outcomes required.
There are some great tools
available to enhance student learning, many of them being used by people at HCT.
Examples of some of these are as follows:
Because of the PGCHE (and
more specifically because of the encouragement of Manal and Firoz) I used
Turning Point in the classroom. For HCT
students it is brilliant. If I were still
teaching HCT students I would use it every day.
Triptico is also a really
useful bit of free software that can really liven up the class room.
The Khan Academy is really
good for economics. I would use it a lot
if I taught that course to those students again. But HCT students benefit from repeated
exposure rather than just seeing it once.
I would use Screenomatic
quite a lot to make screencasts. I would
probably also make short videos using the webcam to show in class and put on
the course site for revision.
The Economics course has
some really good publisher made online materials. A problem with them is that the language is
really difficult – probably unfairly so if I am being honest. Because they are challenging for the students
at first, it is very easy to ignore them.
The first week 4 students had completed the quiz more quickly than I
could! But they each got less than 20%
which I thought was statistically remarkable on a 4 answer multiple choice! However,
by accident rather than design I persevered with the quizzes. I noticed that some students were spending a
long time trying to understand the material as they completed the quizzes. After a few weeks these students started
getting really good scores. I could show
this to the class – reinforcing the point that students who took time to
understand the question before answering it did better than those who just
guessed because they had not understood the question. As the semester developed this had an effect
on the grades of the majority of students, as they all spent longer trying to
complete the quizzes properly rather than just press any answer to get it
done.
So in summary, looking at
the semester as a whole although Google Docs may not have been a successful use
of technology in my classroom, overall I feel that I used a variety of
technologies to enhance the chances of success of my students. The results at the end of the semester were
not brilliant. 10 out of 17 students
passed. But I would definitely have
taken that at the start of the semester.
And the results of all but 3 of the others had improved enough for me to
recommend giving them a final chance to retake the course for a 3rd
and final time. And I am pretty certain
that using the technology that I did played at least a part in enabling some
students to succeed.
Which is, as far as
I can see, the point.
