Hi Michael,
From a quick look at the sequences available on this site (both can be found in the public sequences folder), I can recommend “Creative Writing Place” and “Mural Design”. They’re written by Robyn Philip and Andrew Lovell-Simon, who both work at Macquarie University. I hope they will come online and explain anything or add to the following information.
Why do these sequences provide more collaborative opportunities than a traditional learning environment might? I’ll explain some of the reasons in relation to the creative writing piece. This sequence is designed to be part of a larger course. It starts with the aim, which is to write a descriptive piece about a place. The sequence then breaks down each of the steps that students go through in order to finally produce this writing. If you look at the macro level, Robyn is using the LAMS grouping options to get her students working in small collaborative groups, commenting on each other’s work. As mentioned in an earlier post, students will be moving through the sequence at roughly the same time and so have access to each other’s posts, comments and answers and will also be likely to be in the chat room at the same time.
At the tool level Robyn used a set of highly collaborative tools (mainly the Question and Answer, Forum and Chat). As far as I know, the Question and Answer is unique to LAMS and is one of my all time favourites! It’s very simple conceptually and provides such rich learning opportunities. The Instructor poses one or more questions and then the student answers. Once they have answered, they are taken to a second screen which shows everyone else’s answers as well. In my experience managing many trial, teachers always comment that students love seeing their peers’ answers, it allows them to learn from each other and gives them a sense of place within a class/course. So for example, in Robyn’s sequence,, students are asked, “ Think about a place or location which has special meaning for you. It might be a very enjoyable place, a place full of history, a disturbing place, or one that suddenly brings back memories. To get you started, take a moment to visualize the place. When you are ready, write down words that occur to you about the place. Use stream of consciousness. Don't worry about grammar or correct sentence structure. Just get your thoughts down as they come to mind. Don't edit your writing.
This is an anonymous activity. Your writing will only be visible to those in your small group.” It’s great that students have a record of their own writing, and even better that they have access to their peers’ ideas as well.
Has anyone else in the LAMS community downloaded Robyn or Andrew’s sequences and used them? I’d love to hear additional comments.
Posted by Karen Baskett
