Collaborative Learning through Stormboard

We are all aware that learning occurs through interaction and not in isolation. Even the most diehard proponents of traditional teaching methods have begun to flirt with the collaborative approach to learning.

So it isn’t a matter of incorporating collaborative activities in the EFL classroom any more. The issue that arises is HOW teachers execute collaborative tasks in the EFL classroom. To what extent are these collaborative tasks teacher-guided? To what extent does the task encourage spontaneous oral or written output?

This week’s entry will focus on implementing a collaborative writing task via stormboard. This task is accomplished in 3 stages as shown bellow:

Initially, students get into groups of 3-4 students. They begin to brainstorm and jot down ideas in Stormboard. Stormboard is an online whiteboard where learners share and write their ideas. Its basic advantage over similar tools (e.g. linoit) is that it has a chatroom. Hence such tasks are not confined to the classroom but can also be assigned as homework. You basically sign in with your google account, click on “Create a new storm” or “Join a storm”(if sb has already created one in the group).

Moving on to the second stage, the students provide an outline of the essay and generally organize their ideas on Stormboard. At this phase, they arrange who is going to write each part of the essay. For instance, one person writes the introduction, 2 students may write the main body and a different student writes the conclusion. The picture bellow illustrates an instance of this on a topic about collaborative tools.

Lastly, in the third stage, the collaborative writing task is eventually written on Etherpad. Etherpad resembles a word document. It is a free online tool. Its significance and its prevalence over other similar tools is that it encompasses a chat room. If one opens a Etherpad , he can invite as many participants as he wants to edit or write any essay collectively. The picture bellow depicts the implementation of stage 3. As you may notice the conclusion is missing. This is because this example was taken from an actual online collaborative writing task and due to the tight time limit they didn’t write the conclusion. This doesn’t really matter because the students collaborated perfectly to fulfill the task.

Pros

• Students co-construct the knowledge in the classroom. Students are empowered to take the initiative and control their own learning. Hence, they become autonomous learners.

• Learner-centered approach: Teacher’s interventions are reduced to the minimum. A teacher is like a football coach who doesn’t actually play the game but coordinates the team so as to succeed and fulfill their purpose.

•  Student ‘Ownership’ in Education: It is believed that the students can relate better to this educational context because they have contributed to it. In more detail, they feel as if they are part of it because they have created it.

Cons

• Free riders may benefit as they get the credit for the job that others have done

• Such online exercises in the classroom require the necessary hardware (laptop/tablet) and the technical support to maintain it.

I know, as an EFL teacher, that all teachers like giving a one woman show. 

Don’t you think it’s about time to hand over the baton to the students?