My AP students spent part of last week uploading their sections of the study guide onto the website. It is far from being done, but at least most of it is functional. They still need to go in and tweak the format of the sections to make it visually appealing to the user. There is one section that is still a work in progress, the adventure game. I have two AP literature classes and each one has worked on the components of a game, however, the techies in my district are still trying to determine the best platform for those games. I'll write about that in my next post, since someone is coming into the classes this week to work with them.
On Friday, as I was giving them their assignment for the weekend, I reminded them that they needed to go on the site and use it as a study guide. Each student needed to choose one or two sections to explore and take notes on. The goal was to have them come up with feedback on the section. After weeks of working on this guide I was excited to finally have them go one there and use it. This week I read about community building with technology and it got me thinking about this study guide the classes are creating. The platform we are using is a Google site since my district is very keen on everything going through Google whenever possible. This has made it easy for my students to work together since they are able to share and work on documents with each other. By going "live" with the site, both of my classes will be merged and each student will now have an opportunity to work with the students from a different class. While I teach the same material to both classes, each class is unique. The conversations on topics will vary based on students' questions and observations. Up until this year I only taught one section of AP, therefore I have not had the opportunity to have classes share their knowledge with each other. I am curious to see if there are any fundamental differences between the information posted by the two classes and whether or not students will be able to pick up on them. I'm hoping that they will be able to learn from each other.
As I reflect on my reading on the benefits of building a community of learners using technology, I realize that it might have been a good idea to find a way to connect both classes before now. I use Twitter with my classes to allow them to ask questions and have myself, or other students, respond. What I have noticed is that most of the time they choose to private message me, instead of asking the entire group. Perhaps Twitter doesn't make them feel connected since it is a public forum. If I have the opportunity to teach two AP classes next year I will look into perhaps creating a Wiki for them so that I can post some assignments with the intention of having both classes work with each other.
In the meantime I have the website, and a Hamlet adventure game that has yet to materialize.
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