Small Groups with One Laptop: Two Case Studies

After viewing the TED video that Kacey shared earlier in the year, I thought I'd try out small group activities with the model suggested in the talk: one computer per group.

In the first activity, students worked together to read and annotate a difficult text, using the Kindle app's highlighting and note-making functions. Students read the same material (those not using the laptop were given paper copies), then discussed what they read as they tried to figure out the main ideas.

• What worked: collaboration. Due to the difficulty of the text, students would have made very little progress on their own. Tackling it together, however, they were able to reliably identify the main idea, and make meaningful comments on it. Furthermore, the groups were able to share their annotations with the whole class on a single, textually organized webpage, thanks to Kindle's built-in collation of highlights and notes. This enabled the whole class to read just the highlighted main ideas and their peers' annotations for the entire passage, without have to struggle through the whole thing individually. 
• What didn't work: assessment. I failed to issue a meaningful assessment that would have measured how much each individual student garnered from reading the shared annotations. In the future, I'll be sure to issue an individual-based Exit Ticket or similar assessment to measure how much each individual student gained form the experience.
• One thing I might change: paper copies. It could have been interesting to see how students would have proceeded if they had to read over each other's shoulders; I expect that it would have generated even more discussion, since they would be forced to keep pace with one another.

The second activity involved accessing and analyzing information on Sumerian Culture, utilizing a teacher-administered resource as well as student-generated resources, and creating a presentation. Students read the materials in groups, then arranged the main points into a PowerPoint presentation, which they had to present to the class. Copy-and-paste and read-the-slides-verbatim were not allowed.

• What worked: collaboration. Students discussed their different interpretations of the material, defending what information they believed to be most important, and how to arrange it effectively in the medium of PowerPoint/Keynote.
• What worked: guided presentation skills. I modeled for students how to create an effective PowerPoint, gave them an additional resource with tips on creating in PowerPoint, and provided presentation tips, such as standing up straight with minimal movement and making eye contact with the audience. Students effectively mimicked these behaviors.
• What didn't work: Timing. Even with a block period, by the time I gave instructions, showed materials, and modeled output & presentation behavior, students only had 45 minutes to create. This was a limit imposed arbitrarily by me, as I wanted some of them to present the same day. Pressure was imposed also by the short day on Friday; there wouldn't have been enough time to do all presentations in 30 minutes. In the future, I will give one full period for creation, then another full period for presentation.