Technology Collaboration is the Real Workplace Readiness Skill

by Paul Lawrence

On a recent trip to New York, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take my family on a tour of Google Headquarters.  They've converted the old Port Authority building in Chelsea and turned it into a real wonderland with a Back to the Future themed floor, napping tents, a 24 hour free Starbucks and about 12 free restaurants where you can eat everything from Mexican to a bowl of pho.

In addition to these attractive amenities (my kids all decided to become programmers on the spot), a remarkable thing about this space was a complete absence of personal offices.  Everyone was expected to sit and work and conduct their business in these communal areas (with the most amazing free snacks!). The theory at Google is that isolation is counterproductive to creativity.  People do their best work when they interact and share ideas.

When we consider that an amazingly successful company like Google has literally designed collaboration into their office space, shouldn’t we begin to also consider including the same collaboration into the work practices of our students in our classrooms?

Here are three technology resources that you can use to plan your next group activity.

Free Rice                                                          

Have students make a difference by practicing their math, chemistry, anatomy, geography, foreign language, vocabulary, grammar, humanities and even for the SAT. “For each answer they get right, 10 grains of rice is donated  through the World Food Programme to help end hunger.”

Cooperative learning idea: Students can go on Free Rice and calculate how much rice they donated as a group and create a graph to show their weekly results. This can be an ongoing project throughout the year. Groups can compare and contrast their results.

 

 

Blabberize                                                       

Blabberize is a free tool that makes photos come to life! Students upload a photo, create a mouth and record whatever they would like their image to say!

Cooperative learning idea: Students can take turns talking. This tool can be used to give a history or science report. Students could describe an animal’s adaptations by making the animal they researched talk!

Inkle                                                            

Inkle is a fun digital storytelling tool for students. Rather than having students use Microsoft Word, change things up by having them create a digital book. Students will love adding images to make their story come to life!

Cooperative learning idea: Students can collaborate and create a Choose Your Own Adventure story! Each child adds a paragraph to the story and at least two options for readers to choose from. They insert images by adding the link to an image they like online. This Web 2.0 tool is free and the children’s work can be saved and shared.

In addition to these fun ideas, there are hundreds of ways for students to collaborate on work using the G Suite Apps for education.  Check out this site to get started.

Like anything else, you are going to have to guide your students through this new workflow.  Consider assigning roles to group members and giving students specific rubrics, checklists and deadlines to help them organize their time.

If we want to prepare students for success in a 21st Century workplace like Google, we can start by giving them the opportunities to develop skills like cooperation and compromise that are required for success, in the safe spaces of our classrooms.  

Paul Lawrence is the Director of the Information Literacy Department for Hampton City Schools, Virginia. You can reach him at plawrence@hampton.k12.va.us