ELI: Online Fall Focus Session -- Collaborative Learning

ELI Online Fall Focus Session -- Collaborative Learning [1]
ELI conducts in-depth workshops on two topics each year. Online and face-to-face focus sessions help participants develop a deeper understanding of a topic and gain practical knowledge that can be applied on campus. As with the Annual Meeting, institutions are encouraged to facilitate this process through team participation.

Net Gen students are active and prolific participants in flat-world phenomena in their personal lives: posting updates to Facebook friends scattered around the globe, playing online games with teams crossing international time zones, and collaborating on digital works bearing the imprint of multiple contributors. At the same time, the global economy demands students who can think creatively, build collectively, and adapt willingly to change. Are we fostering those skills in the classroom?

Join us Sep tember 23–24 for "Flattening the Classroom: Building Collaborative Learning Environments," the 2009 ELI Online Fall Focus Session. Hosted in Adobe Connect, this virtual event will be much more than just a "usual" online seminar. You’ll exchange ideas and collaborate interactively with the ELI community—all without leaving your campus. You'll also receive all the resources and guided activities you need to help frame discussion and organize team events.

We’ll explore an approach to learning that engages students in the active construction of collective knowledge, empowering them to build meaning together, and challenging them to examine issues from multiple perspectives. We will work together to:

• Develop an understanding of what it means to effectively collaborate in the classroom
• Create a framework for the design of meaningful and purposeful activities in the classroom
• Reflect on the potential for social learning to promote critical thinking and spark student discussion
• Explore emerging practices for designing collaborative environments in physical spaces and virtual environments
• Consider assessment strategies for collaborative activities