Friday, April 10, 2009

Collaboration on Stixyboard

I am exploring ways to collaborate online. There are better ways to collect the thoughts of 50 or so staff members besides gathering them in a room to talk. I am also wondering how we can use collaborative online methods in the classroom.

Our teaching staff has tried Stixyboard as a way to collect people's thoughts on a topic. The Literacy Team has been sending a weekly question out to the staff on email. But the process was somewhat cumbersome. A person had to send the email, collect the responses, and paste all the responses together to share them with the staff. There had to be a better way.


So we introduced Stixyboard to the staff. We sent out invitations to respond to a discussion topic. In this case, we wanted to collect people's thoughts on what CHOICE means in an elementary classroom. So we asked, "What does it mean to give kids CHOICE in your classroom as it relates to literacy?"

We asked staff members to respond individually and then continue to revisit the site to watch the number of comments grown and to read what others are thinking about choice in the classroom. Here's what our online collaboration looks like now.




We are excited about using this tool for continued conversations about learning and teaching. It is a format that is easy to use and a very effective way to collect thoughts from a large group of people.

If anyone is using Stixyboard, let me know. It would be good to gather all the creative ways people are finding to use it. And if you use it in the classroom with students, please also share your applications.

Have fun with Stixyboard!