Being my first semester here teaching, but not my first time teaching students, I think I can say that I still have a lot to learn- and that group communication and help has been something I’ve really relied on, especially here at UMass. From getting advice from other Teaching Fellows to even other professors in general, I’ve learned new things that I can use in the classroom, as well as having tried new things involving technology in the classroom.

 

Focusing on group work within the technical and professional communication (TCP) field has shown me the inherently important ties to TPC and why it must be taught to students by people with mastery in the field. The need to learn how to understand and access collaborative tools online is a major focal point for not only teachers, but young professionals, because these tools help power them, giving them the ability to share information globally.

 

By creating assignments to teach collaboration to students with different types of assignments, projects and experiences, students should feel that push and connection with technology- especially when assignments are directly related to it. In tech-com, we’re working on the IFixIt project, which has proven to be both fun and challenging to students. Students have been put in small forces, tasked with the ability to use hands-on experience as well as these new fangled tech-comm skills we have been working on all semester long! One of the major things students did when we first started this assignment was come up with group rules to keep themselves on task, signing a commitment form to hold themselves accountable. Each group had different rules, a minimum of 3 at least, and rules depended on what they thought would work best for them.

 

Students then work in their groups weekly inside and outside of the classroom, depending on their max amount of days they’ve set as a group. They utilized either google docs or their group pages, set up with accessible wiki pages, discussion boards, posts, and announcements they can personally make together that only they can see. It has worked out so far; providing those group pages on My Courses finds the group pages as something more feasible and easy to navigate. Using google drive and having class folders has also worked out; allowing me to keep on top of students who are doing assignments and how much everyone is contributing.

 

Trying to push towards a technologically friendly classroom with new tools, or well-loved tools has proven to help students keep on track of their assignments as a group, as well as keeping them accountable inside and out of their groups.