“The EXCHANGE and COLLABORATE space is where students develop their peer-to-peer collaboration skills and work in small teams to build and exchange knowledge. In my classroom, students commonly get to bounce ideas off classmates and share what they’ve created with others. I believe students need to have new experiences as often as possible, but they also need to have fun in the classroom. This space is the perfect location for both of these goals to happen”.

– Brent Smith, Educator, San Francisco, CA

Key Pedagogies:

1. Collaborative Learning: Students can learn from each other and work together to discuss problems and create solutions.
2. Distance Learning: The confines of the classroom and/or school are not the only places to find sources of knowledge. By utilizing webcams and video conferencing equipment, students can learn from subject matter experts in any field, anywhere in the world.
3. Small Group Instruction: Teachers can provide more individualized instruction to students in small groups that can either be homogenous or heterogeneous with regards to knowledge and/or ability.
4. Learning Through Play: Students can learn social skills and content knowledge by playing learning games together.

Sample Learning Activities:

1. Students can create a Word Web using ProConnect in the Presenter software.
2. Students can use MeetSmart to video conference with a skilled subject matter expert from anywhere.
3. Teachers can add interactive learning games to a Presenter lesson so that students can demonstrate understanding while competing or collaborating with their peers.
4. Teachers can teach similar concepts, but with practice problems of varied difficulty depending on the ability of group members.
5. Students can watch a case study video either together or individually and then discuss its contents with group members.
6. Students can work together to research, investigate, and find solutions on their Chromebooks.