Improving Discussions
Project Zero
We seem to have discussed forums, the most frequently used tool for asynchronous discussion and interaction, in previous sections. Let's talk briefly about strategies for increasing the sophistication of how we frame and facilitate online interactions.
Regardless of the platform used to facilitate interaction, the value of the activity depends on the prompts and protocols instructors use to focus and give structure of the discussions. We begin the day by considering options and encouraging efforts to continuously improve how activities are framed and presented.
Let's just talk strategies for "more compelling discussions."The Understanding Map
Project Zero (PZ) has been an endeavor of Harvard?s Graduate
School of Education that has been dedicated to supporting those practices that are associated with deeper understanding and effective education. One of the projects of PZ is The Culture of Thinking, which investigated the aspects of school that were
associated with practices that are associated with deeper learning. The Understanding Map captures questions that can frame online interactions:
- Wondering: What are you curious about here?
- Consider Different Viewpoints: What?s another angle on this?
- Reason with Evidence: Why do you think this is so?
- Make Connections: How does this fit with what you already know?
- Uncovering Complexity: What lies beneath the surface of all of this?
- Capture the Heart and Form Conclusions: What?s at the core or center of this?
- Build Explanations: What?s really going on here?
- Describe What?s There: What do you see and notice?
Thinking Routine Matrix
Another publication from
the Culture of Thinking and the Visible Learning initiatives of Project Zero is the Thinking Routine Matrix. This links to 19 protocols for organizing interaction within groups. Although written for face-to-face sessions, the protocols can be modified
for use to structure forums, wikis, blogs, or other online interactions.