Student Collaboration in the Virtual Classroom
About the Course
During distance learning, my students were isolated, lonely, and itching for social interaction with their peers. Through this mini-course, I propose a solution to this problem by teaching grade 6-12 educators how to create a digital gallery, where students share their work and interact with one another in a safe and structured way. This “gallery-walk” technique allows students to collaborate, build off of, and learn from each other’s work. It creates a sense of unity and teamwork that is missing during distance learning by bringing students together. It is efficient, convenient, and easy to execute for teachers–and once you begin using this strategy, you can continue using it for distance, in-person, or hybrid learning. In addition to this quick video course, there are important additional materials: an Implementation Video detailing how I introduced the gallery to my students; examples of student work; the Virtual Gallery Template so you can easily replicate the technique in your classroom; and an Opportunities & Pitfalls handout so you can avoid some of the problems I uncovered.
About the Instructor
My name is Alexa Del Piano and I am a middle school art teacher in an inner-city public charter school in Central Falls, Rhode Island. At the start of distance learning during the pandemic, I noticed my students were isolated, disengaged and missed interacting, sharing and collaborating with their classmates. Through this course, I teach you simple steps on how to create your own virtual gallery for your students to post their work for their classmates to see, share, interact, gallery-walk and collaborate!
