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Maurice Langlois, is a secondary school teacher
at l'École polyvalente Nicolas-Gatineau, in Québec.
He developed the following guidelines for pairing up students
of different schools, via Internet, so they can pursue collaborative
journalism assignments.
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First of all, students who have been paired up for a collaborative
journalism assignment should be able to communicate with one
another via e-mail in order to agree on a certain division of
labour.
As teachers, we can try to identify the way the of tasks might
be shared between the students, according to our objectives for
this exercise. This will give the students a few ideas they can
draw on as they collaborate.
Here are a few examples of how we can better define these
collaborations. You may wish to modify these ideas to suit the
needs of your class.
- Variation on the type of discourse : One student writes
about the subject in an informative manner (a news story or a
feature) while the other writer takes a stance on the subject
by writing an opinion piece or editorial.
- Variation in terms of the aspects addressed: (complementarity):
informative discourse -
One student will research and address certain aspects of the
topic; the other student will undertake complementary research
and will present other aspects of the same subject.
- Variation on the argumentation (convergence): argumentative
discourse -
The two students discover that they have the same point of view
on a given topic, but that their arguments are not based on the
same facts, the same sources or the same experiences, etc. They
thus decide to strengthen their common vision by writing complementary
sections of a joint article.
- Variation on the argumentation (divergence): argumentative
discourse -
The two students do not share the same opinion on a given subject
(their points of view differ or are somehow distinct). They decide
to take advantage of their collaboration to stimulate discussion
on a given controversy.
- Variation on the level of discourse -
One student addresses the topic from a theoretical perspective
while the other approaches it from a more practical point of
view by offering examples.
- Variation on the time factor -
One student covers certain historical facts that preceded a given
event while the other discusses the present day implications
of that event.
Another aspect to consider: the age of the students.
This, once again, is a frame of reference that can be developed
and enhanced, depending on one's objectives. In my opinion, this
cooperation at a distance may be extremely enriching as a learning
experience. It is up to us, as teachers, to define and develop
the collaborations beyond these initial guidelines and to offer
our students the tools they need to express themselves in cooperation
with others.
Note
: Maurice Langlois and his students produce
Le Phénix
virtuel, an online youth newspaper.
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