Do I Have to Work in a Group?

Group projects in some are like the necessary evils of teaching. Don't get me wrong, I love group projects. I love assigning them. I enjoy getting students to work together on projects. When students work together and they're motivated and they're contributing, learning happens and they turn-in amazing work. This is the point where students start to use their higher-order thinking skills. But, it's a necessary evil in the sense, that I have to spend the time to come up with a project (which can be troublesome), assigning students for group work, and ensuring that everyone in the group is participating and contributing.

If I make up the groups, students are not necessarily going to be able to work together or want to work together if they don't have a positive relationship with that person. If I allow students to choose their own groups, then I run the risk of the students choosing their friends and they not using their time wisely, and not getting the work done.

While online tools like Google for Education can really help students collaborate on projects where they can work together in person or remotely, I still run into the same problem as mentioned above with students working together. Online tools are only as good as the people that use them. If the students are motivated and contributing/working together, learning will happen. However, the use of online tools makes it easier for me as the teacher to ensure contributions to the project are happening by everyone. 

As the teacher, I can share documents with students or students can share documents with me, and with the shared document I can regularly view and check on the progress. Because it is a shared document, I can see who is working on the document and who is not. To make that part easier, I can also assign text colours to each student in the group to be able to see quickly at a glance who is working and who is not. This by no means is a perfect solution but it is at least some sort of check.

If I want my students to communicate, collaborate, be creative, and to think critically, then I have to allow my students to interact with each other. Online tools will allow for that interaction but it ultimately depends on the student to determine how far they want to go with it. This then brings up the SAMR model. As the teacher, it is up to me to bring my students to the R level. If I want them to be creative and to think critically, then I also have to put the work in to assign meaningful assignments that allow for that type of learning to happen.