BP21_09272010_Virtual Gallery Walk with GoogleDocs

Ye Olde "Old Way"
Have you ever participated in one of those classes where someone brings in a bunch of big, unwieldy sheets of colored or white paper and asks you to use markers to record your ideas? The markers squeak, they smell bad, and you're not really motivated to write more than a few words on the crinkly paper. Then you walk around the room and look at what others have posted on their posters.

Maybe you use this procedure in the classroom. And why not? It can be a useful and thought-provoking procedure. But I wonder how much the physical tools used for this procedure are de-motivational for students. And we should stop and ask what kind of thinking this activity promotes.

Maybe there are times when those huge pieces of paper and markers are enough. But what about when you want something beyond the level of knowing, comprehending, or brainstorming? Is this the best tool for working with higher order thinking skills? Hint: the answer is usually "no."

A Web 2.0 Solution
We all know that GoogleDocs provides an easily accessible tool for sharing documents, editing another author's work without sending items back and forth via e-mail, but it also allows for participating in a kind of virtual gallery walk, where GoogleDocs replace the sheets of paper, and students have both the space and engagement necessary to delve into meaningful questions that prompt them toward higher order thinking.

Recently, my students read an article which examined how "deja vu" operates to establish a central theme within Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22. Students were asked to become experts on particular questions. Using Moodle, we posted each group's combined efforts, which became our gallery.

The video presented here shows how students used a whole-class GoogleDoc to collect shared ideas and unique perspectives gained from their gallery walk. Each time you see a bar appear, a new student is editing the document, in real-time, and synchronously with other users. If the video does not play here, you can watch the same video on YouTube.

The Best Part
Instead of those large sheets of paper hanging in the back of the room until they become as invisible as flowered wallpaper, or filling up the paper bins to be recycled, we have created an artifact that will live permanently on our Moodle Course page, and may be accessed whenever we desire it.

Note 1: I used my "mobile communications device" (what we used to call a cell phone) to record what you see here, so forgive me if it's a little shaky. Note 2: To make sure no one would be "writing over" another user, I assigned each group part of a table, labeled with group number (e.g., 1A, 2B).