In my last two posts, I talked about the benefits of study teams and some of the mechanics of setting them up. Now I want to talk about how to maximize the success of your study teams by using FunnelBrain. As you’ll see, study team projects on FunnelBrain can really kindle your students’ enthusiasm. They’ll be learning and having fun doing it.
High school students spend a lot of time socializing electronically. They keep up with their friends on Facebook or MySpace. They post photos and videos. They text and instant message. Maybe they “tweet” on Twitter. They are perpetually connected electronically to their friends, and they love seeing themselves and their work online. FunnelBrain takes advantage of these trends to create an online learning experience that’s a natural extension of your students’ online, connected lives.
The Study Team Assignment
Every successful collaboration starts with one essential element: a clear purpose understood by all the contributors. This will be true of your study teams as well. A study team that is assigned a clear project to complete, a clear work product to produce, will be more focused, purposeful and productive than a study team that is merely assigned to study together.
FunnelBrain makes this step easy. It was designed for group collaboration and it provides an obvious structure for a study team project: multi-media questions, answers and explanations presented as online “flashcards.”
Here’s an assignment you might give your study teams: create a set of review questions, answers and explanations on FunnelBrain that cover everything they’ll need to know for your class’ final exam. If you’re teaching an AP class, you might change that to everything they’ll need to know to score a 5 on the AP Exam. Of course, you can readily create different versions of this assignment as appropriate for your own class. I’ll discuss some of those variations below. This particular assignment works well for a study team that will work together for an entire semester or academic year.
There are a few stipulations you’ll want to make with this assignment. Students should put questions, answers and explanations in their own words, not copy them from the textbook. The materials should be illustrated with photos where appropriate. Encourage students to record video explanations for key concepts. Encourage students to use FunnelBrain’s comments feature to add discussion threads to important questions.
If assigning each team to create a comprehensive set of review questions is too large a project for your class, it’s easy to create smaller versions of this assignment. For example, the assignment might be to create review questions and answers for a particular unit you are covering. Another good variation is to assign a different unit to each team, so that when all the teams’ work is combined, you have a comprehensive set of review materials for the class.
How to Create the Questions
There are two basic approaches to creating the questions for your study teams: either the teacher provides the questions and the students create the answers and explanations, or the students create the questions as well. The first approach provides more structure and guidance for those classes that need it. On the other hand, unless you already have the questions prepared, the first approach can be a bit labor intensive the first time you employ it. I prefer the second approach. I believe the students learn better if they have to extract the key questions from the material themselves.
The Mechanics
Now let me cover the basic steps of launching your study teams on FunnelBrain. Most of these steps will be self-evident once you jump in and get familiar with the site.
Step 1. Register
You can browse through much of the FunnelBrain site without registering, but before you can create groups or flashcards you’ll need to register. To register. go to the home page and click “Sign Up” on the top right side of the page.
Step 2. Complete Your Profile
To register, you merely provide your email address and choose a password. However, you’ll want to complete your profile so that your student’s can find you. After you register, click “Profile” on the right side of the menu bar at the top of the page. This will take you to your nearly blank profile page. Click “edit profile” under the default image. Now, upload a photo of yourself, fill in your real name in the “Display Name” field. Last, add the name of your school and your class.
Step 3. Form a Group
Next you’ll want to form a group for you class. From the home page, click “Create Flashcards” and then “Create a Group” or just click here:
CREATE A GROUP
Select your school name from the list or click “Add New” to the right if your school is not on the list yet. Name the group after your class. Near the bottom of this page, select “Private.” This will let you control who can access your group so you can restrict it to your students and others you choose to invite (such as parents).
Step 4. Invite Your Students
If you have your students’ email addresses you can invite them electronically. Or you can simply tell your students in class to go to www.funnelbrain.com and enter your name in the search box to find your group. Assuming you made your group private, when your students go to your group page and click “Join This Group,” you will receive an email alert telling you someone wants to join your group. Follow the link in the email to approve each student.
Step 5. Let Each Study Team Form its Own Group
For convenience, each study team will want to have its own private group on FunnelBrain. Set these up yourself if you want to be an administrator for each group, or just instruct your students to set up your own. Just be sure to join each of the groups so that you can check in on the teams’ progress from time to time.
Step 6. Turn Them Loose
Now your study teams are ready to start creating online flashcard decks. Tell them to be sure to add their decks to their groups as they create them.
We look forward to seeing you and your students on FunnelBrain!
