With two of my groups we’ve started to read an abridged version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I introduced the book with a presentation on how the year 2000 was imagined in the sixties and one of the first assignments was to prepare a group class on the sixties and the noughties.
These were roughly the instructions I gave them:
Prepare a 30 minute group class including a presentation. More details here.
All the classes were well prepared and enjoyable. Yet, I couldn’t avoid noticing that Frankenstein result group work usually shows. I’m talking about those stitches which put different contributions together into a whole. I’d love those stitches to be invisible, or maybe I should say I’d love those patches to merge.
Group work, at least to my students, means division of labour. Far away from the collaborative work I always hope for. The thing is, can collaboration be taught?
I’ll try.
Will that be an odyssey or just a journey?
