When first introduced to Extreme Collaboration (XC), I was immediately hooked. XC is currently in its beta format; however, it appears fully functional and ready for classroom use. Immediately, I created cheat sheets and tutorial videos (click here) on how to use this simple and powerful tool. XC is an Add-On for SMART Notebook that allows all students to immediately participate in the current activity. Students are able to use a web enabled device to actively participate in the lesson. They can use a smartphone, laptop, tablet, or desktop computing device to send text directly into a SMART Board lesson.
After learning and using XC, the next idea was to see how XC could be used beyond simply sending a text answer into SMART Notebook. Since XC is generally used in collaboration with students and almost all students like games, is there a way to make XC into a game? The answer is “Yes!” Many different ideas came to mind. A simple “fastest fingers” contest to see who could answer and text the answer in the quickest was the first idea. Fastest fingers would leave each student competing against the others.
Other ideas include teaming students together. Using teams would eliminate the one-to-one device requirement. Utilizing XC’s List by category and Stack by category, answers from each team would appear under their respective team name. Students could compete in teams to see who can answer the question(s) the fastest. The teams could have a list of questions to answer and see which team can answer all questions the fastest. A variation of this would be to see which team can name all elements of the learned topic the fastest.
Add a line across the Notebook page, make it a finish line. Have the students answering questions until a team reaches the line. The team that reaches the line first, wins the competition (provide all the answers are correct). If students pulling answers from the other teams is a concern, turn off the projector. Another option would be to use the SMART Notebook screen shade. Turn on the screen shade; adjust it to a desired height to make it the finish line. As soon as the students have answered enough questions, they will start appearing below the screen shade.
Here are a few ideas for core content areas:
- Nouns vs. verbs in a paragraph: which team can name 10 first
- Characters in a story: who can name the most or name all of them the fastest
- Solve a problem: who can do it the fastest
- Quick math: who can solve a group of the problems the fastest
Social Studies –
- WII Powers: who can name the most Allied or Axis powers the fastest/first
- Presidents: name as many presidents as possible in XX seconds
- States/Capitals: name as many as possible in XX seconds
- Chemical equation: who can solve in the fastest
- Physics: solve the problem the fastest or series of problems
- Different Types of Fungus: name as many types of fungus as possible in XX seconds
The possibilities are virtually endless. Looking for design templates, click here to download a template from the SMART Exchange.