Group work is often seen as something we do not do in ICT and Computing. Computers themselves are seen as machines that isolate people, remove them from the real world to instead engage with bit and bytes rather than people and conversations. Yes there is the social side but this is still a little disengaging from the world around us, we can put on a new persona and hide behind the blinking lights. For a teacher this can cause some stress, there is a lot of theory that needs to be covered and we really want students discussing and coming up with their own ideas. Collaborative working can be easily achieved over the Internet but getting students together in the same room can appear much harder, they actively want to be at their machine working and we cannot move desks like many other subjects can. When ICT students do work in groups, you tend to have the dominant one at the machine or writing on the paper you have given out. There is not much room for the rest of the group so they sit behind, physically and mentally pushed out.

Recently, working as part of a Teacher Learning Community (TLC) looking at collaborative working, I hit upon a great idea. It is so simple and has probably be done so many times before in so many other lessons. Sometimes I think ICT is so different to other subjects that we forget the basics, or maybe that is just me. The idea is a simple as giving groups more than one different coloured pen, in fact give everyone in the group a different coloured pen. From there make each coloured pen represent a different focus, each individual can discuss points with their group but can only write with their coloured pen. This means that all group members need to be involved and it is easy for the teacher to see who has written what. We can assess the success of the group work quickly, analyse the contribution of each member and move thinking forward. I tried this with my Year 12 Cambridge Technicals group and it worked a treat. Students who often sat back were required to engage their brain and at the very least write something down. I quickly scanned the room to see all on task and what is more, discussion had improved. The task was centred around leaflet design and groups needed to look at good features of a leaflet, how features affect communication and how leaflets could be improved. It was as simple to set up as gathering screenshots of a few different leaflets, printing them on A3 paper and having a selection of green, black and blue pens. After the group activity I took feedback and we came up with a list of success criteria that students could take forward when designing their own leaflets. It was most definitely a success and something I will try to embed in group work throughout each year group I teach.