What are some innovative ways to use peer-to-peer learning in EdTech software?

Social annotation is great as it adds perspective to a piece of content. As we all know, every perspective is Multi dimensional; so gathering different perspectives can deepen and strengthen the readers thought process about the subject.

Social annotation and active reading Pre digital anything, the print text was pulled apart with annotation, summarization and the occasional query that students had. Yet, unless they were called upon in class or openly shared their critical thinking within group work, their comprehension skills could be ignored. Each student annotating on a common threaded question is a teaching tool that allows a class to learn from each other. The Blackboard platform and others allow students to do this remotely creating a marriage of social interaction and active reading while checking out another student’s annotations. It also allows a teacher to see exactly who read the piece in question, who understood what they read and who needs more instruction.

In my experience social annotation can work but it takes a lot of trust between students to actually participate honestly. Build that group trust before you use this.

Peer assessment and getting multiple lines of feedback is a holistic approach to learning as it involves make peers and colleagues judges and checking the health of every move made! It brings to mind the song ‘Every step you take’ by the band ~ the police. Because, we can then come to the awareness that everything we do is being observed by people who can help us grow. Every feedback point is an opportunity to grow.

Edtech supported collaborative learning fosters engagement and knowledge sharing. While knowledge is constructed through social interaction and language use, thus social construction of knowledge can be facilitated by Edtech, which furthermore is enhancing learning.

A great way to strengthen social bonds during teaching is to ask learners to complete assignments in small groups and then present their results to all their peers, especially in the form of a short oral presentation and a short written report prepared collectively thanks to social annotation. This teaches them to organize collectively and distribute roles to achieve the proposed pedagogical objective. By working together on the basis of the resources provided by the teacher as well as those they can procure on their own, they exchange their approaches and points of view, allowing them to overcome many of the difficulties they would encounter working alone. Such collaborative activities can be carried out today remotely without difficulty.

In higher education, it is customary to involve PhD students as tutors for bachelor's or master's students, either for the supervision of tutorials or as lecturers. This provides them with an opportunity to learn about teaching, and it allows the students they supervise to be in contact with researchers and thus to become acquainted with the research community. The acceleration of knowledge has been so important in recent decades that it is essential to make students aware of ongoing research and development and that a curriculum that does not introduce these issues would not adequately prepare these students for their future working life.

In my experience in higher education, I have learned that peer mentoring is a fantastic resource for students! Because students are often more comfortable with their peers, they're more likely to open up about academic challenges they might be facing. This creates a safe space to share and receive feedback. Since everyone's on the same learning journey, there's less pressure and judgment, making students more receptive to guidance from their peers.