Classroom Technology and Collaboration

In what ways can you help your students to collaborate with technology? 

By using Web 2.0 tools with collaborative affordances to facilitate collaborative learning and cooperative learning.

Collaborative learning

Collaborative learning needs to be recognised as a process. First, provide students a problem or task to achieve as a group to establish joint activity. The Singapore Ministry of Education (2011) explains joint activity occurs the beginning of the collaborative process where students become invested in the problem. From this point onward, student’s ideas and conceptions are articulated in further discussion. The diverse ideas within the groups are made public and provides a basis for community-based collective understanding (Singapore Ministry of Education, 2011).  This process also involves further actions (e.g. experimentation, collecting empirical data, review of literature or consultation with experts) to resolve conflicting views, achieve a deeper understanding and/or create a better solution for a problem (Singapore Ministry of Education, 2011).

Collaborative learning and Cooperative learning

The concept of collaborative learning shares many commonalities with cooperative learning and Singapore Ministry of Education (2011) advocates that collaborative learning should include cooperative learning. Both are socially negotiated teaching models whereby social interactions are central to the classroom community; understanding is best achieved when tasks are performed in group environments (Gregson, & Doidge, 2018). Cooperative learning is an effective strategy to help learners achieve a wide range of academic and social outcomes; one of the key elements of cooperative learning includes individual and group accountability (Killen, 2016). In other words, give each student a specific role as they collaborate within a task to achieve a common goal. The key difference between collaborative learning and cooperative learning is that collaborative learning examines group learning and cooperative learning examines how individuals learning within group settings (Singapore Ministry of Education, 2011).

Web 2.0 tool

To help students collaborate, a selection of Web 2.0 tools with collaborative affordances would be utilised. Coggle is an example of a Web 2.0 tool that would be useful to establish joint activity in the first part of in the process of collaborative learning which is explained above. Coggle is a tool that allows multiples students to work on the same mind map, or brainstorm ideas, at the same time. Collaborative learning is a socially negotiated teaching model which centres on social interactions between all members of the classroom (Gregson & Doidge, 2018). WordPress is a site that enables individuals to create blogs and engage in an interactive online space. It is important that there are opportunities for student-student discussion, teacher-student discussion as well as teacher-led discussion to create a socially interactive environment (Gregson & Doidge, 2018). The main benefits of using ICT in this way is to allow all students to respond simultaneously as well as document their thoughts (Killen, 2016).

References

Coggle YouTube Channel. (2016, May 25). Coggle Introduction [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL40u0uNYa8

Gregson, R., & Doidge, N. (2018). Connecting with Science Education (2^nd ed.). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press

Killen, R. (2016). Effective teaching strategies: lessons from research and practice. South Melbourne, Victoria: Cengage Learning. South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Cengage Learning

Singapore Ministry of Education. (2011). Advancing collaborative learning using ICT: Conception, cases and design. Singapore:Ministry of Educaiton. Retrieved from https://ictconnection.moe.edu.sg/ictconnection/slot/u200/mp3/monographs/advancing%20collaborative%20learning%20with%20ict.pdf