Collaborative

//**Collaborative learning**// is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together.[1] More specifically, collaborative learning is based on the model that knowledge can be created within a population where members actively interact by sharing experiences and take on asymmetry roles.[2] Put differently, collaborative learning refers to methodologies and environments in which learners engage in a common task where each individual depends on and is accountable to each other. Collaborative learning is heavily rooted in Vygotsky’s views that there exists an inherent social nature of learning which is shown through his theory of zone of proximal development.[3] Often, collaborative learning is used as an umbrella term for a variety of approaches in education that involve joint intellectual effort by students or students and teachers.[4] Thus, collaborative learning is commonly illustrated when groups of students work together to search for understanding, meaning, or solutions or to create an artifact or product of their learning. Further, collaborative learning redefines traditional student-teacher relationship in the classroom which results in controversy over whether this paradigm is more beneficial than harmful.[5] Collaborative learning activities can include collaborative writing, group projects, joint problem solving, debates, study teams,and other activities. The approach is closely related to cooperative learning.

Through the use of technologies such as blogs and wikis, students gain the ability to work collaboratively with their peers. With wikis there is great potential for collaboration through shared authorship, brainstorming, information gathering, and group based writing projects. This can broaden the learning experience as students can build rich, deep information over time [6]. Technology makes it possible to create learning that teaches skills in working as a team, where the success of the project depends on the team working together, such as exchange of information and resources, supporting each other and providing constructive criticism, responsibility and accountability, and self and other evaluation [7]. [8] highlights how teenagers are already co-producers of the web, in authoring blogs, creating video, audio and even websites - so collaborative work and self-authoring is second nature. Peer-to-peer review is a natural progression from that.

References

1. ^ Dillenbourg, P. (1999). Collaborative Learning: Cognitive and Computational Approaches. Advances in Learning and Instruction Series. New York, NY: Elsevier Science, Inc. 2. ^ a b c d Mitnik, R., Recabarren, M., Nussbaum, M., & Soto, A. (2009). Collaborative Robotic Instruction: A Graph Teaching Experience. Computers & Education, 53(2), 330-342. 3. ^ Lee, C.D. and Smagorinsky, P. (Eds.).(2000). Vygotskian perspectives on literacy research: Constructing meaning through collaborative inquiry. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 4. ^ Smith, B. L., & MacGregor, J. T. (1992). “What Is Collaborative Learning?". National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment at Pennsylvania State University 5. ^ Harding-Smith, T. (1993). Learning together: An introduction to collaborative learning. New York, NY: HarperCollins College Publishers. 6. ^ Yan, J. (2007). Social Technology as a New Medium in the Classroom. The New England Journal Of Higher Education. pp. 27-30. 7. ^ Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Stanne, M. B. (2000). Cooperative Learning Methods: A Meta-Analysis. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. 8. ^ McKay, S., Thurlow, C., & Toomey-Zimmerman, H. (2005). [|Wired whizzes or techno-slaves? Young people and their emergent communication technologies]. In A. Williams & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Talking adolescence: Perspectives on communication in the teenage years (pp. 185-203). New York: Peter Lang. 