Cooperative Learning and Technology

Social constructivism believes that learning occurs when individuals are involved in meaningful social activities (Orey, 2001). I cannot think of a better way than using cooperative Learning as it provides activities and helps students to construct meaning for new knowledge by interacting with others (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). With the development of read write web, there are a many sites that teachers and students can use for either organizing, remote group access or inquiry based activities increasing the amount of communication outside the classroom. Learning or group work is no longer limited to the classroom or gathering together at a friend’s house but can be done even when one of the members is out of town. The collaborative organization on the website has exploded allowing students and teachers to have shared calendars’, shared bookmarking and the ability to create online learning communities. Web quests and simulations provide activities in which students can explore concepts at the levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation (Pitler et al).

When using technology with the cooperative learning groups they can provide support for the individual learners along with teachers and parents. Cooperative learning can also provide instant feedback to both the student and the teacher as the teacher is able to observe students interactions thus assessing their abilities. Besides observations other authentic assessments that can be used are rubrics, peer assessment and writing reflection.

If you are interested in some of the sites I have alluded to above I have listed them below. I picked the ones that I can access from my school and I have either used or am exploring to use in my class next year.

• Webquest – original WebQuest site

• Second Life – Multi-User Virtual Environment (Educators can set up their own virtual world project (Dembo, 2008)).

• Google Docs – online collaboration tool (This allows multi users to share documents

• moodle.org – Is a course management system in which the teacher can create an online learning site

References

Dembo, S. (2008, October). Virtual worlds for educators. District Administration,
48-52.

Orey, M. (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Denver: Mid=continent Research for Education and Learning.