☞Cooperative Learning with the Computer☜

Cooperative or Collaborative learning 

is learning by small groups of students who work together in a common learning task. It is often also called group learning but to be truly cooperative learning, 5 elements are needed:

• A common goal
• Interdependence
• Interaction
• Individual accountability
• Social skills

From several studies made on cooperative learning, it is manifested that cooperative learning in its true sense is advantageous since it:

• Encourage active learning, while motivating students
• Increases academic performance
• Promotes literacy and language skills
• Improves teacher effectiveness

Cooperative learning and the computer

Researchers have made studies on the learning interaction between the student and the computer. The studies have great value since it has been a long standing fear that the computer may foster student learning in isolation that hinders the development of the student’s social skills.

Components of cooperative learning

Educators are still wary about the computer’s role in cooperative learning. Thus they pose the position that the use of computers do not automatically result in cooperative learning.

Therefore assign the teacher several tasks in order to ensure collaborative learning. These are:

• Assigning students to mixed-ability teams
• Establishing positive interdependence
• Teaching cooperative social skills
• Insuring individual accountability, and
• Helping groups process information

✎Reflection:

• Cooperative learning with computer, sounds interesting right? This kind learning is helpful to the students, they can easily build their confidence, skills and interaction to others. So what are the role of computers in Cooperative Learning? it can be easy access to the information, faster way of doing the activities. 
• This kind of learning is not easy, you need time to think better activities, and it is time consuming but when you execute it right you will get the outcome you want. It will benefited the teacher because she is only a facilitator in this kind of learning, but in that case teachers are responsible to guide them and give them the right instruction.
• We all know that cooperative learning is not implemented by all of the teachers, but i guess when they discover the advantages of this learning for the students & the teachers as well they will also applied it.