Of course people naturally wish to be around others because we evolved as social creatures. Humans that lived with others were protected, lived longer and, hence were able to procreate. So much of the Internet is a chance for individuals to engage in collaborative behaviors. Social media is the perfect example of how humans attempt to engage, collectively, in what should be a solitary activity.
It’s especially important for teenagers to engage socially because adolescence is developmentally a time where connections to others are crucial. Teenagers, I specifically teach 17 year olds, are attempting to construct their identities and do that in relation to others.
Constructivist principles dictate that learners must have prior knowledge and to acquire knowledge they must be developmentally ready, and the material must be in the perfect range of development for the learner (not too easy and not too hard). I often assign group work when I know that the concepts might be too difficult for one individual to understand, and it’s only through group work (bouncing ideas off of one another) that they could really understand the concept. For example, the last concept my students learned was satire. I had students individually locate an example of satire, and then (in addition to other activities in the classroom) they discussed their examples in a discussion module on their online blackboard course. This discussion, and then subsequent completion of a group project, allowed students to understand their own work, see what others completed, and combine their new understandings towards a more powerful retention of the concept.
Eleni Rossiou and Erasmia Papadopoulou, professors in the “Department of Applied Informatics at the University of Macdeonia, Thessaloniki, Greece”, conducted a study entitled “Using Google Applications to Facilitate an Effective Students’ Collaboration in the Teaching of Informatics to Students of Secondary Education.” This study indicated that “blended learning as an additional/complementary tool of teaching and learning is effective as much in students’ performance as in their positive attitude to the use of new technologies in the educational process of the Informatics course” (Rossiou, 2011).
This study found that when you have a collaboration component to supplement or compliment what was going on in the classroom student that retention of information, and motivation levels increased. Students also felt better about the class.
References:
Rheingold, H. (2008, February). Howard Rheingold on collaboration [Video file]. Retrieved from <ahref=”http://www.ted.com/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html”>http://www.ted.com/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
Rossiou, E., & Papadopoulou, E. (2011). Using Google Applications to Facilitate an Effective Students’ Collaboration in the Teaching of Informatics to Students of Secondary Education. Proceedings Of The European Conference On E-Learning, 686-696
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Collaboration is a great skill for everyone especially children as it not only contributes to their cognitive development but also their social and emotional development. I agree that participatory media have been quite useful in enhancing students’ collaboration and their levels of motivation. Consequently, as a classroom teacher, I look forward to learning strategies to help students suppress the nonproductive behaviors that pop up when they get together.
Yes, I’ve noticed that sometimes unproductive behavior occurs in group settings; however, I have an undergraduate degree in communications and have the benefit of studying group dynamics quite extensively. I forget the term for the off task time, but this is (ironically) ultimately responsible for group cohesion and efficacy. It is during this off task time that people are ‘sizing up’ and taking various roles. As a classroom teacher, sometimes I have to go sit at my computer and really get engrossed in something else so I give students the space they need to function effectively in a group setting. 🙂
Would you therefore agree that collaboration requires a lot more time for participants to make group decisions and then complete the task at hand? In addition, how are introverted, autistic, and loquacious individuals treated? Like you, I actually think collaboration helps some of these students, but not necessarily with the objectives of the lesson. Anyways, I suppose this is acceptable as the constructivist approach is more about the goals of the learners’.
Yes, I definitely agree that collaboration requires more time, but there are some huge gains from that sort of time commitment. Sometimes I think teachers don’t see the overall gains and are instead focused on short term results.