Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning as defined by Chai & Tan, 2010 (as cited in, Sing, Wei-Ying, Hyo-Jeong, & Mun, 2011) is social interactions that targets deeper knowledge. De Hei, Strijbos, Sjoer, & Admiraal (2015) states collaborative learning contributes to student education and prepares them for teamwork if planned and implemented properly. 

The key issues raised about collaborative learning for teachers and students by Sing, Wei-Ying, Hyo-Jeong, & Mun (2011) are: 

• Students are engaged in off-task talking
• Group members may not contribute good ideas
• Students may have difficulties resolving conflicts

To overcome these difficulties teachers need to take into account the social and cognitive benefits for collaborative learning. When working in these groups students need to feel safe and supported, have a good scaffold and set learning goals to build skills, variety of assessment, feedback to promote positive independence.  Students will work productively in groups if they are provided with more choices on their topic and the people who form their group. Studies have shown they learn better, socially bond, gain ideas and complement their team’s strengths (Sing, Wei-Ying, Hyo-Jeong, & Mun, 2011).

Describe briefly (one or two sentences) what a group of your students would look like if they were using a form of ICT of your choosing and participating in each of the following:

Group interaction

Is group work is set up in advance by the teacher but is coordinated by the learners who work independently with minimal input from the teacher (Beauchamp & Kennewell, 2010). A group activity that may be set in the classroom would be for a group of students to use iMovie to create an end of year pictorial of what the class had done that year or an excursion movie to be played at a school assembly.

Authoritative interactivity

Authoritative interaction with ICT is when the teacher plans fixed questions with specific answers (Beauchamp & Kennewell, 2010). This could be used as an assessment task in the classroom.  The use of Google forms, Survey Monkey or Active Vote on the interactive whiteboards could be examples of authoritative interactivity. 

Dialectic interactivity

Dialectic interactivity with ICT is a constructive mode, where the learner is the object of probing questioning by a teacher and is planned so the student can understand the subject matter (Beauchamp & Kennewell, 2010). This could be an activity where a teacher has hyperlinked websites to a class blog for the student to access particular sites to gain knowledge on a topic or perhaps a web quest.

Dialogic interactivity

The teacher uses open ended questioning and a looser structure so the student has a greater power over the direction and nature of the learning activity using the ICT and their skills in using it (Beauchamp & Kennewell, 2010). An activity where all students could be involved at the same time could be a Google Doc for prior knowledge details before a unit starts or to voice an opinion on a topic. 

Synergistic interactivity

Synergistic interactivity is independent reflective activity carried out by students collectively in the whole-class setting (Beauchamp & Kennewell, 2010). A synergistic interactivity for the class would be to create a mind map as a whole class activity using MindMup, MindMeister or Lucodchart.

I could use a variety of Interactivity with ICT in my assignment depending on the type of activity the students were engaging in.

Beauchamp, G., & Kennewell, S. (2010). Learning in Digital Worlds: Selected Contributions from the CAL 09 Conference. Computers & Education, 759–766.

De Hei, M. S., Strijbos, J.-W., Sjoer, E., & Admiraal, W. (2015). Collaborative learning in higher education: lecturers’ practices and beliefs. Research Papers in Education, 232-247.

Simmons, C., & Hawkins, C. (2009). Planning to teach an ICT lesson. In Teaching ICT (pp. 54-105). London: SAge Publications Ltd.

Sing, C. C., Wei-Ying, L., Hyo-Jeong, S., & Mun, C. H. (2011). Advancing Collaborative Learning With ICT: Conception, Cases and Design. Singapore: Ministry of Education, Singapore.