Lesson 13: 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 called group learning but to be truly cooperative learning.

5 Elements are needed:
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 performances.
Promotes literacy and language skills
Improves teacher effectiveness
In addition, there are studies which show that cooperative learning enhances personal and social development among students of all ages, while enhancing self-esteem and improving social relationship between racially and culturally different students.

Cooperative Learning and the Computer

Researchers have made studies on the learning interaction between 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 student's social Now this mythical fear has been

contradicted by studies which show that when students work with the computer in group, they cluster and interact with each other for adviceand mutual help. And given the option to work individually or in a group, the students' generally wish to work together in computer-based and non-computer-based activities.Reflecting on this phenomenon,psychologists think the computer fosters this positive social behavior due to the fact that it has a display monitor-just like a television set-that is looked upon something in communal.

Therefore researchers agree that the computer is a fairly natural learning vehicle for cooperative(at times called primitive)learning.

Educators are still wary about the computers' role in cooperative learning.Thus they pose the position that the use of computers do not automatically result in cooperative learning.There therefore assign the teacher several tasks in order to ensure collaborative learning.These are:

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

Experience

In our subject computational physics we were required to make a program for calculator were the operators are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, cosine, sine, and tangent so for us to finish faster without any wasting of time we work collaborately.

reflection
The perfect proportion in  integrating educational technology in the field of education is one on one. So that is every understudy must have has his own PC so he can completely use his time and push to make progress in his school work. Be that as it may, this is difficult to set up in school in light of the costs include in accommodating PCs, programming and equipment for each understudy. So what happens is that understudies share the utilization of PCs and task are generally given as a gathering or group ventures. This encourages helpful learning among the understudies involving every gathering and creates collaboration among the individuals. It likewise upgrades their social abilities and awareness of other's expectations. Every understudy tries his best, does his work alloted and help each other came to their basic objective.

application

PC advances participation and coordinated effort inside of understudies taking a shot at a same errand, likewise it creates excitement and a feeling of having a place between individual inside of a gathering who offers a typical objective. Each individual is given an awareness of other's expectations to do his part in accomplishing the objective. Every obligation is vital for alternate individuals where every outcome is reliant with one another to accomplish a decent general result. Social aptitudes are additionally create while understudies collaborate with one another, boosting their self - regard.