Lesson 13: Cooperative Learning with the Computer

       

Content

         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, five (5) elements are needed: a common goal, interdependence, interaction, individual accountability, and social skills. It encourages active learning while motivating students; increases academic performance; promotes literacy and language skills; and improves teacher effectiveness. The teacher is assigned several tasks in order to ensure collaborative learning. These are: assigning students to mixed-ability teams; establishing positive interdependence; teaching cooperative social skills; ensuring individual accountability; and helping group’s process information. It is also important for the teacher to limit learning group clusters (six is the ideal number in a group) so that there can be closer involvement in thinking and learning.

Experience

            I have experienced it for several times doing a task in group through the use of computers. On example is doing an internet paper by groups of (3) three. What we did is that, in order for us to come up with a complete and concise outcome, we divided the task and we research individually and then finally, we gathered all our researches and we formed our final output through encoding it. Another is making a movie in Ed.Tech 1, we had come up with a short movie for our class and made it cooperatively by editing our movie video as well as the movie poster in the computer.

Reflection

            Computer activities are not the end-all of learning since they have conformed to the lessons/curriculum. Integrating new task of the teacher who can find in the computer exercise is the new task of the teacher who can find in the traditional classroom practice of delivering information and supporting learning activities. Computers in school are used for communications and collaboration skills. That's why computer will become an integral component of the future classroom and not a meet machine that can deliver routine drills and exercises. 

Application

            As a future teacher with the students as their center of interest, it is better to use it in instruction because cooperative learning with interest enhances social development making the learner to be more creative expressing ideas of their own and relate to others. The learner becomes competitive and creates social constructivism wherein they share and learn more ideas.