COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

Implementation of Collaborative Learning in Schools



Implementation of Collaborative Learning in Schools

Introduction

Various innovative advancements have come together to make better approaches for utilizing the Web. To some extent, these progressions are a matter of plainly scaling up user participation. Web services are less expensive; they are quicker, and wireless technology permits more boundless access.

Web 2.0 is a set of web services and practices that provide a voice to users. Such services consequently support web users to take part in different groups of knowledge sharing and knowledge building. This has been made conceivable by the ever expanding reach of the (www) 'world wide web'. In the mean time, navigating and investigating this web of learning has been extraordinarily assisted by the expanded functionality of the web 'browser'. The browser has thus turned into the system display/reading device that offers an all inclusive purpose of engagement with the Web. More than that it has turned into a platform for utilizing an extensive range of digital instruments and participating in an extensive variety of community interactions.

This?study?focuses?on?the?use?of?web?2.0?tools in collaborative learning. It provides a combination of the research literature in the field and a sequence of helpful illustrations of how these innovative technologies come to offer, and highlighting few issues and challenges surrounding their use and how Web 2.0 learning could be utilized to support proof based practices in teaching and learning.

Background

The purpose of learning is to build competence as it enables a person to do what he / she could not do before. Being a human capacity, competence is something that humans do not bring with them at birth: it has to be acquired through learning. Education is the name given to this process of acquisition or construction of skills through learning. The process of learning depends upon social interaction (Bruffee, 2004). That is, we need to learn from the collaboration of people that share the environment and interest with us. Thus it can be argued that learning by interacting with another individual, is to build a concept after sharing diverse opinions as learning collaboratively is to be open to knowledge. Collaboration refers to concept of “doing something together” or to work together in collaboration, with no hierarchical composition of the group.

Collaboration means working together, which implies the concept of shared goals and explicit intention to add something - create something new or different through collaboration, in opposition to a simple exchange of information or instructions. Collaborative learning is a situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together (Bruffee, 1995). This paper aims at discussing the use of technology in collaborative learning environment and how one can benefit from information and communication technologies in the schools or classroom settings. The paper will also briefly discuss learning theories and their possible impact on use of technology in education. Highlighting a practical example of technology-aided learning, the paper will finally present the author's reflection.

Collaborative Learning

According to Bestowed organized learning is that study which happens by strategy for ...