Collaborative Learning Using Technology: Issues and Approaches

Abstract

To accomplish collaborative learning with technology, new metaphors for teaching and learning -- e.g. teaching as choreography, teaching as coaching, student centered learning -- must emerge to encourage active participation and group self-reliance in completing teamwork. In addition, different technologies may be needed to support groups at different points in a project's development. This paper discusses three approaches or models for using technology to support collaborative learning: (1) group dynamics, pedagogic issues and administrative issues with specific examples of projects in a human-computer interface development class, (2) an architecture design studio course on the World Wide Web that creates a virtual design community that is accessible to the world and extends the classroom discussion beyond the academic walls of the University, and (3) the potential of groupware to create effective learning environments, showing how Lotus Notes has been used to create collaborative, yet individualized, learning environments for liberal arts and business courses.