Unit 5: ICT to Support Collaboration and Communication

The characteristics are:

• Enhances learning – learners gain rich insights from cross-class exchanges.
• Encourages ownership of ideas – each learner shapes a part of the interaction for the group.
• Develops reading/writing skills – learners use written communication skills to exchange ideas.
• Enhances teaching curriculum – provides an exciting and innovative forum for teaching traditional subjects.
• Stimulates teacher creativity – teachers develop new instructional techniques by sharing project ideas with other colleagues.
• Expands teaching and learning horizons – collaborative projects take learners beyond the classroom to draw on family and community resources for information, making them more aware of their social and physical surroundings.
• Integrates computer and telecommunications technology – teachers and learners learn technical skills.

Adapted from: "Learning Circles" by Margaret Riel

Collaboration and Digital Tools

Collaborative projects do not need to be done using the Internet. Collaboration can take place between two classes that can meet with each other face to face – e.g. within the same school or community. However, telecommunication adds interest and motivation to collaboration, and has the advantage of adding different people's perspectives to the subject being studied. Collaborative activities can take many forms and can involve individuals or groups. It should involve four things:

• Two or more peers with a shared learning goal;
• A workspace or learning environment that allows for collaboration;
• An interactive, facilitated process or structure for the learning experience;
• One or more electronic or computerised tools to support collaboration activities.

Adapted from: “Collaborative Online Learning” by Audrey Choden: