Cooperative Learning with Technology

Do you remember having a pen pal growing up? I had one during the Persian Gulf War with a US soldier. I loved writing letters to him and I enjoyed even more when he wrote back! Honestly, I learned so much from his letters. Now, look at the technology we have today and how much students could interact with people across the world! One neat example would be to use Keypals. This is a way students can communicate with others in different cities, states, and countries using technology (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007.)  I could also use these resources to collaborate with other teachers. I am the sole math teacher in the building and working cooperatively with other educators from different cities, states, or even countries, could provide me with incite, resources, ideas, or even share stories! Skype is another way to talk with others face to face without actually being face to face. I have only used Skype for personal reasons, but it could easily be used for meetings, conferences, and student assignments. I guess the days of pen and paper is long gone!

Currently at work, we use Google Calendars to keep track of main due dates, upcoming events, staff meetings, and anything deemed important. This is a great way for the staff to organize collaboratively. We are working on our schools’ website to create teacher webpages, so students can check for missing work, due dates, activities, and other important events. After learning about blogs and wikis, I wanted to create one for my classroom immediately, but chose to hold off because the district is actively working on the website. If we can make it more user-friendly and more accessible for our students I could add a link to our classroom blog or wiki. I think the organization and class management would also increase with the webpage updates.

This technology supports social learning theories. Working cooperatively with others can be used in a variety of ways. Small groups or pairs work best when checking for understanding. Plus, students tend to share more with fewer students in the group. I would like to use www.homesofourown.org in my math class next school year. This website has students “build” an entire home (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). They can see how much materials will cost, they can choose the site to build their home on, and then teachers can have them solve problems using their 3D model of their home. Ideally, I would like to have students work in pairs, as if they were a couple building their future house together. This project would both engage in cooperative learning, but also enhance social learning theories.

References:

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.