Lesson 13: Cooperative Learning with the Computer

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, 5 elements are needed:

1. common goal

2. interdependence

3. interaction

4. individual accountability

5. social skills

Cooperative Learning and the Computer

Researchers have made studies on the learning interaction between the student and the computer. The studies have great value since it has been a long standing fear that the computer may foster student learning in isolation that hinders the development of the student's social skills.

Now this mythical fear has been contradicted by the studies which show that when students work with computers in groups