Although we produced some interesting projects the instructor concluded that there really wasn't much evidence of collaboration, but clear examples of cooperation and communication. In most cases the group members simply divvied up the workload then pieced it all together.
This describes what I often come across with student groups. I would agree with your tutor that this is co-operation more than collaboration.
I'm wondering whether collaboration is a function of the task - by that I mean that the activity that students are set has to lend itself to collaboration and if that is what you want your students to do, then not allow them to avoid it. For example:
- A task that asks a group of 6 students to work together to produce a powerpoint presentation on a given topic could easily lead to co-operation more than collaboration, because they can each work on one or more slides independently.
- A task that requires a group of students to research a given topic with a view to solving a given problem, is more likely to be collaborative. It is not clear how to go about this task or even what the expected outcome might look like.
These are my first thoughts. Not sure if I should be here or in Google Wave!
Jenny
. Time to meet up face to face I think!