Today’s modern classrooms are so advanced that they have completely changed how a traditional classroom looks. Since we started realizing the importance of student collaboration in education, methodologies of learning have evolved.
The question of interest is – How does technology impact collaboration among students in Group projects?
We have something called the interactive panel display that modern classrooms specifically use to offer both educators and students a dynamic and engaging environment. The benefits of collaborative learning for students are huge, let's discuss the collaboration strategies for students and tools that can help you make the most out of a modern classroom.
Importance of student collaboration in education
What changed since 2020?
The pandemic taught us a lot of lessons and the most important ones were in the field of technological development. It helps students become active learners. But to make collaboration strategies for students in active learning we must understand why it is important for them to come together.
- Students develop a higher level of thinking, communication methods, and hard and soft skills.
- Teachers can easily implement student-faculty interaction.
- There is more exposure to different perspectives and concepts. Students can indulge in out-of-box thinking.
- They are better prepared for real-life situations that give them a good head start for future employment opportunities.
- Improved self-esteem and confidence levels among students.
These are just the basic benefits of collaborative learning for students. It has become irreplaceable in today’s society because of rising competition and expectations from students to participate in the present world economy.
How to teach collaboration skills to students?
To break out of the habit of academic learning and isolated learning only teachers need a stronger core philosophy of collaborative learning. Although the concept is not new, it is becoming more and more relevant in modern smart classes.
Here are 10 ways educators can answer the question of how to teach collaboration skills to students:
- No group should be too small or too big. Size them for maximum effectiveness depending on the activity.
- Inform them about their goals and what is expected of their group.
- Group students together according to their social capacity, strengths, and weaknesses. Deliberately choosing the qualities that blend in together and support each other helps students sort group projects among themselves.
- Make a reset number of rules and terms of condition for students to follow as a guideline.
- Teach students to listen to each other before coming up with solutions. Active listening is something that promotes student collaboration beyond expectation.
- Assign a specific role to each group member or give them feedback on how they should divide the task.
- Always explain a concept to them using real-world problems and scenarios that help them feel involved.
- Consider giving every group a unique task.
- Help them warm up before the class collaborative activities begin to make them more confident and practice their skills in a dummy situation.
- Evaluation of every group should have its list of merits. Educators can reward their students by category of different types of student collaboration skills.
But we started this article by talking about how technology is improving. The question still stands, how does technology impact collaboration among students in Group projects? Technological tools like an interactive panel display can be used in every step and strategy used by students or educators. Whether it is a learning activity, a performance-based activity, or a classroom engagement process, it can support all forms of collaboration.
Strategies to use with Interactive Panel Display
The benefits of collaborative learning for students using an interactive panel display are huge. The first set of benefits can be applied to educators because they undergo professional development and training to use the technology. Once educators are comfortable using such display technology they can effectively engage in using it throughout their lessons facilitating all sorts of interactive activities in applying collaboration strategies for students.
The Importance of student collaboration in education has improved because of pedagogical integration and interactive lesson design, both related to improving the learning experience using display devices. What students can learn by visualizing, we can remember and retain for a longer duration. But how to teach collaboration skills to students? It isn’t easy to implement them through all age groups and grades. The trick is to use it in their everyday lives from a very young age so that they can adapt to the technological changes for the better.
Studies have recently found that when they are accustomed to technology which the current economy demands from them, learning new skills is more fun rather than a boring academic process. Yet teachers still wonder how technology impacts collaboration among students in Group projects. It's simple, the group develops skills individually which enable them to improve the collaboration of their efforts. Together they are more capable of achieving goals with their self-improved skills.
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