Collaboration and Self-Learning
Professor Sugata Mitra discovered the value of collaboration accidentally.  He was focusing on how to improve education outcomes in poor areas in India where good teachers were scarce.  He installed computers in public areas at a child’s eye level and waited to see what happened.  The results were interesting.  In every area—remote rural villages to inner city shantytowns—where he had installed computers, children responded in the same way.  Small groups of three or four children worked together to figure out the operating system.  By collaborating, they became proficient with the computers astonishingly quickly.

Collaboration Fueling Advanced Learning
Mitra continued his experiments by loading information into computers and then seeing what the children could accomplish in two months of unsupervised collaboration.  In one case, he told the children at the outset that the material in the computer was really difficult and that he didn’t expect them to understand it.  When he returned two months later they agreed that the material was tough.  A twelve-year-old girl told him sadly that they hadn’t learned much.  “Apart from the fact that improper replication of the DNA molecule causes genetic disease, we’ve understood nothing else.”  These kids had worked together to grasp ideas far beyond normal curriculum for their age.  Having Internet access and collaboration gave them the ability to find and then process all the information they needed in an informal example of unsupervised online education.

Practical Collaboration Integration for Teachers
Teachers can integrate collaborative learning into their classrooms easily.  Mitra’s model featured three to four students per computer.  Classrooms that don’t have computers or access to a mobile computer lab can still schedule class time in a library or media center.  And since you only need one computer for every four students, you’ll require fewer computers.  A great way to incorporate collaborative learning as a supplement to lectures is to give students one period to work together in a collaborative study session—perhaps before a quiz.  If you have computers in your classroom, you may be able to implement collaborative segments into each class period.

Why It Works
Teachers have been suspicious of whether collaborative learning produces “deep learning.”  The answer, simply, is yes.  Professor Mitra replicated his experiments in Great Britain in a regular classroom and allowed students to form small collaboration groups according to preference.  These students were given a series of difficult questions to solve.  They were allowed to use any search engine at their disposal.  Working together, these students averaged 76% across the board!  When the teacher expressed skepticism about whether this was indeed “deep learning,” Professor Mitra arranged to come back and test students individually in two months.  When these students were tested individually with no collaboration or computer access they still tested at 76%. So the collaborative process fuels long term memory retention as well as rapid knowledge acquisition.  If you’ve been looking for a way to engage students and move them from passive to participatory learners, introducing a collaborative environment may work wonders.

Jesse Langley lives near Chicago. He divides his time among work, writing and family life. He writes on behalf of Colorado Technical University and has a keen interest in blogging and social media. He also writes for www.professionalintern.com .

Written by Melanie Bacon

The Department of Education and Childhood Development in Victoria, Australia, provides a great Web site named iPads for Learning that provides first-hand reports about the implementation and results from a trial including over 700 iPads deployed in nine schools. Robust PDF reports that include the steps involved in developing the program as well as the theoretical framework to support instruction with iPads are just a few examples of great resources from this Web site.

We can also look closer to home in a small country school district named Southeast of Saline in Gypsum, KS. They are years into their one-to-one iPod touch initiative, and many of the lessons learned can be transferred to implementing iPads. I had the wonderful opportunity to observe a classroom in Gypsum and witness the power of self-directed student learning with touch technology. Learning from the experiences of others is an important first step when embarking on a mobile initiative. We discussed management concerns, using email to distribute assignments and learning resources, and strategies to develop lessons. Teachers visit the iTunes store daily to find the latest, greatest FREE apps. One of the most powerful moments during my site visit involved the teachers’ discussion of the role students play in creating lessons. Students developed the concept of teaching fractions with Cupcake Creator, and it has been a successful lesson since its inception!

To help you get started in the review of great iPad resources for your classroom, please visit some of the best places I’ve found to learn about great apps.

1)   Follow what leaders in the field of technology in education recommend via Twitter or Diigo. A great example is the iPad in Education group in Diigo or Tom Barrat’s Google presentation of 62 Interesting Ways to use an iPad in the Classroom.

2)   Subscribe to feeds from Web sites created by leaders in the field, such as Kathy Shrock’s iPads in the Classroom Web site or Michael Gorman’s 21^st Century Educational Technology and Learning blog.

3)   Visit sites that allow users to provide feedback about apps as well as rank apps, including App Annie and iPhone Application List.

If you want even more information, visit Web sites like Macdonald Tech for Teachers and you will easily fill up your afternoon surfing the web to explore the learning potential of iPads in the classroom. The most important ingredient to successful use of any technology tool is the patience, persistence, and creativity of the teacher!

MathGameTime is your resource on the Web for math homework help. If your PreK-7 student is struggling with a certain math concept, you will find interactive online games, math worksheets, and video tutorials to explain math concepts in a fun and interactive way. Research has shown that students become highly motivated to learn and improve in a game environment and online educational games have been known to improve math scores. MathGameTime has scoured the Web for the best resources available to help students excel in Math. High quality online games, videos and practice worksheets are available for a wide variety of topics such as: addition, subtraction, geometry, fractions, algebra, probability, time and money, and problem solving. ALTEC’s own Arcademic Skillbuilders has several online games featured on this Web site so be sure to recommend it to your students today!