Bruna's+Summary

“What is Collaborative Learning?” is an article written by Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean T. MacGregor. In this text the authors explain the Collaborative Learning idea, its benefits when used in classroom, some strategies and challenges faced for teachers and students when working with this proposal.

Collaborative Learning proposes students working in groups in which they will research some topic trying to find solutions and creating their own knowledge. In Collaborative Classrooms the teacher becomes a coach who will guide and train the students in the better way possible to construct their own product. Thus, the figure of the unique knowledge holder doesn’t fits in a collaborative classroom intention.

Trying to clarify Collaborative Learning idea some assumptions about learning are presented. The first says that Learning is an active process, thus construct meanings is crucial to learning. Learning also depends on rich contexts where the students will be encouraged to practice and develop reasoning and problem-solving skills. During this process different perspectives will appear showing the fact that learners are diverse and at the same time have their particularities. So, through this diversity, know how to interact one with other will make the learning process more significant.

Collaborative Learning stimulates involvement, cooperation and teamwork as well as civic responsibility. Also it proposes an exercise of responding each other’s work as a form to construct your own meaning. The authors also give examples of strategies that have worked and are now widely used in higher education as Writing Groups, Peer Teaching, Discussion Groups and Seminars.

Although Learning Collaboratively brings benefits, in other hand many challenges still appear because this proposal goes directly in our assumptions about learning and teaching. Our society cannot be totally ready to see teacher and students changing their roles.


 * Marina's suggestion:**

I think you should change "the collaborative learnig idea" to "the idea of collaborativing learning" in the first paragraph,the first sentence of the third paragraph didn't make sense for me, in my opinion you should add something like "in the sense of clarify the idea of collaborative work,some assumptions....". In the last paragraph change "in other hand" for "on the other hand".My last suggestion is for you to imrpove your last sentence. Besides that I really liked it and I personally think that you really understood the text.

Best.

“What is Collaborative Learning?” is an article written by Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean T. MacGregor. In this text the authors which explain s the idea of Collaborative Learning, its benefits when used in classroom, and some strategies and challenges faced by for teachers and students when working with this proposal.

Collaborative Learning proposes students work ing in groups in which they will to research some a topic and trying to find solutions and creat e ing their own knowledge. In Collaborative C lassrooms the teacher becomes a coach who will guide and train the students in the better way possible to construct their own product . Thus, the figure of the unique knowledge holder doesn’t fits in a collaborative classroom intention.

In the sense of clarify Collaborative Learning idea the authors presents some assumptions about learning. The first says that L earning is an active process, thus construct ing meanings is crucial to learning. Learning also depends on rich contexts where the students will be encouraged to practice and develop reasoning and problem-solving skills. During this process different perspectives will appear showing the fact that learners are diverse and at the same time have their particularities. So, Through this diversity, students will learn know how to interact one with one an other and will make the learning process more significant.

Collaborative Learning stimulates involvement, cooperation and teamwork as well as civic responsibility. Also it proposes an exercise of responding each other’s work as a form to construct your own meaning. The authors also give examples of collaborative strategies that have worked and are now widely used in higher education including as Writing Groups, Peer Teaching, Discussion Groups and Seminars.

Although Learning Collaboratively brings has many benefits, on other hand many challenges still appear are also present because this proposal goes directly in our assumptions about learning and teaching. Our society cannot be totally ready to see teacher and students changing their roles. Collaborative Learning is an interesting proposal which present a different way of learning : construct the knowledge all together. _

The article “Wiki as a Teaching Tool” written by Kevin R. Parker and Joseph T. Chao has as purpose explain s the different uses of wiki s and how this tool wikis can be used to engage students in learning in a collaborative way.

First of all, the authors conceptualize what are a Web2.0 and a Wiki. A Wiki is a website in which the content can be edited by the visitors and used to collaborative learning. The Web2.0 is a group of technologies that makes possible the share of information using the internet. Both Web2.0 and Wiki are powerful sources helping the which help students during their construction of knowledge and can fit in some paradigms that will be clarified in the article. These paradigms are named by the authors as “Approaches to Learning”,

<range type="comment" id="944264">They consist in of some theories and studies conducted by a big variety of researchers that which conclude that they are important aspects for learning. The “Cooperative / Collaborative Paradigm” <range type="comment" id="742690">says that teams can achieve better results than <range type="comment" id="540627">individually and wiki s can facilitate the sharing and <range type="comment" id="549607">distributing of knowledge. The “Constructivist Paradigm” describes how that learning happens; it should be cooperative and collaborative. <range type="comment" id="496075">Thus, the connection between wiki and the paradigms can be clearly seen.

Despite of <range type="comment" id="780480">this relation, wikis is are a very recent tool used in the <range type="comment" id="687898">Higher Education <range type="comment" id="110521"> but introduced ten years ago. Still <range type="comment" id="932391">today new usages of Wikis are suggested by many researchers, who try to disseminate the benefits brought by this technology when properly used.


 * Marina's suggestion:**

I don't have any suggestion, this one is very good. You made a good job.Congrats.

Best.

Marina I made the changes you suggested me. Thank you for editing. Bruna

Bruna - You seemed to understand the material very well and had some very strong points in the first summary. Work though the main points of the both articles to improve your summaries...you are on the right track! Cynthia


 * Bruna's Final Version: **

First Summary

“What is Collaborative Learning?” is an article by Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean T. MacGregor which explains Collaborative Learning, its benefits when used in classroom, and some strategies and challenges faced by teachers and students when working with.

Collaborative Learning proposes students work in groups to research a topic and trying to find solutions and create their own knowledge. In Collaborative Classrooms the teacher becomes a coach who will guide and train the students in the better way possible to construct their own product. Thus, the figure of the unique knowledge holder doesn’t fits in a collaborative classroom intention.

In the sense of clarify Collaborative Learning idea the authors presents some assumptions about learning. The first says that Learning is an active process, thus constructing meanings is crucial to learning. Learning also depends on rich contexts where the students will be encouraged to practice and develop reasoning and problem-solving skills. During this process different perspectives appear showing that learners are diverse and at the same time have their particularities. So, Through this diversity, students will learn how to interact with one another and will make the learning process more significant.

Collaborative Learning stimulates involvement, cooperation and teamwork as well as civic responsibility. Also it proposes an exercise of responding each other’s work as a form to construct your own meaning. The authors give examples of collaborative strategies that have worked and are now widely used in higher education including Writing Groups, Peer Teaching, Discussion Groups and Seminars.

Although Learning Collaboratively has many benefits, on other hand many challenges are also present because this proposal goes directly in our assumptions about learning and teaching. Our society cannot be totally ready to see teacher and students changing their roles. Collaborative Learning is an interesting proposal which present a different way of learning : construct the knowledge all together.

Second Summary

The article “Wiki as a Teaching Tool” by Kevin R. Parker and Joseph T. Chao explains the different uses of wikis and how this tool can be used to engage students in learning in a collaborative way.

First of all, the authors conceptualize what are a Web2.0 and a Wiki. A Wiki is a website in which the content can be edited by the visitors and used to collaborative learning. The Web2.0 is a group of technologies that makes possible the share of information using the internet. Both Web2.0 and Wiki are powerful sources which help students during their construction of knowledge and can fit paradigms named by the authors as “Approaches to Learning”,

They consist of theories and studies conducted by a variety of researchers which conclude that they are important aspects for learning. The “Cooperative / Collaborative Paradigm” says that teams can achieve better results than individually and wikis can facilitate the sharing and distributing of knowledge. The “Constructivist Paradigm” describes that learning should be cooperative and collaborative. Thus, the connection between wiki and the paradigms can be clearly seen.

Despite this relation, wikis are a very recent tool used in Higher Education introduced ten years ago. Today new usages of Wikis are suggested by many researchers, who try to disseminate the benefits brought by this technology when properly used.