A lot of what is now called "collaborative learning" used to be called cheating. I guess with 64% of students admitting to cheating, we may as well rename it collaborative learning.

My students have been collaborating for thirty years? Do you really think this is a new idea? Get out from in front of your computers and go into real classrooms!

Our schools are purposely located in very difficult neighborhoods to prove that inspired kids, using technology, mentoring one another, working on world issues and then working in the community garden to learn about their and the world's health is the balance that we all need. The schools are k-12 and centered in collaborative environments--sometimes the kindergarten even teaches the high school students. www.starshineacademy.org

I'm lucky, I teach theatre in magnet school for the performing arts and collaboration, communication and problem solving are just what we do! You don't put on a show - even an introductory level class production - without working in diverse groups, thinking fast, and being both a teacher and a learner. Kids learn who they are, what they can do, and a lot more about their classmates and teacher than in the regular classroom.

I teach teachers at a university level and collaboration can still be problematic. We need to teach how to collaborate. My university is teaching this through modeling best practices. This will in turn enable our students to teach their students. We live in a connected world and as teachers we need to ensure that we teach what is appropriate and acceptable methods.

I am a sub in our large school system for Pk-12. I'm previously a ten year technology professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, but my degree is in BS Education. I am not working on my Masters in Technology in Education and will go on to my doctorate in adult education so I can teach in college again. I taught myself technology at night at a community college so I could teach in the 80 and 90 in technology because it was in need.

Our public schools in oklahoma are way behind. No computers except in a lab that each class uses 30 minutes a week. The teachers are afraid of technology and do very little collaboration even in their subject area. Such a sad situation. We need to find a way to get our city mayors to care more about education and less about what "looks" pretty down town. We just had a 35 million bond passed to increase technology, but I already know that a big portion of it is slated to put fences around our schools because of child preditors and this is a college town and a very wealthy tax town. Average 3b2b home is 250,000 up to 5 million. We are an oil state so our economy is very good. It is not about money, I believe it is about awareness and understanding of the need, that 40% of our children are dropping out of school.

Doug: Collaborative learning has nothing at all to do with cheating. Nothing. Collaboration is the glue that holds together communities, companies, nations and, hopefully, our schools. It's also a way of dramatically enriching the learning experience.

A quick flashback to the early years of this country. Specifically, the Continental Congress, when a group of representatives from geographically close but attitudinally distant colonies gathered in Philadelphia to debate (among other things) a severing of ties with Great Britain. They disagreed and argued, often quite bitterly. But they ultimately shared a common purpose that could only be effected through a collaborative effort. One member of that early Congress reminded the other representatives that, if their revolt was unsuccessful, they would all surely be hung as traitors. Ben Franklin responded, "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." This is reiterated in the motto of this country: E pluribus unum......Out of Many, One.

That is what collaboration and collaborative learning is about - making the sum better than the parts. And our children need to know how to do it. It's an important and elemental skill, that bears new importance in our increasingly interconnected world.

Collaboration? A new concept? That is funny. Welcome to Dr. Maria Montessori's 20th Century concept now practiced for over 100 years in authentic Montessori classrooms.

Not to be confused with other versions of Montessori education, authentic AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) Recognized schools provide children at very young ages (as early as 5 years through 12 years) the opportunity for collaborative activities and learning in ungraded and non-competitive classrooms (thus eliminating the "cheating" concept; why would you cheat for a higher grade if there are no grades?) at the elementary level.

True collaboration provides each child to develop their own understanding, their own skills and their own relationships as projects develop throughout the course of the elementary experience prior to entering the project-based environments of the junior high (Erdkinder) level.

High school students in traditional classrooms suddenly confronted by collaborative projects are often times derailed by the concept, but students emerging from a 'career' of collaborative learning experiences are well-prepared, indeed, expect the process to filled with potential collaborators.

It's a different world out there when you can appreciate the value of younger children learning through the benefit of collaboration.

JFITZ

A former student of mine got a job working on the movie Space Jam. Yes, it was a few years ago. The post production work of the film was done in three different production centers around the world taking advantage of "normal" working hours for their time zone. I saw this as a true collaborative work effort that students needed to learn in order to be prepared to work in todays creative industry.

Thats great that you tend to unite all the programs into collaborations, unfortunately I'm not connected to the educational sphere and can't help you, but I hope you will face many-sided support in your deeds...