by Alicia C. Shaw, Ed.D
Alicia Shaw has been an educator for over 33 years. She has worked in both public school and at the university level.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of student collaboration and use of technology as a means of teaching; not cheating. For many years, education has centered on the concept of individual students working on problems alone, memorizing some random facts, and then regurgitating the information to the teacher in the form of a test. Teachers did not spend much time teaching students how to effectively use collaboration as a means of solving problems. As a matter of fact, many teachers would view collaboration as cheating. Enlisting the help of fellow students when doing homework, classwork, etc. was met with serious consequences. So maybe it is time to rethink the idea of cheating. “Many studies show that it is only through participation in sustained, collaborative professional learning models that student achievement demonstrates gains” (Williams, 2010, p.2). If companies are seeking employees who can collaborate and use technology, then educators should teach students the ethical use of collaboration and technology in order to promote their success in the future. “The coalition P21 (Partnership for 21st Century Learning) has identified four ‘Skills for Today’: Creativity, Critical thinking, Communication, and Collaboration” (Driscoll, nd, p.3).