How mobile devices can promote collaborative learning

Currently, there is a transition from the traditional system of education where educators are the sole actors in the student learning process to students themselves actively participating in promoting and facilitating their own process of learning while improving their social interactions via mobile devices.

There is no doubt students learn by experience, discussions with experts, and their counterparts, involvement, and sharing, and delving into a practical problem. This is the reason this post is made to show the relationship between both entities. But before explaining the impact of mobile devices on enhancing learning among students, we will delve into what the concept means.

What is collaborative learning?

Collaborative learning is an educational approach that allows two or more individuals to work in collaboration by mutually leveraging their skills and resources to accomplish tasks and projects, learn, and solve challenges. It is the act of facilitating learning among groups, motivating them to work collaboratively by making them understand and produce information and/or concept resented to them instead of repeating figures and facts by memorizing them.

That can help them listen to other people’s points of view, defend their viewpoints, represent ideas, and justify their points all with the aim of learning. Students will be mandated to learn and succeed as an individual, and to ensure that their group is on the same page with them. Every member of the group becomes responsible for the group activities, all with the aim of learning to benefit all.

Where do mobile phones fit in?

Mobile devices help in connecting people with one another and ease access to information in real-time. Learning can be done anywhere with mobile devices since mobile phones are now easily accessible to people, with the ease of use and mobility of the devices, group learning will definitely thrive. Mobile devices enable students to be a part of a realistic co-learning environment while empowering them with the required tool to aid learning and interaction altogether.

This allows students to experiment and learns from the system themselves. Mobile devices also encourage mental stimulating learning processes for students by allowing them to share information resources among the member of their groups making use of interactive tasks and materials to work on and get corresponding feedback.

This shows that for enhancing collaborative learning beyond its current reach, learners, and educators need to leverage on technology that mobile phones are part of. Leveraging mobile phones in the educational system will enhance collaborative learning.

Students have to be aware that they do not have to be present physically to learn collaboratively.