Collaborative strategies : an internet approach in the primary classroom

Abstract

This dissertation is divided into three separate parts which facilitates a cross analyses of collaborative strategies that are or can be used in the primary classroom. This analyses was conducted in light of the imminent introduction of internet access as an additional tool in the Maltese primary classroom. In the first part of the dissertation a literature review of the term 'collaborative strategies' is conducted including a detailed description of different types of collaborative groups. In the second part of the dissertation, adaptations of such strategies to the internet are reviewed. This is done by firstly exploring what are ICPs (internet collaborative projects), secondly, what is entailed when designing such ICPs and thirdly, a review of different ICPs conducted internationally and locally. In the third part of the dissertation, an ICP designed by the author, is exhibited together with a detailed account of its twofold evaluation process: a pilot study conducted with a group of students and an evaluation by means of questionnaires submitted by a selection of educators considered to be exposed to ICPs. An investigation of computer mediated communication, the medium by which such ICPs are made possible and five reviews of software facilitating such communication is reported in the different appendices to this dissertation.