Group Work

In addition to helping your child develop individual academic skills, his or her teacher will likely also assign projects that require group work in order to help develop important social skills. Many of these projects will involve some form of computer technology.

Select a question below to learn more about group work. Use the navigation to the left to learn about other technologies.

1. Isn't "group work" just cheating?
2. Why work in groups?
3. What kinds of projects might your child's group be assigned?
4. How can students work together if they can't physically be in the same place?
5. How do students share computer files?

Why Work in Groups?

Group work teaches students about how problems can be broken down into component tasks that can be assigned to individual members of the group. It can involve students in discussions with their peers and can motivate them to excel. Moreover, group work mimics many of the cooperative relationships that are required of adults in their workplaces—group work at school prepares your child for future work.

The University of Maryland offers some practical tips on group writing assignments and peer review projects:
http://www.umuc.edu/ewc/onlineguide/chapter3/print3.shtml

Barbara Gross Davis at U.C. Berkeley has an informative article on group work at:
http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/collaborative.html

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