Collaboration is a big word these days in education. It shows up frequently in Tweets, literature, promotional videos, and branding including 21st Century Learning.

I often hear, “when my students can have 1:1 technology or BYOD, then they will be able to collaborate”. Although that might be true sometimes, I think we need to be careful. Like any tool, it is all about how skilled the users (students and teachers) are at using the tool.

It is interesting to see how the choice of tools seems to impact group behaviour. Silly things like the size of the screen and who controls the mouse seems to greatly impact the group dynamics and the learning.

The embeded video shows my experience with 1:1 technology, BYOD, Ipads and SMARTBoards (IWB’s).