Computer-supported collaborative learning

Abstract

In line with the requirements of a transformed industry, higher education has incorporated practices and tools allowing its students to apply technology to their professional practice. However, university commitment goes beyond facilitating technical skills, given that without a humanistic basis, those skills alone are not sufficient to meet the true challenges of the 21st century. Collaborative learning involves training for technology-mediated collaboration, and its pedagogical approach considers both the improvement of individual learning in contact with the group and the development of a culture of collaboration. The ability to collaborate is, in itself, typical of the 21st century. Both the field of higher education and the corporate environment recognize that collaborative learning tools are one of the three communication technologies that contribute most to university teaching. The challenges that go along with this involve training teachers, whose competencies conflict with university students’ growing interest in making use of a technologically-mediated collaborative culture. Therefore, working collaboratively is particularly important when institutions, or teachers individually, want to adopt a humanistic culture in digital formats, proposing a documented framework supported by scientific evidence that addresses the intersection of knowledge, pedagogy and the group’s socio-emotional level.