The Hindu : New Delhi News : Global classrooms becoming a reality

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 20, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Global classrooms becoming a reality

Staff Reporter

Ten Delhi schools tie up with Columbia University for new, online project

NEW DELHI: Moving beyond the classroom, this is a team effort unlike any other. With global classrooms finally becoming a reality, a new beginning has been made by ten schools of the National Capital Region (NCR) with students cracking tough maths and physics questions, "with a little help" from experts in Columbia University.

Aimed at promoting application-based learning among students, the tie-up is part of a new project, "Collaborative problem solving in a synchronous computer-mediated environment", conducted by the Teachers College of Columbia University.

The project will see students of Class XI from all the ten schools -- Apeejay Public School, Noida; Amity Public School, Saket; Springdales Public School, Pusa Road; Bluebells Public School; and the CRPF School, among others -- work simultaneously to find a solution to a given problem in maths or physics, with experts from the Department of Mathematic, Science and Technology of Teachers College supervising the work online.

Noting that globalisation had made problem solving and decision making activities revolve around collaborative efforts, Prof. Charles Kinzer of Teachers College said: "This study is designed to investigate collaborative problem solving processes and outcomes when students work together to solve well- and ill-structured problems."

Examining the use of technology as a tool for collaboration and problem solving, the study delves into collaborative processes and outcomes of participants solving problems in an online, synchronous environment.

"It focuses on how learning and problem solving taught in schools relate to problem solving in real-life, authentic situations. When classroom teaching happens, students use the formulae oriented approach to solve problems but here, it is the application of formulas. The study is aimed at changing curriculum and the strategy of curriculum,' points out Rita Kapur, the Principal of Delhi Public School, Ghaziabad.

Interestingly, findings from a pilot of the study conducted at DPS Ghaziabad will be shared at a conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in Montreal this month as well as Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) conference at Taipei in June.

For students, the effort seems to have brought in a whole new experience. As Pooja Bhat, a Class XI student at DPS Ghaziabad says: "This is a thrilling experience as the experiment prepares us so well for taking up the complex tasks that we see all around us today."

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