Collaborative learning is an activity that takes place between a teacher and a learner, between learner and learner, and sometimes, one would hope, between learner and teacher. The free flow of ideas between the various parties can be inhibited by a variety of factors, including perceived or actual power barriers, language skills, previous learning experience, and personal factors such as shyness or dominance. Technology can be used as a way of overcoming, or reducing, some of these inhibitory factors, and this chapter outlines some of the computer-based technologies that can be used. The use of technology to support distant learners is well documented, and this chapter concentrates instead on the less well-reported use of technology in the face-to-face classroom. The chapter opens with a brief consideration of collaborative learning and then focuses on the technologies that can be used to support collaborative learning process in a variety of time and place settings. These technologies include audience response systems, electronic meeting systems, and more recently, and rapidly developing, blended versions of these technologies.
A Cross-Regional Exploration of Barriers to the Adoption and Use of Electronic Meeting Systems
