Archie Does Cooperative Learning

Archie is a well-known, American comic that has been around since 1941 (http://www.archiecomics.com/23.html?23; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Andrews_%28comics%29). Its main character, Archie Andrews, and his friends – including Veronica, Betty, and Jughead - are friendly and fun-loving, but not very academically-minded.

That’s why it was such a pleasant surprise to discover at least one episode in which studies are important, and even better, that cooperation among students plays a positive role. Jeyashini Kanagarajah, a teacher at Tanglin Special School in Singapore, used the episode to motivate her students to cooperate. In that episode, Archie is on the baseball team. The coach threatens to remove one of the players from the team for lack of playing skills. Archie steps in to help his teammate, and in return, the teammate coaches Archie in his schoolwork. Jeyashini was not certain of the reference for this installment of Archie, but we believe it is #161.

Two Special Issues of Computers & Education

Recently, the journal Computers & Education (http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/347/description#description) has had two special issues related to cooperative learning. The November 2005 issues focuses on collaborative learning environments and the January 2006 issues highlights methodological issues in research CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning).