Collaboration

I am not normally someone who enjoys working in groups as far as projects go, but I throughly enjoyed collaborating with my co-workers today. We all have our different strengths and were able to problem-solve together.
I believe that is is important for students to learn how to collaborate because realistically, in the future, it is a skill that they more than likely will have to apply whether it be at university or in the workplace. Being able to problem-solve with people who may have thought processes that are quite different than your own is a skill.
Collaborating is different that group work in that when you collaborate, you aren't simply dividing up work to focus on small projects independently. Rather, you are working as a team to share ideas and problem-solve together. As well, while collaborating, students may offer solutions to one another or perspectives that they wouldn't have otherwise considered.
In order to have students try to collaborate in the classroom, I really liked the idea of providing the students with a question or issue that they have to solve on their own using the knowledge and/or skills that they have acquired.