In this scenario, there is a 'student-student-screen' interaction. Students work together in small groups.
Advantages
- Students learn and seek help from each other, this means, they talk with each other which 'socialises the learning process'.
- If groups are mixed (advanced with less advanced students), advanced students can assist the teacher helping less advanced students.
- If groups are not mixed (advanced students working with advanced students), the teacher can spend more time with those less advanced students or student groups.
- When working together, students talk with each other, which sometimes helps prevent an embarrassing silence.
Disadvantages
- If a student working in a small group poses a question, the whole group of students will not benefit from the answer.
- Only problems of small groups can be addressed.
- Sometimes, in mixed groups, advanced students may get frustrated or bored when the less advanced students do not have the same skills and cannot maintain the same working speed.
- Since the teaching is done mostly on the computer screen, students may see the computer and not the teacher as the facilitator of the learning process. Human teachers may be seen more as a sort of 'moral support' in case there is a problem. Though this is not entirely untrue, it can lead to an impersonal learning environment where the teacher’s work is not seen.