ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that collaboration is about working together to produce or create something meaningful, but that is a very broad definition, and there are many gray areas of collaboration. Educators have long extolled the value of teamwork and cooperative learning, but never has the call from the world beyond school been so loud, begging teachers to prepare students for work that requires flexible collaboration—both synchronous and asynchronous. The students will need practice working in teams and practice with many forms of collaboration. If teachers do not have colleagues to collaborate with at their school because of size or other constraints, then virtual collaboration with distant colleagues is now much easier. The tools the teachers place in students’ hands enrich their collaborative experience and make the work they do more closely resemble the work they will continue to do once they leave their schools.
