The lab vs. classroom debate is about classroom management, not about technology. Students learn research skills more readily when skills are shared through cooperative learning. Students enhance their ability to manage ideas and information in collaboration with others. There are many positive results that can be derived from cooperation in learning at the computer. Group work allows students to observe, imitate, and learn from each other.
Students keep each other on task and share a sense of accomplishment.
The encouragement, support, and approval of peers builds motivation and makes learning an enjoyable experience. The research indicates, however, that teacher attitudes and the amount and arrangement of computer hardware are important factors in determining how teachers and students interact. Providing a computer for each child may, in fact, hold back that child's performance, because they then lose the benefits of working in a small group. What research has found is that the greatest benefit in cooperative learning comes to those who give help to others. Individual computer workstations do not afford students this opportunity to help others.