The Jigsaw Method

One of the quests for my Educational Technology class took me to these two resources to learn about the Jigsaw Method:
http://www.jigsaw.org/
http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/CL/doingcl/jigsaw.htm

The Jigsaw method is basically a method of teaching that bring collaborative learning into an easy-to-implement format that can also be used in a very flexible way.  So the class needs to learn about a certain topic, say something broad like the Civil War for example.  The teacher would first divide the class into diverse groups of about 4-5 students each.  Then the teacher splits that topic into 5 different sub-topics with a student from each group focusing on a single topic.  For example, the topics could be:

1. Reasons the Civil War began.
2. Who were the big names involved?
3. Major conflicts during the Civil War.
4. Which side won the war and how?
5. What was the result of the Civil War (what happened afterwards)?

So each group would be learning about the entirety of the Civil War as each member of the group researches their assigned topic.  If there were only 5 computers in the classroom then each group would be given some time on the computers to research their assigned topic.  While that group is doing research, the other groups could be working on their presentation or working on other subjects.

The fun part comes next.  Each "subject-matter-expert" meets with students from other groups that researched their same sub-topic to collaborate their material.  When they come back to their group they share what they have learned.  Each member of the group then needs to write a report about the Civil War based on the sub-topics presented in their group.  A great advantage to this style of learning is that it necessitates each student pay attention to and respect the presentation of others in the group regardless of whether Johnny is thought of as a nerd or Susy looks weird otherwise their own grade will falter.  A possible disadvantage is that this does take some time and preparation on the part of the teacher to make sure everyone is staying on task even it isn't their turn on the computers.  In addition it depends on the fact that there are even computers in the classroom.  These days, however, that isn't too much of a stretch.