Collaborative vs Cooperative Connundrum

Before reading the articles for this week's module, I pretty much thought that the words 'collaborative' and 'cooperative' were about the same and interchangable. It is interesting that they really are not. The biggies that came out to me in Panitz's article were these: Cooperative: Students do the work together over material being covered, but the teacher is still the one in 'control'. Often the 'stepping stone' to collaborative learning... i.e., used in earlier phases of education (whether 'age' wise, or ability-wise). Cooperation stresses the 'product' of the work. Often also deals with 'traditional knowledge'. Collaborative: Students work together in a more 'open ended' setting trying to reach a goal for which they are responsible in achieving, not the teacher. More of a 'personal philosophy' as opposed to a 'classroom technique'. Stresses the 'process' of working together. Collaboration 'ties into the social constructivist movement'. I liked the quote that Panitz included which came from Rocky Rockwood: "...cooperative represents the best means to approach mastery of foundational knowledge. Once students become reasonably conversant, they are ready for collabaorative, ready to discuss and assess..." In the OLC, we will have to evaluate at what level(s) our students are in so that we can assertain whether cooperative learning or collaborative learning would be the best medium for students to work in on various assignments. If they are at a lower level of knowledge, we would be asking for failure from the beginning if we wanted them to 'collaborate' when they had no idea where to start... at the same time, if we are dealing w/ a higher level class, some collaboration would be appripo.