Abstract:

Informatics is COOL – as a subject and as a tool for interdisciplinary and cross-curricular learning. In this paper COOL refers to three different aspects of learning not only in informatics but also in other subjects: First of all, COOL stands for “cool” in the sense of interesting, motivating or fun, topics that students like to learn and methods that enhance learning, e.g. brain-based teaching. Furthermore, COOL can be the abbreviation of COoperative Open Learning, an Austrian teaching model based on the Dalton-Plan or COmputer-supported Open Learning.

Firstly, COOL can describe lessons that are cool in the sense of interesting, good, diversified, and competent. The question what is necessary for learning so that students would call it “cool” comes up. What is cool for the brain of the students, can be answered by the research field of neurodidactics or brain-based learning. Teachers should consider this information to make learning more brain-friendly and thereby more effective.
According to an Austrian initiative “COOL” is a shortcut for “COoperative Open Learning”. The idea behind this project, which started in 1996, is to take the heterogeneity in classrooms more into account. Further, the integration of so-called “soft-skills” in school-education should be more intense. For this purpose different progressive education approaches and especially the Dalton plan from the US-American Helen Parkhurst is referenced.
Additionally COOL can be interpreted as “COmputer-assisted Open Learning”. This method uses technology to increase and facilitate the cooperation of students. It can be compared to methods like “Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning” (CSCL) or also eLearning, which have similar directions but some different elements. During the last years, the Internet became an indispensable source for information and learning material. Web 2.0 changed and improved the communication and interaction massively.

This paper aims at showing how to use all three meanings of COOL in cross-curricular teaching and learning. After giving presenting the three forms of COOL and cross-curricular learning the paper describes criteria that should be considered in COOL lesson design. It further presents some examples of COOL teaching units for different subjects and reports on experiences with COOL in secondary schools.

Keywords:

Computer science, informatics, cooperative learning, collaborative learning, computer-supported learning, secondary school.