Collaboration in Distance Learning - Sharing is Caring

Humans make their special mark in the food chain through working together with tools to solve problems. It's what we do as a species. A major mode of human learning is through collaboration.

The world of collaborative learning takes on a new meaning when it comes to Distance Education. A blogger named Linda does a great job discussing this in her blog analyzing Kenneth Bruffee's ideas in this space. We become the world of our problems and our solutions, as any student of Vygotsky, Piaget or A. A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh) can attest.

In order to work together across time zones and with little real time interaction takes special skills and tools. These tools have been developing over time from letters, to morse code, telephones, video teleconference, and now online tools such as wikis, document sharing, web sites, and blogs. As we develop our need to communicate, we develop better and better tools.

Collaborative online methods have shown to improve learning and retention across disciplines(West, Sample, and West, 2007). According to blogger David Hopkins(2010) these are as varied as improved race relations, lower anxiety, and creating an active environment. This suddenly makes our online teaching tools much more important. It also provides more opportunities for these problem solving great apes to make better tools.

These tools are getting sexier all the time.

In the Google world, Google Sites encourages teams to create their own web pages and knowledge bases all using their google accounts. This combines with Gmail, Google Docs, Google Groups, Google Voice and Blogspot. All with one login, for free. (Free as in no cost, we are still subjected to advertisements, but a company has to make money right?)

Wikispaces allow groups to create wikis, which allow teams to develop editable wikis. This allows
teams to create knowledge entries that are editable by the team and tracks the history of the changes.

Evernote and Zotero are also a great tools for sharing ideas, notes, citations, and documents about a subject.

This subject makes me almost giddy. Online collaborative learning is the new hotbed of growth in distance learning. I can't wait for the time when we are capable of collaborating real time at almost the speed of thought across the solar system.

Hopkins, D. Benefits of Collaborative Learning. eLearning Blog Don't Waste Your Time. Retrieved from:http://www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/eresources/benefits-of-collaborative-learning-elearning/

Linda.(2005) Linda's Blog Retrieved from:http://blog.lib.umn.edu/gust0124/blog/018079.html

West,J.,Sample,S.,West M.,(2007).Online Collaboration Tools in Instructional Design. Retrieved from:
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/07_5065.pdf

eLearning - Instructional Design for the Next Generation

Instructional Design in the 21st century is a hot topic. There are ever increasing pressures for corporations and institutions to place more of their training online. Online learning has been available for twenty years, yet the Quality of the instruction ranges from excellent to horrible. Instructional Design Quality for online programs must improve if we are to meet the demands of our learners in the next few decades. The reasons for this demand explosion are many:

• rapidly changing environments
  
• new instructional needs
  
• equivalence and access
  

Technology has evolved explosively. Moore's Law though initially intended for processor speeds is commonly used to state that technology and computing power doubles every two years is often considered too slow in some fields. This has very special implications for Instructional Design in that the medium is continually shifting. Internet bandwidth worldwide ranges from dialup speeds (56kbps) to Gigabit speeds. This means that Instructional Designers must constantly be checking the needs of the learners as well as the demands of their employers or institutions.

Moller, Foshay, Wesley, Huett and Coleman (2008) discuss the needs of online instructional design in a 3 part series of articles for Tech Trends. Each part discusses three different sectors: training, k-12, and higher education. They discuss the need for a shift in Instructional Design towards a more Iterative Design framework, much like software development is using. Iterative Design uses a rapid prototyping methodology with high user (learner) interaction to develop quality learning models more quickly with better impact on learning and retention. This is especially true in corporate environments but directly influences K12 and Higher Ed as well.

Another vector in all of this as brought forward by Moller et al (2008), is that for web based learners to thrive they must learn to learn collaboratively. The lecture based learning methodology often trains the learner to expect isolated and directed training moments. As we move to improved design we must teach our students to learn on their own and in groups.

Yet another vector is the concept of equivalence (Simonson, 2000). Are all of the avenues of learning specific objectives providing the same level of effectiveness? This concept leads us to look at the effectiveness of all learning objects and their impacts on learners. Will they achieve the same behavioral and conceptual goals? This shows the need for change in approach to learning online. Not that face to face and online must be the same but that they are equivalent in learning.

When we take these aspects as a whole we are faced with the need for a new generation of instructional models based on the needs of learners developed by people with rapid development tools who thrive in flux. These models cannot be created in a vacuum and must involve real learners in the production of new learning objects. We must also consider that learners must know how to learn and develop the self-efficacy required to be self guided learners. This will be a tremendous challenge for us as we pursue a field that is at the edge of an event horizon.


References:

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 52(5), 63-67. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0199-9.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 52(4), 66-70. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0179-0

Moller, L., Forshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 52(3), 70-75. doi:10.1007/s11528-008-0158-5.

Moore, G. (1965). Cramming More Components Onto Integrated Circuits. retrieved from ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moores_Law/Articles-Press_Releases/Gordon_Moore_1965_Article.pdf

Simonson, M. (2000). Making Decisions: The Use of Electronic Technology in Online Classrooms. New Directions for Teaching & Learning, (84), 29. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Brand New Blog

Social networking has the incredible potential to incite and ignite the passion of many people. This blog will catalog and share my own inciteful journey into educational technologies.