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
One thing you mentioned one of the things I have problems with when it comes to the internet and using it as a tool. There are so many tools to choose from. Which tool is best and when will one tool be better than the other? This is the first time I have tried blogging and the first time I used a wiki was about six months ago. The tools that are available to us to collaborate are so numerous that the problem doesn't come from the collaboration itself, but which tool to use.
ReplyDeleteHi Tom,
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly not alone in your excitement! I love to interact with other techies! :-) As I learn more and more in my own studies, I hope to bring more and more to my own students. I teach Science and Technology to students in grades K-8. We have used Google Docs and Google Sites to do collaborative work. Remember in school when you had to do a group project? Well now students can log on to Google Docs and work on a Slide show at the same time! The students will plan to all log on from their various homes at a certain time and chat with each other. Then, during presentations, other students can log on and view the presentation from their computers. Also, I can help easily as they just invite me as a collaborator and I can view and edit their documents. If you think you are excited, you should see these tools in the hands of middle school students! They always teach me something new... I enjoy being the teacher and the student.
Where do you see online collaborative learning going in the future?
Janelle
Tom,
ReplyDeleteYou make some excellent points regarding the benefits of distance learning. I agree that anxiety and some nervousness are removed when you are providing feedback and collaborating at a distance. Often times individuals can see each other and feel overwhelmed and bashful and reluctant to share. It is understood that the real world will require you to think on you feet and not be able to do so with technology at times. But I feel that in a learning environment it is great to have the opportunity to collaborate and learn without so much pressure. Then as skills advance people will feel more comfortable talking to each other in person. These same principle apply when people are always inclined to talk to people that look like them and distance education promotes collaboration amongst individuals that would not have likely worked together.
I agree colloborative interaction is an element of distance education. There are some great online collobartive learning tools that people can use while working on assignments and assist others on assignments. I have enjoyed my experiences with using collaborative learning communities but I know that there are some downfalls. Yes, I agree people are the downfall.
ReplyDelete@Aimee - The number of tools can cause "options paralysis." I think tool selection is like choosing a hammer to build something. There are so many different hammers, but you just want to drive a nail. So you grab the first hammer you see, it has heft and allows you to drive the nail. Then you learn there are different types of hammers that do different jobs. So you try a different hammer next time. Pretty soon you're using the right hammer for the right job. Then someone comes out with a nail gun...
ReplyDelete@Janelle - How do your students present real time? Do you use something like Elluminate?
@Kathi - I like how you bring up the idea of learning without pressure. As teachers we are always providing pressure to learn on a timeline at a certain quality. How can we reduce that pressure yet maintain quality and timelines? )I guess that is the holy grail isn't it?)
@Edutech - What are your favorite methods for online collaboration?