This week I viewed a video by Howard Rheingold, where he discussed how people form groups and collaborate. Online collaboration tools such as Wikipedia have provided the opportunity for people to share their ideas from different locations and at different times. Rheingold (2008) discusses how the emergence of technology for collaboration over time has been, “enabled by the collective action that emerges from literacy”. As people have worked together throughout the centuries, more companies and programs have taken advantage of the collaboration of people to solve problems and make improvements towards efficiency. Rheingold (2008) continued to explain how the online program BitTorrent, which I have actively collaborated in, has users download and upload files to make the system more efficient as it is used by more people.
I agree with Rheingold’s (2008) view that people instinctively interact and work in groups, as it has been demonstrated in the development of Wikipedia. No one has been required to add information to the millions of articles in Wikipedia, but thousands of volunteers have actively participated in such collaboration. Technology developing today is increasingly facilitating collaboration among learners, as students are beginning to learn under constructivist principles with the guidance of instructors. In doing so, learners are working synchronously and asynchronously to share their ideas and gain deeper understanding of content from communication with their peers.
The following link is to a research study that was conducted by Allsop (2011) to discover whether collaboration actually occurs when children are learning with the support of a wiki. The study found that students used collaboration for learning the content, about technology, and random help skills.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=1519f9b7-db6c-4f5b-a5bd-fcd8966560ff%40sessionmgr15&vid=5&hid=19
References
Allsop, Y. (2011, October). Does collaboration occur when children are learning with the support of a wiki? The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=1519f9b7-db6c-4f5b-a5bd-fcd8966560ff%40sessionmgr15&vid=5&hid=19
Rheingold, H. (2008, February). Howard Rheingold on collaboration [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
Your blog was very informative, however I am still not convinced that people collaborate instinctively, especially if they lack a certain measure of maturity, motivation, and/or personal stake in the joint outcome. In the case of Wikipedia,as cited by Rhinegold (2008),the contributors are all motivated individuals with a personal desire of sharing their knowledge with the world.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that technology facilitates collaborative learning. Part of the reason I imagine would be because the team members are very much aware that their participation is being monitored and recorded.
Jennifer,
DeleteI can see your point of view, but I do not necessarily agree that it takes maturity to collaborate. My 4 year old Pre-K students collaborate every day as they work and play. One of the standards in our curriculum is for students to be able to interact easily with other children. Technology would definitely facilitate collaboration,improving student participation and increasing their motivation. If the instruction and learning tools are interesting enough, students will be so interested that they would not worry about being observed!Thanks for your response!
Hey Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that there is an instinct in humans, however I feel it is more related to the idea that humans are social beings rather than instinctually having the skills to collaborate. I feel that the skills required to collaborate effectively in various situations are a learned behavior. I feel this because there has been many times where some participants in collaborative groups do not know how to collaborate. Overall, the basic instinct in present, but in order to be successful in collaboration skills need to have been taught/learned previously. Good post!!
Heather
Heather,
DeleteYou make a great point and I can definitely see your views. Thanks for reading and your response!