Have you watched the video of Howard Rheingold discussing the natural instinct of people to seek groups and collaborate? Technology provides tools for collaboration across time and space, as exemplified in Wikipedia.
“Howard Rheingold: Way-New Collaboration”
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
Do you believe that humans have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group,” as Rheingold proposed in his discussion of the evolution of Wikipedia as a collectively developed encyclopedia?
How can technology facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles?
In this video, Rheingold discussed the ways people use participatory media and collective action to collaborate. He concluded that Wikipedia is really an outgrowth of humankind’s natural desire to work together as a group. I believe that humans have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group,” as Rheingold proposed in his discussion of the evolution of Wikipedia as a collectively developed encyclopedia. As I work with others to spread Moodle (http://moodle.org) as a constructivist tool for learning collaboratively I found many connections to Howard Rheingold’s presentation on TED Talk. His idea of “new forms of cooperation create new forms of wealth” made me smile. I often encourage educators to create a course with another teacher as a form of curriculum mapping with a content repository of learning objects. This process begins without clear understanding as to a reason since teachers are used to independence and autonomy within their classroom walls. As I help gather and organize information within one shared course environment, connections surface between the two teachers. Realization starts to set in that they are each repeating the same work the other does in similar ways. The idea of divide and conquer grows, speeding up the course creation. Excitement ensues as collaboration and communication whether face to face or online grows. Albeit small in terms of a group being only two teachers, their continuation of discovery will entice others, such as Special Education teachers and Gifted Coordinators, to join as well as the walls to come down in their classrooms. The extension of this cooperative effort moves from being a peripheral, as Rheingold suggested, to central importance as others start to see the advantages gained and jump in to help construct. With teachers the catch phrase from Howard Rheingold rings true, “enrich yourself by enriching others.” Atomic Learning (http://www.atomiclearning.com/) takes this thought and makes it their own with, “embrace technology, empower yourself.” Howard Rheingold’s evolution of collaboration is rising to its prominence as is shown through the industry examples sharing codes he highlights as well as marketing indicators. Moving forward, Toyota (http://www.toyota.com/) promotes an advanced feature on a car in front of the general public with the open challenge to share what you would do with the same innovation, all to enrich others, thus enriching yourself.
I encourage follow up on Howard Rheingold by directing others to his work with the Institute for the Future on establishing a basis for an interdisciplinary study of cooperation and collective action at http://cooperationcommons.com. An extended version of Howard Rheingold’s presentation can be found at http://blip.tv/file/230580/
References
Atomic Learning – Education: Professional Development, Technology Integration and Software Training and Support Solutions - Atomic Learning. Retrieved January 9, 2011, from http://www.atomiclearning.com/
Moodle. Open-source community-based tools for learning. Retrieved January 9, 2011, from http://moodle.org/
Rheingold, Howard. (2011). Howard Rheingold on collaboration | Video on Ted.com. Retrieved January 9, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
Toyota. Cars, Trucks, SUVs & Accessories. Retrieved January 9, 2011, from http://www.toyota.com/?srchid=K610_p106544673
Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. Retrieved January 9, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Laurie,
ReplyDeleteI too took a liking to the "new wealth" comment.
The printing press did this, the internet did this, mobile technology did this, but what will the concept of collaboration give.
And what true value, especially to education will this bring.
We can't negate the power of facebook, which is now a debated multiple billion dollar entity.
Laurie,
ReplyDeleteI am a huge fan of Moodle. I use it weekly with my students. We have used it to create a developmental work journal for my actors. I love the interdisciplinary stuff you said you have done. What other cool ideas can you share about Moodle...THANKS!
Hi Laurie...
ReplyDeleteLike Richard mentioned above, I also liked the comments about new forms of wealth.
It is really interesting to me that information seems to have become the primary source of wealth today in the sense that those how can either gather the information, provide conduits for that information to flow, and develop the information, or who can put knowledge to some sort of use are the ones that can acquire the types of financial or tangible goods that are necessary to flourish in the modern world.
Although the more traditional sources of wealth (oil, natural resources, land, etc.) are still pretty vital in today's world, they seem to becoming almost a secondary source of wealth and/or dependent upon a person's/company's ability to utilize information.
I guess that the old adage that knowledge is power is becoming less of cliche and more of necessity as world continues to rapidly change.
Mike :)
Laurie-I think one's happiness with sharing and collaborating sometimes has to do with their comfort level in using technology. If they're a pro at it like you, they would probably embrace using new methods much more and be all for trying new concepts. For someone that hasn't used technology much and struggles with it because of their lack of experience with it, they may prefer to go with what they know and lock themself inside the walls of their classroom as you referred and not collaborate. Sometimes, maybe all they need is a crash course in technology to get them started.
ReplyDeleteBrandy
Hi Laurie!
ReplyDeleteI like how you brought in your own experience of pulling to teachers - two groups of students together - for collaborative learning. I have been trying to do a similar thing with some of the instructors at the community college. There is an overlap in which instructors using technology tend to have to teach a technology module before they can even teach their specialized subject. For those of us who teach technology there is a need to use material that is relevant to students. I see a great opportunity to utilize collaborative learning to expand our student's base knowledge.
Kimberly Arlia
Laurie,
ReplyDeleteI like the particular quote you focused in on, "Enrich yourself by enriching other". This is the essence of being a teacher. Why search out all this knowledge and keep it to ones self? Through collaboration, there is a sharing of information that is similar to a teacher and a student, but the teacher student relationship goes both ways in this instance. A bringing together of minds for a common good is the best way to describe it.