Collaboration ~ 8845 Module 3

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

Learning Theory and Educational Technology

8845 Module 1 Assignment

What are your beliefs about how people learn best?

I believe people learn best through feedback, reflection, and opportunities to improve.  Too many fail to follow up a learning experience by offering these chances.  Teachers themselves often don’t feel the time to look back and consider alternatives and possibilities.  Choice should be a norm in education rather than the one for all approach.  Giving options offers an avenue for creativity and engagement while learning and exploring content.  Which would you prefer; lecture and worksheet practice of verb conjugations, developing a poem incorporating the verbs in various ways, creating a pneumonic memory rap to share verb conjugations, gaining approval for an imagined innovative way to express verb conjugation?  Any of these could integrate technology tools as well as offer independence, collaboration, inspiration, and connected learning.  Through the act of creating with content, individuals remember the learning as an experience.  Some say teachers are the worst students as they tend to disregard all their own rules and expectations in behavior that are insisted upon of the learners entrusted to them.  I say learning for any individual should be presented in small doses with time to collaborate.  This peer sharing provides validation which serves as feedback, insights to extend thinking and reflection, as well as a desire to improve upon the original small dose of learning.  All without droning on about information hoping the minds of your audience are open and receiving.  The pulse of knowledge gained can be determined through instant assessment means such as student response systems, board races, mind mapping, etc.  This same choice for students should be modeled through teaching.  Vary the dissemination of content methods.  Multimedia resources are endless.  Rather than being the only source of information, showcase the world as your resource.  Skype an expert, email those involved in the subject matter, offer students an option of discovery for sharing, read a story together that can lead to learning tangents, find an audience interested in sharing learning and commenting on building knowledge, pull in community guests, invite variety, etc.  Design learning instead of dictating content.  (Check out this blog post on Educating the Whole Child)

Here is an artistic creation on John Dewey's Democracy and Education.  What feedback do you think Dewey would have for this resource?


(Campbellkid25, 2009)

What is the purpose of learning theory in educational technology?

Learning theory provides a foundation to guide best practice in integrating curriculum.  Through evolution we can build upon prior knowledge to imagine the needs for adaptation necessary to today’s learners.  Siemens (2006) pointed out that there are many ways to define knowledge; however, searching for a single definition has the opposite effect when it comes to developing an interconnected knowledge base.  How can the idea of an interconnected knowledge base be explained if content is shared separated?  Driscoll’s (2005) definition of a learning theory as persistent change as a result of experience offers connective opportunities of a knowledge base.  Behavioral theorists determine learning through observation and measurable results. 

A combination of learning theories should demand innovative ways to create engaging activities for learning experiences.  Educational technology has made communication, collaboration, and connectivity easier, obvious, and measurable.  Available technology tools offer endless opportunities to evolve and adapt networking knowledge gained in artistic ways creating tangents for enhanced exploration and even more discovery sharing.  Four theorists utilized metaphors to explain this all inclusive educational opportunity we are sitting on the edge of today.  John Seely Brown’s description of educators as master artists, Clarence Fisher’s view of educators as network administrators, Curtis Bonk saw educators as concierges, and  George Siemens pictured educators as curators (Siemens, 2006).  All these metaphors have to do with learners constructing knowledge. Each metaphor can have appropriate applications in today’s classrooms. Students can be learning the same basic concepts but following different avenues. Helping students see connections, should determine the role of the educator as facilitator. The inclusion of each metaphor can lead to an exemplary experience of teaching and learning.

References

Campbellkid25 (October 24, 2009). A conversation with John Dewey. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQAtzmaGBeE&feature=related

Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc

Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing knowledge. Retrieved from http://www.Lulu.com

Siemens, G. (2008, January 27). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. Paper presented to ITFORUM. Retrieved from http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper105/Siemens.pdf