Collaboration
As we heard in Rheingold’s discussion, I do believe humans have the basic instinct to “interact and work as a group.” As he pointed out humans have lived for much, much longer than the approximately 10,000 years of settled agricultural civilization. They had to interact and work as group in order to survive. He gave an example stating, “In small family groups, nomadic hunters bring down rabbits, gathering food.” Working in a preschool, I saw children as young as 1 year old, interacting and working with each other to build towers, and play house. These children were to young to understand the meaning behind their actions, so it shows how humans do have the basic instinct to interact and work as a group. I also definitely agree when Dr. Rheingold stated the mentality in collaborating with technology is now, instead of, "neither of us can trust each other so we have to make suboptimal moves," it's, "you prove to me that you are trustworthy, and I will cooperate” (Rheingold, 2008). People have realized that our day to day problems and extremely complex problems can now be easily and more quickly solved with using the internet. Humans can now collaborate with people across the country, and world with the blink of an eye.
Technology can facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles in many ways. First, technology can help in seeking and valuing students' points of view. There are many virtual classrooms around the world teachers can connect their students with to get other students points of views. In my classroom, my students are using technology as a research tool to help support their point of view on their topic. Some of my students have even been able to reach out to our penpals in Michigan via Skype and ask them their point of view on their persuasive topic. As Rheingold stated, “I think we need to begin developing maps of this territory so that we can talk about it across disciplines.” I agree with this statement, and think why not start with this generation of students.
Another way technology can facilitate collaboration among learners is through engaging, collaborative learning programs. These programs can easily adapt curriculum to address students' supposition, while making learning fun. Students can collaborate with each other to solve problem-based learning topics, and with the right technology problem facilitating this, suppositions can easily be addressed.
Current Research Study Link:
http://elg.massey.ac.nz/index.php?title=A_Case_Study_in_Collaboration
References:
A Case Study in Collaboration. (2008). NZTC & University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. As retrieved from http://elg.massey.ac.nz/index.php?title=A_Case_Study_in_Collaboration.
Rheingold, H. (2008, February). Howard Rheingold on collaboration [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
No comments:
Post a Comment