Module 3 blog post questions:
• 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?
• Find a current research study that has been conducted in the last 5 years that supports collaboration as an effective tool for learning. Include the link and reference for this study in your blog.
Humans are social animals by nature I have always believed. I am not referencing that because it seems to be common knowledge if you are human. So in a sense Rheingold’s (2011) ideas that people want to use media to collaborate just make sense. He reiterates the idea that people want to work together that so many of us already know and puts a modern technology based spin on it. He uses the example of Wikipedia and the idea of it being a collaborative effort. I create blogs in my classroom for basically the same reason. I actually run my classroom blog much like I learned in my three years at Walden University. They are required to respond to at least two other students in the blog. We discuss the blog together as a class and read all the posts together. We then use these responses to complete collaborative environmental project to lower our ecological footprint. Reingold (2011) feels if we combine technology collaboratively in classrooms with students we will foster a whole new world of student group work. Constructivist principles look at the way learners use previous knowledge to incorporate new. They also look at authentic experiences to incorporate problem solving skills into learning new material (Driscoll, 2005). The Jason Project is wonderful example of how constructivist ideas can be worked into Reingold’s theories concerning technology and collaboration. The Jason Project allows students and teachers to collaborate with scientists on real ongoing projects at NOAA. They also include collaborative lesson plans that all deal with real world projects and designs. http://www.jason.org/public/whatis/start.aspx
A study in the Australian Journal of Educational Technology has interesting study concerning online collaboration and its effectiveness in cross cultural learning situations. Every teacher hopes to be able to use online collaboration and studies like this will help us make better decisions on how to use. Reingold (2011) mentions the importance of embracing technology to help support the collaborations humans need and research like the one mentioned below can help people make the right kind of decisions on how to use it.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=83553a81-8674-436b-bb6e-14f32e879969%40sessionmgr12&vid=8&hid=9
References
Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson\
Education.
Rheingold, Howard. (2011). Howard Rheingold on collaboration | Video on Ted.com. Retrieved July 16, 2011, from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
