Module 3: Collaboration

Howard Rheingold proposed that humans have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group” (2005/2008) in his video-cast. I absolutely agree. If you watch two toddlers playing together, you will see times of collaboration. If one child struggles with something the other child will come over to help. They have no language skills yet. They have not developed the concept of asking for help, except to cry to get a bigger human to help them. Yet their young partner can figure out they need help and will go over to help. Present these two little ones with a problem that will require both of them to work together, they figure it out. They figure out that they need to work together and if they do they can be successful. I believe this never goes away. As we grow, we learn to turn to one another for help. We learn to recognize when another person needs help. For the most part, we are willing to help one another and work together.

It’s hard to imagine someone not understanding the power of technology to assist and enhance collaboration. Technology allows people from different parts of the world, in different regions, time zones, and cultures to work together on a common project. There are projects that are born, designed, carried out, and written up by teams of people who have never actually met face-to-face. There are projects, like open-source based projects, where participants do not know one another and do not necessarily work specifically with one another, yet they collaborate. Technology and all that it can do is tailor-made for collaboration.

In education, technology tools and collaboration are fast becoming the backbone to a new wave in student-centered learning. In their study, Gürbüz, Çatlioğlu, Birgin, and Toprak (2009), found students working together on a project utilizing technology, in this case to solve math problems, were more engaged and motivated than in the standard-type math class. The researchers observed comments among the students such as: “why are you doing that”, “how did you get that”, “oh no, it isn’t right, because…” (p. 158). Gürbüz et al. found that students viewed the math problems as “fun” and “lively” (p. 160) and that the work was more “real life” (p. 160) to them. Students automatically wanted to help others or show others what they knew. The learning they constructed together through this hands-on project developed transferable skills to other problems, technologies, and collaborative activities. The study was small in scope and the findings cannot be generalized to all learning experiences, however, the findings are such that they warrant further investigation. In the meantime, the findings do support that collaborative technology tools in the classroom can have a positive and beneficial effect on student learning and collaboration skills.


References

Gürbüz, R., Çatlioğlu, H., Birgin, O., & Toprak, M. (2009). Students’ and their teachers' views of computer-assisted instruction: The case of the probability subject. Educational Sciences / Odgojne znanosti, 11(1), 155-169. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c3e59f5c-5dd4-4f4c-beaa-94ddff63d4a4%40sessionmgr110&vid=8&hid=111

Rheingold, H. (2008, February). Howard Rheingold on collaboration [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html


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For Module 3, I responded to the following blogs:

Bianca Lochner
http://lochneruni.blogspot.com/

Erica Ellsworth
http://ericaellswortheduc8845.blogspot.com/

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