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?
I most definitely believe that we have the basic instinct to work as a group. I observed ants completely devour a snail in a matter of minutes through team work. We are failing our students by not teaching them the very skill they need to be successful in a work environment. The benefit of goal setting to see how small steps can help you reach the big goal. If teachers were to model this behavior in the classroom, students will get it through practice. Allowing students to work in teams is a bigger extension of that. Everyone breaking the product down into smaller achievable goals. Googledocs is a great collaboration tool that I have used that promotes teamwork. My students used it responsibly and was able to work at their own pace. The book says, "the constructivist approach is to identifying learning goals emphasizes learning in context and learners identifying and pursuing personal goals" (Driscoll, p. 390-391). The conditions for constructivist learning also support the fact we must incorporate technology to make school realistic and relevant. The five conditions for learning are, "1. embed learning in complex, realistic, and relevant environments, 2. provide the social negotiation, 3. support multiple perspective, 4. encourage ownership in learning, and 5. nurture self-awareness of knowledge construction process" (Driscoll, p. 393-394). These conditions can be our goal as educators and we have to come up with different concepts that will use technology.
Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc
LaToya Gallimore
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LaToya,
ReplyDeleteIn your blog you wrote about "ants eating a snail" and that is a gruesome yet terrific example of collaboation and team work to accomplish a goal. That really drives home the idea that collaboration "enables insights and solutions to come about synergistically" that would not have otherwise happened (Brown, as cited by Driscoll, 2005, p. 396). I agree with you and Howard Rheingold that we have a basic instinct to work together to problem solve. Apparently so do ants :)
Neena
That community is a perfect example of collaboration and perfect organization. Of course, the ant collaboration is instinct. We don't often realize that it is our instinct to work together as well. Howard Rheingold explains this concept very well.
ReplyDeleteHi Latoya, How'd you like the collaborative work at the Jacksonville residency? I had a great time. Seems like Rheingold knows what he's talking about. Group B used Google docs this week on our collaborative project. That was an experience. It's great. Deb :)
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI taught in a school where we lead collaborative groups and it is amazing what young children can create when given the opportunity to work together. We used the Storyline approach which involves having the students study a topic such as Lewis and Clark by "becomming" a real character from that period. My students came to class dressed like members of the expedition. One girl even wore an eye patch! They wrote journals, sewed leather bags, made winter count native american leather paintings, created their own instruments, wrote their own musical and then wearing costumes they sewed themselves performed it for the school! Now that's team work and they were only in third grade.