Group work

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