Week 7 - Online Collaboration Relfection

All through this course, I have been exposed to both Collaborative and Cooperative learning – but it wasn’t until our latest lecture that I fully understood the difference between the two and how they could both impact my eventual classroom and future students. Learning has changed so much, even since the years when I was on the other side of the desk we call education. We no longer can rely upon just physical learning that occurs on a whiteboard or paper, the digital world has been integrated into the classroom and I feel that it is not over yet.

Collaborative learning is an extremely beneficial, as identified by Maryellen Weimer (2013), allows students to develop 5 particular skills.

•           They can learn content, as in master the material.
• -       They can learn content at those deeper levels we equate with understanding.
• -       They can learn how groups function productively.
• -       They can learn why groups make better decisions than individuals.
• -       They can learn how to work with others.

These skills are incredibly important in today’s modern world for students to know and have under their belt. As a student myself, only a few years ago, I always dreaded the awful group work tasks, but now however, looking back, I realise that these skills that I had to learn whilst working through collaborative learning is helping me through my life, even now.

Now, having said that, the way that these skills can be developed is through one of two learning styles, either cooperative or collaborative learning. Debbie Morrison (2012), defined the two terms as follows:

“Cooperate: the process of working together to the same end.”

“Collaborate: to work jointly on an activity to produce or create something.” (Morrison, 2012)

In the context of this class and my interactions with my peers through blogs and group work, both cooperative and collaborative, demonstrated to me, like what Weimer (2013) states, that if students, or in this case myself and my peers, worked together, we were able to expand our knowledge and gather a greater understanding of the topic at hand. In the context of the classroom, it allows students to improve, blogs and sites like it, allowing the improvement of understanding simply because of the fact that students are able to read and learn about the areas that they may be lacking in understanding in other posts by their peers. The comment system, which is on most sites, can also allow for discussion or general suggestions to take place, something that in the busy workplace or the classroom, can allow for a greater interaction and collaborative learning to occur with the students.

For example, the comment and viewing system, in regards to this class, allowed me to both view my peers take on the certain topic for the week, as well as allowing me to comment and make suggestions and raise discussions on these topics. In week 6, we were required to make a reflection on interactive tools that we had discussed in class. I chose Text2MindMap, the link to that post here, whereas Clare explored the concept of using Tiki-Toki, an interactive timeline. Simply because of the fact that I was able to view Clare’s blog, I was able to expand my knowledge and possibly use it as part of my teaching arsenal. The comment section also allowed me to raise some points on a post upon PowerPoint, in which I was able to provide a small amount of information as well as starting a discussion which continued to enlighten myself.

The majority of interactive, online collaborations I have been experienced to have been positive. Well apart from the google docs activity that is, *cough* it was a mess *cough*. But much like every activity or experience, there are positives, some of which I have listed some of above, and negatives or drawback/failures if you prefer.

Negatives: Drawbacks/Failures

• -       The ever present potential of technology failing or crashing, (I.e. Loss of power, crashing of memory, corruption of data, etc.)
• -       The loss of tone, leaving the ever frustrating potential for misinterpretation of information.
• -       The possibility of plagiarism.
• -       Edits occurring that are harmful or not useful to the collaboration.
• -       The possibility of the website on which the collaboration to occur requiring a paid account (thank-fully I have yet to discover one that didn’t have some form of a free account.)

One final drawback, that I feel is possibly the most influential, is the time consuming nature of the interaction and collaborative learning. The setup of the collaborative learning is incredibly time consuming as each interactor has to have an account, have the correct software and be connected onto the correct server or link. Reading and leaving a reasonable response on at least a few examples can be incredibly time consuming and overwhelming. And often times a response to a comment that you had left, will not get passed back to you, which in the case I have experienced, ceased or limited the interaction or debate that could have occurred.

Positives: Experiences/Outcomes

Much like as mentioned above, whilst there are negatives, there are also positives to each activity or interaction. In the case of collaborative learning, in the realm of digital learning, I feel that the positives outweigh the negatives, majorly. In these interaction and through the experience of the online collaboration has given me this list of positives:

• -       I have been exposed to more and more often than not different perspectives.
• -       My creativity and presentation of information has increased in skill.
• -       There has been a significant increase in higher-order thinking whilst interacting with the collaborations.
• -       My online social skills have improved.
• -       My pedagogies range has increased, allowing my skills in the classroom to begin improving.

These positives, which lay hand in hand with the experiences I have had, are allowing me to begin to design my arsenal or digital pedagogies. 

Because of the activities I have so far been exposed to, my current arsenal, to increase and enhance students learning, include:

• -       Email
• -       Blogger – for both posting and a discussion forum
• -       Wikis – for easy sharing of files and design of class lessons (Thanks Cam for the idea!)
• -       Google docs – if controlled extraordinarily well

These particular pedagogies were selected due to the fact that the collaboration or cooperation in some cases, was incredibly helpful and enhancing in learning. All of the mentioned pedagogies support real-time communication and later viewing which allows students to collaborate and interact in the moment as well as allowing later viewing, to further increase understanding.

Online learning – whilst I was originally not all in favour of, has demonstrated that even whilst there are negatives associated with it, the positives and the benefits significantly outweigh them. They have shown great possibility in enhancing and engaging student’s learning as well as allowing students to collaborate and cooperate in ways I hadn’t seen before. Digital pedagogies is certainly a tool to be reckoned with and thanks to the positive experiences I have experienced and seen, it is definitely one I will be using in the future.

References:

Morrison, D. (2012, April 27). Online Groups - Cooperative or Collaborative? Retrieved from Online Learning Insights:https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/online-groups-cooperative-or-collaborative/

Weimer, M. (2013, March 20). Five Things Students Can Learn through Group Work. Retrieved from Faculty Focus:http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/five-things-students-can-learn-through-group-work/