Communicating Connectivism in a Mindmap...

Calling for Collaboration...

I think the span of human history has demonstrated there is a basic instinct to interact and work together as a group. It is as intrinsic to our survival and identity as being recognized as an individual. Both collaboration and individuality are represented in our instinct and in our past. Many times these two basic instincts clash. Our collective history includes cultures continually asking what role does the community and/or government have on the lives of individuals. Each culture balances collective experiences collaboration with individual choices.  There is a spectrum of how each culture and country have manifested these two opposite instincts. All of us want to be accepted by a group or community, which is the prerequisite for collaboration. Also each of us wants to be seen as distinct from others in a group or community. Both tendencies have endless demonstrations in both history and educational theory.

Vygotsky, Dewey, Bruner, Piaget, and other prominent constructivists understood the role that social/cultural context play in learning (Driscoll, 2005). The read write web, web 2.0 tools, social networks, professional learning communities (PLC), personal learning networks (PLN), and other evolving tools and relationships demonstrate the strong tendency to collaborate on issues and disciplines. These tools allow for collaboration that happens anywhere at anytime without the limits of time and space. Constructivist principles lend themselves quite easily to these technology tools because of the ease of collaboration that can take place that takes into account the social aspect of learning and collective knowledge. There is a large amount of literature inside and outside of the field of education that demonstrate the role and importance the social aspect of learning is and how collaboration is considered to be an essential skill in both learning and work.

Hughes & Narayan (2009) highlight wikis in their article in The Journal of Interactive Online Learning particular as a way to increase collaboration for postsecondary students. Their study highlighted the use of wikis as a “students used their wiki as a course content glossary for posting and editing original contributions” (Hughes & Narayan, 2009, p. 63) in one course and as a “develop, share, and edit project assignments” (Ibid.) in another course. Faculty in higher education considered curriculum mapping as a great way to collaborate according to Uchiyama & Radin’s article in Innovative Higher Education in 2009, which can be accessed here.  Their observations reflect on the lack of collaboration in many Higher Education circles despite the fact that “Organizations beyond higher education have shifted toward cultures where the norms of autonomy and independence are replaced by the norms of collegiality and collaboration” (Uchiyama & Radin, 2009, p. 272).  These are two sources that communicate the effectiveness of collaboration and how technology tools can be used in the process of collaboration.

References:

Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Hughes, J.E., & Narayan, R. (2009). Collaboration and learning with wikis in post-secondary classrooms. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 8(1), pp. 63-82. Retrieved from http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/pdf/8.1.4.pdf

Uchiyama, K.P., & Radin, J.L. (2009). Curriculum mapping in higher education: a vehicle for collaboration. Innovative Higher Education, 33(4), pp. 271–28. doi: 10.1007/s10755-008-9078-8. Retrieved from http://www.lehman.edu/research/assessment/documents/curriculum_mapping_article.pdf