One aspect of distance education that will lead to further progression is collaboration and interactions between learners. In the context of education, what is the significance of collaboration and interaction with people across the globe? According to Steve Wheeler, creating a global community with access to various people and culture provides for a richness in learning and cooperation (http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2013/01/global-learning-collectives.html). To support my comment about technology accelerating the collaborative process, Wheeler alludes to the days where students had to wait for hand written letters to return from around the globe to experience the cultures of other students. Now, because of the technology that is present, students can conference with other students and businessmen can conference with other businessmen in real time. This leads to culture of collaboration and team work. As Seimans (Laureate, 2008) mentioned in his discussion, this has led to meaningful relationships and has increased comfort with working in an online setting, and most importantly, achievement through collaboration.
David Hopkins provides an interesting video in his blog (http://www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/video/4cs-communication-collaboration-critical-thinking-and-creativity/) about combining the 4C's, which one of the C's represented is collaboration.
As distance education progresses, it would be hard to imagine collaboration not playing a major part in the further development. Seimens (Laureate, 2008) makes a compelling point to that fact that distance education is growing more accepted, and the inclusion of collaboration and interaction plays a major part in its development and success.
Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). 2008. The Future of Distance
Education. [Video webset].
Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_2643771_1%26url%3D
Through the use of technology it will allow for students to collaborate in a faster method. As you stated before, that people had to wait for hand written letters. Well technology added the emailing component to collaboration, which allowed for quicker responds depending on the people. Sometime the process of waiting for a responds makes the collaboration; somewhat ineffective. The best collaboration takes place face-to-face, this allows for instant responds and the collaborators are much more passionate about the content at the moment. For example, I when I posted my reply to the discussion question that when I'm the most passionate about the topic. When I return several days later the passion is somewhat gone. If I were to receive immediately feedback it would make the collaboration more meaningful.
ReplyDeleteAlicia Roberts
No truer words have been said than the statement about collaboration being ineffective the longer the participants have to wait. Unfortunately, with out a true face-to-face setting and a situations where a time schedule allows people to meet at the same time, I am afraid that distance education collaboration will fall short most of the time. That statement is not meant to be negative, simply stating that without a perfect situation, there will be times where the process will fail because of simple logistical issues.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your assessment where distance education collaboration will most likely fall short in comparison to the face to face classroom because of the time participates have to wait between responses. I for one sometimes struggle to complete class discussions because I do not like having to go back to the dashboard over several days to see what other classmates have written.
DeleteMargaret,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! It is hard to imagine collaboration without communication, in fact I think it is impossible to collaborate without communicating. I like your comment about the "richness of learning." Providing students with situations where they must work together for a common purpose adds a richness to the experience that goes well beyond the academic achievement of the student. Collaboration enhances academic knowledge and social skills as well.
Margaret:
ReplyDeleteYour post reminds me of the days, mid 1980's, when I had for rely on the post office to exchange news with loved ones in Haiti. Today, I truly do not recall the last time I mailed a letter to friends and relatives. Text messages, emails, and social networking venues offer a more effective, faster, and cheaper mean of communication. Is technology running the Post Office out of business? Time will tell.
On the collaborative front, corporations are saving millions using teleconferencing, online training, emails, and other means of electronic interactions. Technology has matured to the point where everything can be learned online, with the flexibility of stronger interaction links between learners and with the instructor. There is the rationale for the teamwork as one of the critical skills for survival in the 21st Century, a point nicely articulated in your post.
Your comments on the concept of distance are very relevant today. People are highly connected across the globe. Where before one had to wait weeks for letters in the mail, now you can call, text, Skype, etc all day. In the classroom teachers can really take advantage of this by having virtual field trips and using a program like Skype to have pen pals with other countries.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments. We truly live in a global society. Where globalization was once only for the big corporation and wealthy, the common man (and woman) can communicate across great distances through the wonders of technology.
ReplyDelete