Building Content Knowledge and Enhancing Collaboration
Second Life is a virtual environment that recreates a person’s existence. The user may modify this existence as they see fit. Fantastic feats are possible in this virtual environment. Despite its obvious recreational purpose, it can be used to allow students to interact in a safe environment to build team working skills and relationships. These soft skills are critical for students attempting to collaborate on projects relating to content. Siemens (2008) makes the point that scholars today are no longer intellectual loners but parts of knowledge networks that address problems from various perspectives and disciplines. He also made the point that traditionally education is an individualistic experience. Learners see their learning in isolation and are not always exposed to how their knowledge can be combined with another student’s to solve a problem. This suggests that curricula should include components to develop collaborative skills in a manner that is non-threatening with respect to failure and focused on the skill of cooperative interaction.
Students have an important role to play in forging an environment that facilitates collaboration and building of content knowledge. Siemens (2007) makes the point that networking, which is an integral part of effective collaboration, is a natural part of human existence, and digital technologies allow a significant expansion in the breadth of a students’ networking potential. Students’ private networking tools can therefore play a role in education. A social network like Linked In (http://press.linkedin.com/) provides members with the ability to network with scholar practitioners in different fields as well as their own. It is also an opportunity to engage in real actual applications of knowledge as professionals discuss and share their experiences.
Instructors and instructional designers can also significantly enhance the building of content knowledge and the enhancing of collaboration among students. If courses are designed to incorporate outside elements as evidence of knowledge and expertise, then students will be able to use various tools as evidence of learning and to build content knowledge. The use of Blogs may allow students to carve out an individual voice as described by Siemens (2008 ) while still sharing and collaborating. This can enhance collaboration and give those interpersonal learners the opportunity to share their ideas even outside of class. Other tools like professional websites and wikis should also be counted as evidence of learning and opportunities to engage content. These tools increase students’ exposure to content. By participating in a blog or viewing a colleague’s professional website, students can have access to content and experts. This facilitates the instructor’s curatorial role Siemens (2007) which is part of Siemen’s (2008) connectivist perspective of teaching and learning. As long as these personal tools reflect students’ engagement and understanding of the content as well as provide opportunities for the creation of learning networks, they should be incorporated into the structure of instruction and assessment.
Another emerging tool is cloud computing. This capability for individuals to share and collaborate on projects can be paired with peer or group projects assigned as part of a course. Siemens (2008) decried the individualistic nature of traditional education. If students were allowed to collaborate on writing or research projects as scholars and scientists do, then it would enhance their collaborative skills as well as deepen their understanding of the content. Durrington, V., Berryhill, A., Swafford, J. (2006) suggested that problem based learning was an effective way to enhance learning and collaboration. They stated the online environment made this difficult because students could not meet face to face to share and collaborate. The availability of cloud computing and other file sharing facilities like Windows Live Sky Drive and Box.net makes it a lot easier to implement problem based learning in an online environment.
As a technology coordinator, I often said to my colleagues that they should not focus on expected time savings when they utilize technology. Instead, they should address the increased possibilities provided by technology. Similarly, the tools used by students in their private lives can find a place in formal education, if properly structured.
Siemens, G. (2008). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. Retrieved from http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper105/Siemens.pdf
Durrington, V. A., Berryhill, A., & Swafford, J. (2006). Strategies for enhancing student interactivity in an online environment. College Teaching, 54(1), 190-193
Siemens, G. (2007). Curatorial teaching. Retrieved from http://learnonline.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/10-minute-lecture-george-siemens-curatorial-teaching/
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Filed under: Online Collaborative Learning, Principles Distance Education
