salwa
Founding Member
Posts: 10
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Post by salwa on Mar 18, 2007 22:37:29 GMT 4
Hi everybody, Collaboration is simply working together to reach a common goal, and as stated by (Haythornwaite, 2006) “collaboration allows people to do more together than they could alone”. I see this happening with us here on this discussion forum. For me, some of the highlights of this type of collaboration are the active construction of knowledge, a very good feeling of social presence, and motivation to interact. How do you see this? Did you find any highlights or you only saw the challenges and difficulties? Let's talk about it. Salwa ____________________________________________________ Haythornthwaite, C. 2006. Facilitating collaboration in online learning. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. Vol 10, Issue 1. www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v10n1/v10n1_2hathornthwaite.asp
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Post by Jane Ross on Mar 19, 2007 13:21:44 GMT 4
Hi All, I think that the most important factor in collaborative learning is an empathetic 'seeing from another perspective'. Unless we are willing to do that I believe that we cannot grow in our understanding. Jane
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Post by Ghassan on Mar 19, 2007 13:29:23 GMT 4
Hi Salwa and others,
i also see collaboration adding the following benefits to the participants. Improved self-esteem and satisfaction from helping others..i have to say i am learning so much from others..collaboration also adds in the Development of teamwork skills, negotiation and conflict resolution..
thanks, Ghassan
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reggie
Founding Member
Posts: 7
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Post by reggie on Mar 19, 2007 19:45:03 GMT 4
Hi Salwa,
FET 5621 was really my first go at collaborative learning. I wasn't impressed. If I'm understanding correctly the meaning. The second assignment in that required dependence on other members of the group to pull their weight and 'teach' the others about their specialised area of interest. Although I believe this worked well with some groups, I found the whole experience hideous. The time differences, different weekends and the drop out of some group members has put me completely off it.... Not that I won't do it again if I have to put only under duress!
Reggie
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Post by Tim Mulvihill on Mar 20, 2007 4:02:12 GMT 4
Hi all,
In a sense I agree with Reggie that if the conditions aren't right collaboration can be more of a burden than an effective process. However, I have found collaboration at a high school level to be quite rewarding. I generally set up groups with students of varying academic abilities. The top students help scaffold the learning of weaker students which in terms helps them to consolidate concepts and extend their thinking.
Cheers,
Tim
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javed
Founding Member
Posts: 4
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Post by javed on Mar 20, 2007 10:01:52 GMT 4
Hi All, We all acknowledge the growing need to be able to communicate across cultures, to lead global teams, and to find information quickly and efficiently. Collaborative experiences are helping foster these abilities in college classrooms and workplace settings alike. With the rise of collaborative technologies, professionals across sectors and around the globe use instant messaging, web conferencing, and content management systems to create collaborative groups
Collaboration can be difficult enough “in person,” especially when the attitudes and practices that some people bring to the task include a kind of “I win, you lose” mentality. Who puts in the most effort? Who lets others do the work? Who gets the credit? Having experienced this kind of tension in classrooms and workplaces can make students and workers wary of collaborative activities.
So consider the challenges in moving collaboration from a “face-to-face environment” to a “virtual work team” or an online college course, especially when apprehension about unfamiliar technologies is added to the mix. The results: Another layer of challenges in making collaboration work. Moreover, as with face-to-face (F2F) interactions, online collaboration includes social aspects that can either foster or impede effectiveness.
So what is social presence and how does it affects online collobration?...social presence—the degree to which an online user feels access to the “intelligence, intentions, and sensory impressions” of other learners—is key to the learner’s participatory level and, subsequently, the success of online collaboration. Facial expression, direction of gaze, posture, dress, and non-verbal and vocal cues—all are essentials that contribute to social presence in a face-to-face environment. Without these factors, other elements enhance “social presence” and, in turn, affect the quality of online collaboration.
What do others think of the need for social presence in online collobration?
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Post by Therese Sippel on Mar 20, 2007 11:17:39 GMT 4
Hi all, I totally acknowledge the valuable use of online collaboration in taking away the element of "not knowing" to some degree who you are working with and understand the benefits of using such tools as WorkZone and project lounges. From a recent article of Jim Clark "OLE is a space, usually defined by software on a computer network, designed to facilitate the transfer of knowledge to a student". I guess it is important to acknowledge that it is about trying to transfer knowledge.
I get disappointed in a classroom structure when students turn up their nose at someone they have to work with and online collaboration would solve some of these issues. However, what online collaboration fails to do in a sense is recognise the differences amongst individuals to the extent where and I hate to use the word but be tolerant of one another's differences. There is real value in appreciating the background of a person and seeing what they can bring to a group. If we look at this on a global level, wouldn't the world be a better place if we looked at individuals and appreciated strengths rather than focus on weaknesses. With online collaboration it detracts from the achievement the whole group has made and rather gives a sense that something is complete and we have done what we needed to do without the expanding on the whole journey the group has made in its dynamics.
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Post by MattThomas on Mar 20, 2007 13:30:38 GMT 4
Hey all -
Collaboration is wildly importat to learning, and always will be. One of the reasons we have schools is so that students can learn to learn in a social setting and learn as much from one another as they do from the 'teacher', whether this is explicit teaching or not.
However, as Reggie pointed out, online collaboration in learning can also be a major pain. It's very nice to talk about how we need to recognise eveyones differences and help each other with our weaknesses, which is very true to a point. But I still personally find (and this makes me sound horrible, I'm trying to think of a nicer way to word this!) that there are people in online courses who annoy me with most of what they say, even without meeting them face to face! (There, I said it in a toned down and nice way).
Some people who are completing courses really do slow others down, especially if they are not at the same level as the other course members. For example, I was talking to teaching colleague this morning about her Masters of Ed paper (course) she is completing now, which has several students from China on the course. She commented that the course was great, except that she had to sift through innane messages from these students who wrote in such broken English that it was very difficult for her to know what they were trying to say in relation to the course.
But then the advantages do tend to outweigh the disadvantages don't they? I'd never be studying now if I couldn't do it online. It will be interesting to see what courses such as these will be like in ten years. Will they even exist???
Cheers, MattThomas
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Post by joweston on Mar 20, 2007 14:14:01 GMT 4
Hi All,
Reggie described a bad experience with collaboration. I also had a mixed experience in (ironically enough) the Communities of Practice unit. I think that online or virtual collaboration can be as fruitful as face to face collaboration as long as the environment for collaboration is appropriate but I'm afraid I don't agree that it's "collaboration is simply working together". It's definitely working together but there nothing simple about it.
I think that Therese raises a critical issue that can define the success of any online community when she mentions "knowing the background" of participants. In his writings on Communities of Practice, Wenger states that "a strong community enables interactions and relationships based on mutual respect and trust." This trust must be built during a structured ice breaking phase of any team collaboration. This is tricky enough face to face. In a virtual context, it's critical to ensure that synchronous communication is factored in (chat room, instant messenger, Skype conf call). In terms of what participants can gain from collaboration, the sharing of knowledge should benefit from a seamless reciprocity such that "a deep perception of mutual value [...] extends over time".
I think that when all participants are novices, there might be doubts regarding knowledge that other "novices" can contribute. Once this doubt takes hold, successful collaboration is at risk.
Without a very clear definition of the end result or goal of the collaboration such as simple knowledge transfer, informal sharing of ideas, a joint project, formal peer review, significant stress can occur which can also affect successful collaboration.
I'd be interested in hearing more about failed collaborations. What was the goal? How was the ice-breaking phase structured? Was there attempts at synchronous communication as well as asynchronous?
Cheers,
Jo
References: “Cultivating Communities of Practice: a Guide to Managing Knowledge” by Etienne Wenger. Richard McDermott, and William Snyder. Published by Harvard Business School Press.
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salwa
Founding Member
Posts: 10
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Post by salwa on Mar 20, 2007 22:46:25 GMT 4
Hi all,
From my experience in another course, collaboration was successful mainly because the objectives were very clear and the activity was well structured. Creating social presence and consequently seeing the group members as real people was a major breakthrough for the entire group. This was achieved by spending some time socializing and learning about each other’s backgrounds: personal, educational, and professional; we discovered that ‘the more one discloses personal information, the more others will reciprocate, and the more individuals know about each other the more likely they are to establish trust, seek support, and thus find satisfaction’ (Cutler, 1995, p.17). We also managed to arrange for synchronous sessions (chat) and that was very helpful in encouraging each other and brainstorming.
I think that collaboration comes with a high price and some challenges: • Finding a way to create a social presence in the group (as Javed mentioned), and consequently start seeing the group members as real people, and find a way to trust them, and trust their ideas and opinions.
• Geographical locations and different time zones
• Different cultural backgrounds
• Different study habits
In my opinion, the way to go is:
• Carefully designing the collaborative activities, taking into consideration the diverse cultures and backgrounds of students, and the sociability factor needed for the creation of the learning community.
• Assigning enough time to enable online collaboration when designing a course.
• Deciding on the structure of the collaborative activity: instructor-controlled or student-controlled.
References Cutler, R. 1995. Distributed presence and community in cyberspace. Interpersonal communication and technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century, 3(2), 12-32.
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reggie
Founding Member
Posts: 7
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Post by reggie on Mar 21, 2007 20:18:12 GMT 4
Hello everyone,
I've found the perspectives here on collaboration very interesting reading. I think we have to realise that there are some people who are better suited to collaborative learning in this kind of environment than others, or maybe it's learned behaviour.
Like Matt, I find some people online intensely irritating but, at the same time, try to forget that I wouldn't like them face-to-face and look at it as a purely academic exercise. This, however, then negates Salwa's point where the more you know someone on a personal level, the better the collaborative learning becomes.
I think it is the planning of the learning that is very important. And probably practice. Next time I do it, I'll probably be more aware of the fact that I need to get to know the people there much better and choose carefully who I'd like to work with, on a personal level as that's what collaborative learning is. When one is planning this for a class who already know each other on a personal level, I'm hoping that this aspect is removed. I know that I am lucky with the students that I have and the school in which I teach as I can trust my students with others' online personas. I really don't anticipate there being any negative reaction to it.
One also has to consider that some people, and i include myself in this, are very private. That, or I really don't have much of a life to talk about! When I get into these introduction forums, I usually have no idea what to say! 'Hi, I'm Reggie.... blah blah blah'. Not sure if anyone actually gets to see/hear anything that is actually personal.
Anyway, ramble, ramble, ramble. I'll shut up now.
Reggie
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Post by joweston on Mar 22, 2007 12:59:02 GMT 4
Hi Reggie, For what it's worth, I actually think that you are an example of an excellent online collaborator. Of course whether you enjoy it is another question . I wonder whether our generation (pre 'n' gen) consist of a dying breed of online collaborators that experience mild to severe discomfort with the whole online social presence concept. I must admit that I myself now prefer to chat online that on the telephone but I know that this is not the same of many of my contemporaries. As technology assisted collaborative learning advances along so too does the average age of the learner who, for better or worse, does spend every evening in chat rooms, on instanst messenger or updating their MySpace page. Hence, the learner of the future (or present) is very at home building relationships in the virtual world. My second comment relates to the building of community which I mentioned in a previous post. I was reading an article describing workshops that equip participants with skills to create communities of practice. Interestingly, the event is called the "CPD workshop" The initials stand for Community, Practice and Domain. Note that the community is given as much emphasis as the activity (practice) and the shared interest (domain). Also worthy of note is the fact that one of the standard phases in the lifecycle of a community of practice is face to face interaction. One of the experiences of this face to face phase is to "Appreciating the learning potential in differences, tensions and newfound partnerships: finding new partnerships." While the phase described as Framing one's experience in a new context provided by the group leads to " Feeling more committed to "the group" despite the fact that it has come to existence through previously unknown circumstances. ". Our context, that of never having an opportunity to meet face to face, therefore does not provide an optimum environment for online community collaboration if we look at the CPD guidelines.Perhaps we should not feel guilty or as though we're failing if we do have the nagging feeling that our online collaboration is not going as well as it should be. I realise that this is two ideas so feel free to split into two when commenting. Cheers, Jo You can read the article Online Course Design from a Communities-of-Practice Perspective by John D. Smith and Beverly Traynerl at the link below www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=best_practices&article=34-1
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