Module 3 Blog Post Educ 7105
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Do you believe that humans have a basic instinct to “interact
and work as a group,” as Rheingold proposed in his discussion of the evolution
of Wikipedia as a collectively developed encyclopedia?
Humans have the instinct to work together as a group, however
there are many factors that influence who and how well they work together.
Competition in the workforce, politics, and across the globe is a major influential
factor in causing people to socialize in certain ways. We group ourselves
according to similar beliefs and what we want our social lives to be like. There
is usually an underlying need or problem that needs to be solved by a group to
bring them together.
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How can technology facilitate collaboration among learners based
on constructivist principles?
Technology is not
creating a new field of communication, we have always communicated socially and
collaboratively. Technology is however making it easier, more accessible,
faster, and all one person needs to reach a large social group is a cell phone.
The constructivist principle of learning by example, such as Vygotsky is
evident in this social communication.
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Find a current research study that has been conducted in the
last 5 years that supports collaboration as an effective tool for
learning. Include the link and reference for this study in your blog.
The research study listed below describes IBM and the Beehive
Social Network they have initiated to develop collaboration in the work place.
This tool has used constructivist theory to initiate learning on the social
level. The site has created over 280,000 social connections within the company
and those connections have led to over 150,000 comments. This exchange of
social knowledge and interaction is an effective way for technology to support
learning.
http://www.knoll.com/research/downloads/WP_FiveTrends.pdf
Comments on
http://briddicklearningtheories.blogspot.com/2013/01/is-collaboration-key-analysis-of.html
http://svohra29education.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/survival-of-fittest-vs-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-3
Comments on
http://briddicklearningtheories.blogspot.com/2013/01/is-collaboration-key-analysis-of.html
http://svohra29education.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/survival-of-fittest-vs-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-3
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you: technology by itself does not change the nature of communication, but influences some characteristics of it. Accessibility is the major advantage of collaboration through all current technological innovations. Numerous mathematics programs are based on the constructivist principles of learning by example.
The study that you found is very interesting. I did not know that IBM has Beehive, a social network for their employees. The main theme of the article forced me to think about the influence of technology on the structure of working environment. It is true that more and more people work from home contacting clients or coworkers through online collaborative tools.
Hi Melissa and Lena
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder if I have the "right" opinion in this major because I feel as if there is a push for us to give technology a lot of credit for things that it may not deserve credit for. I could not agree with you ladies more. I think that technology makes things a lot easier, but I am also of the opinion that many people assume that because technology makes things easier that it is necessary to pile on 3x the amount of work, never the less....I found your post to be in line with my opinion of the statements made by Rheingold.
I agree Melissa that "We group ourselves according to similar beliefs and what we want our social lives to be like." In Diffusion of Innovations, Everett Rogers points out that people form homophilous groups. These people communicate similarly and share similar attributes such as beliefs, education, and socioeconomic status. But I think collaboration a lot of times forces people out of their comfort zones because the people they normally surround themselves with don't always have the answers.
ReplyDeleteRogers, E.M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. New York, New York: Free Press
Because the global influence of technology is changing the way we do business in America such as having call centers located in other nations. How do we prepare our students to work in an global environment? Is there a way that we can start to train our students how to collaborate with students from other nations and still feel safe?
ReplyDelete