These past weeks on the Open Networked Learning course have been more of a challenge for me than previous ones. I have been confornted with some of my personal shortcomings, that are very much based on a learned habits from working together by ”dividing up the task”. But at the same time, I try to embrace the frustration I experienced these past weeks – what a learning experience! It gives me some consolence though, to read that frustration is the most common feeling experienced by students in online collaborative learning. So I am not alone, and it is perhaps a natural part of the process!
Also, In regard to causes of such frustration, I can relate to that assymmetric collaboration is the most common source. At this point though, it is not that I am frustrated about others in the group contributing less than myself, but rather the opposite. I have been frustrated by my inability to contribute at the level of the rest of the group. In group settings, I am used to being one of the individuals contributing a lot and taking responsibility, but these past weeks I have simply not been able to. This has of course partly been due to lack of time, but I cannot only blame that, very obvious factor.
Other, significant factors that have led to me contributing less that I am used to and comfortable with, have been the novel ways in which our group chose to collaborate these past weeks: Suddenly, all the frameworks thatI usually rely on, were not there! As the group chose to focus more on the process than the end product of collaboration, some of my learned habits of mostly being used to working alone were exposed. Working mostly alone (or in a ”dividing the task” manner in group work), I am used to working when it suits my schedule, and at times this is right before the deadline. However, when my ONL group was now focusing on collaborating on ”Slack” through group discussions all week long, suddenly I noticed I was not able to catch up! At the time when I wold habitually have started working on the task, the rest of the group was already done. So embarassing…. Also, since the goal of the gorup work was the process itself, I was beyond my comfort zone in not knowing what ”end product” was expected of me, and how I could know if I hade contributed enough. Lack of shared goals is, indeed, another common source of frustration in collaborative learning.
However, I am trying to console my frustration and embarrassment by telling myself that we have taken turns in facilitating the goup, and when it was my turn to facilitate, perhaps I contributed more to the group work than some others, so now it was my turn to accept my inability to contribute as much (I knew from the start that I would have some busy weeks during this topic, and thus chose to facilitate on other weeks). Indeed, good group work instructions are important factors in contributing to participation in online collaborative learning. In the case of the present ONL course, I m convinced that the instructors have known this and been smart, in dividing up the facilitation of the group between all members to ensure participation.
Overall, however, I was very inspired by this week’s topic, and particularly liked the idea presented in the course material and reading: In today’s information society, so much information is constantly being produced, that we can no longer expect to carry all the relevant knowledge within the confines of our own heads. Rather, we should focus on building good and effective Personal Learning Networks, so that we know who in our network knows what, and who/where we should turn to as a resource for a specific task or knowledge area. I am looking forward to learning from my PLN in the ONL group in the coming weeks.