To learn together online

Topic 3 in the ONL172 course is “Learning in communities – networked & collaborative learning”. It has been an interesting subject:

I think I’m like most peaople: I like to collaborate. But I think it sometimes is easier to “do it myself”. I believe we are constructing knowledge together by articulating our thoughts, by challenging and buildning on each other’s thoughts, like Vygotskij expresses. But I also think behaviorist’s has something to add. You get quick rewarding feedback by doing it yourself. In the long run I think we have to collaborate and listen a lot to learn. This theme has enlightened the impotance and posibilities on buildning online networks for learning.

I am trying to build real collaborative learning experiences online in my teaching. I can see differences when discussions are held in an online forum, compared to video meeting discussions. When you see the face, I see more willingness to really listen. This makes me wonder: Is there tools that can make collaboration more natural?

Couros (2017) gives a lot of examples for true collaboration, for example collecting idés through a shared document. He compares collaboration to directing a choir. He also emphazis the importance of being connected emotionally, and includes creative and fun collaborative activities in his courses. Another interesting aspect was that he inspire students to interact with the world, to build their digital identity, their learning networks,  and to own their learning process. If students show their learning in blogs and/or summarizing videos, they are simultanously biulding their knowledge and their own brand.

Brindley, Blaschke & Walti (2009) points out that assessment isn’t the most significant factor to make collaborative learning effective. They points out other important factors instead: Clear expectations, to really build relations, relevant group tasks, and that the teacher follows the group closely and support if needed. Capdeferro & Romero (2012) agrees with these factors and adds that you have to make the learning model clear for clearer expectations. They also emphasis that assessments is good to vary between individual and group assessments. These finding don´t seem new and revolutionary, even though it is always good to have reminders. To find out more I looked into Wenger (2010). I really like his approach on lifelong widened learning in his theory. Like the social cultural perspective on learning, he lifts the importance of building knowledge together in a social context. Knowledge is build together and negotiated between the participants. The group builds a common knowledge and has a history of this, and the becomes a “community of practice”, CoP. As communities can, and are, linked together, as can personal learning networks, PLN, be. I see similarities between PLN and CoP. Sometimes there are the same, but you can also have looser networks, with people and resources more loosely connected and without that defining history.

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