This topic mainly focuses on network collaboration and communication. First and foremost, it is better to consider why collaboration is emphasised. Collaboration plays a crucial role in helping individuals learn effectively through social interaction, sharing ideas, and engagement within networks and collaborative settings. As Wenger (2010) highlights, social participation is central to learning. It is emphasised that learning occurs through active engagement and reflections within communities of practice (Wenger, 2010).

When I am thinking about this topic, two perspectives come to my mind. First, network collaboration as a researcher, and the other is network collaboration as a teacher. These two perspectives have two differences and similarities.

Obviously, as a researcher, I view network collaboration mainly as a means of learning. Several questions arise when I consider network collaboration as a researcher: How can I support my own learning through collaboration and networking? How can I learn from the network? What are the benefits of network collaboration, and how can I build a useful network? These concerns highlight that the focus is on the learner, with no explicit need for facilitators to help learners build or benefit from a network collaboration.

On the other hand, from the perspective of a teacher or a facilitator, the concerns probably shift more toward how to support the learners. These concerns include how I can encourage learners to engage in and benefit from collaboration. How can a learner be effectively included in collaborative activities? How does a learner perceive network collaboration? Do they see it merely as a way to complete a task and then end the collaboration, or do they view it as a valuable thing that they want to sustain in the future?

These two sides can also be seen as two definitions of collaboration that came up during the PBL discussion. Viewing the collaboration as a “work in a group” or “work as a group”. These two paradigms reflect different perspectives and different purposes.  “Work in a group” means that the individuals contribute to finalize the assignment, while “work as a group” means that the whole group works together to moderate and complete the task collaboratively.

These aforementioned perspectives can be considered as a reflection of different systematic characteristics that enable communities of practice to function effectively as learning systems, are argued by Wenger (2010). These characteristics include: Emergent Structure, Complex relationships, self-organisation, dynamic boundaries, and ongoing negotiation of identity and cultural meaning. The characteristic of self-organisation, in particular, reminds me of the ONL approach. Because in ONL, we collaborate, discuss, and share our ideas and experiences, while the participants themselves maintain coherence and relevance discussion without external control.

From my perspective, various factors should be considered to be able to facilitate learners to engage in collaboration, including the aim of learners, the group quality, the age of learners, the learners’ knowledge, and other factors that may be beyond my current knowledge but could be considered. These factors are also referred  by Wlodkowski, (2004) as the culture theory of learning which emphasizes that “the differences if class,  culture, ethnicity, personality, cognitive style, learning patterns, life experiences, and gender among adults are far more significant that the fact that they are not children or adolescents …”

For example, I believe that teachers play a key role in helping junior learners develop collaborative group skills. From my point of view, it can initially be challenging to encourage juniors to work as a group. Therefore, I would suggest helping them understand the purpose of collaboration. One approach could be to give them a task with a deadline, allow them to choose the tool that works best for their group, and then set a clear deadline while requiring them to complete the task collaboratively. In that way, they can gain insight into the benefits of collaboration and become more encouraged to collaborate as a group.

Reference

Wenger, E. (2010). Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems: The Career of a Concept. In C. Blackmore (Ed.), Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice (pp. 179–198). Springer London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-133-2_11

Wlodkowski, R., J. (2004). Creating Motivating Learning Environments.