Blog Module 2
Collaborative interaction.
With the increasing use of the internet among educators and researchers, collaborating has evolved into becoming an increasing important tool. Interacting with others using the internet has brought up new challenges. It use to be that interaction was done in person or with the telephone. It was rare to interact with other people over great distances. Collaborative interaction has evolved to the point that the people who are working together have to carefully think about what the main project goal is going to be and how they are going to respond and do their part in the project. With the advent of e-mail, chat rooms and Skype interacting with others over great distances is becoming more and more common. Collaborative interaction is becoming more and more successful. Ideas are being shared with others of different backgrounds allowing everyone to build their own skills off of others from all over.
Online tools that allow interaction between others are chat rooms, discussion boards. Blogs allow people to communicate their ideas between other quicker and provide feedback as well. Skype is another tool that allows people to communicate through the use of the computer and allows for instant discussion back and forth between the groups.
References:
Palloff R. M, & Pratt. K. (2005)Collaborating online Jossey Bass. San Francsico, CA.
References:
Palloff R. M, & Pratt. K. (2005)Collaborating online Jossey Bass. San Francsico, CA.
Robert,
ReplyDeleteWhen looking back at communication tools of the past, it is amazing at how far we have come as far as using the land line telephone to interact with each other. Then there was the addition of three way calling to the land line telephone and now we have computers and cell phones with Internet access when everyone and anyone can be online at one time. In a distance education program there are collaborative learning communities where interaction is important and mandatory in completing assignments as well as being able to work together as a team.
Marion Bush
Robert and Marion,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your posts. I remember three way calling and thought that was just such an advancement in technology! Now, being able to connect face-to-face over Skype with my brother-in -law in Hong Kong seems like nothing. In a further advancement, using the iPhone to video chat seems to be the latest, greatest technology. I have not yet upgraded to the 4G as I had heard about technical difficulties with it. I do look forward to eventually having it once all the glitches are worked out. In this sense, I would consider myself in the "early majority" of adopter categories based on Rogers (2003) diffusion theory of adoption. Rogers (2003) stated that the early majority will consider adopting an innovation before actually doing so.
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.
Your point about remaining close to the project goal is so important. I can remember sitting in meetings with trainers at my previous company and we were all in different locations. If the meeting was not mediated by one of us, the conversation would evolve into something completely different than the main topic.
ReplyDeleteI found that some of the conversations that I would have individually with people throughout the week, would help focus the meeting when we were collaborating from a distance.
Robert,
ReplyDeleteCollaboratve interaction can be considered a "staple" in the online envionment. I feel it is the equal of face-to-face in making sure that all the learners have input and discussion in completing a project or task. Another online tool can be a Wiki page.
Robert: We certainly have the tools to support collaborative learning, but research runs cold to warm on its impact on students. One recent research study by Poellhuber, Chomienne & Karsenti (2008) reported that "While some students are interested in peer collaboration and take advantage of it, many others are either not interested in collaboration or not accustomed to the culture of collaboration. In fact, some authors found that collaboration could be seen as a culture shock for many
ReplyDeletestudents used to traditional teaching."
Our challenge is how do we overcome this cultural shock and make collaboration a natural part of the distance learning experience.
Oops, forgot the reference.
ReplyDeleteReference
Poellhuber, B., Chomienne, M. & Karsenti, T. (2008). The effect of peer collaboration and collaborative learning on slef-efficacy and persistence in a learner-paced continuous intake model. Jounrla of Distance Education, Vol 22, No. 3, 410 42. Retrieved from: http://eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ812561.pdf