Collaborative Learning

The importance of choosing the right technologies to fit into the pedagogy is very important when it comes to teaching adults, since they are not as adept as younger students when it comes to navigating across different mediums on the web. For instance, many adults are not familiar with bloggings, even though it is well known by younger students.

Adults tend to have different expectations when it comes to learning. A few assumptions about adult learners include:

1.) They need to know what they are learning
2.) They need to see that learning provides them with relevant knowledge that is applicable to their own personal or professional life.
3) Adults want to apply their knowledge to something practical
4.) They need motivation to learn

E-learning is pretty cost effective for companies, but it also allow adult learners to develop their skills at their own time, rather than being hassled to complete their work.

When it comes to adult learners, cooperation and collaboration are also important. Cooperation refers to people working together, usually under the direction of an instructor. Collaboration refers to interaction between students that foster the development of meta-cognition, knowledge-building, interpersonal skills, etc. The latter emphasizes on processes whereas the former emphasizes on the end products. Fostering collaborative works requires understanding of grouping (group formation tends to break up into smaller group as the size increases), community building (that is, a sense of belonging), blending, and tool/technologies applicable toward learning.

The article mentioned a story of Bonnie who participated in an online learning environment in which the primary tools were asynchronous forum and a wiki. Bonnie is a part of a group of educators that ranges from those with great experiences in using technologies to those without much experience in using technology. Their job is to create a learning module that “addresses a particular issue of New Media as well a New Media artifact.”

According to Bonnie, her group wasn’t able to determine how the work should be carried out due to the fact that there are people in the group with very strong ideas, and they refuse to yield. The less assertive members of the group did not want to challenge the opinionated individuals with strong ideas.

Yet there were successes once the group switched to synchronous WebCT’s integrated chat function. Things went on smoothly from then on. Bonnie thought that if they had defined the roles of each person at the beginning then things would have had worked out better.

Critique:

I think that the case of Bonnie is particularly interesting for an online learning situation. The reason is that this example deals with people who are already educated, who can articulate themselves. Online learning for a group of non-English speakers would be drastically different, and so I would say that the collaboration between non-English speakers would also be different. I hate to see situations in which a few students, who are more assertive, take charge of the whole group.