I truly do believe that humans have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group. Examples include businesses and schools. People within these settings have a common goal that creates the idea of communication and collaboration to meet those goals. Based on past experiences and inventions, people have had to work together in groups to live among each other. As stated by Howard Rheinhold (2008), “….human communication media and the ways in which we organize socially have been co-evolving for quite a long time.” Communication is very important is every aspect of life. The constructivist theory focuses on the need for people to collaborate and construct knowledge together. This theory is not new because it just encompasses both views from the behaviorist theory and the cognitive theory.
Technology can facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles. With the advancement of technology, humans are more able to communicate effectively through cellphones, instant messaging programs like Yahoo messenger, and Skype. People are able to share thoughts and opinions through blogging and wikis. Documents can be shared through Google Docs. All of these technologies create collaboration among learners through the constructivist theories because they can be used to facilitate learning with meaningful connections to real life.
Rheingold, Howard. (2008). Way-New collaboration. Retrieved April 5, 2010 at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
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Nice blog Carol. I agree that humans have a basic instinct to "interact and work as a group." This doesn't mean, however, that grouping 7th or 8th graders comes easy. Around what school age do you think student collaboration is most palatable to students?
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more! People do have a basic instinct to work together. These skills must be taught in order to have cooperative collaborative groups. Technology can support communication. You have listed several ways to do so!
ReplyDeleteWell put Carol! I think that age does not matter when it comes to collaboration and collaborative groups. My question to you would be, if age is not the main issue then what would be done or what steps are necessary to be taken in order to ensure that everyone understands their role?
ReplyDeleteCarol, I recently saw a short video clip where two elementary classrooms, in different countries were very excited to see each other on a PC video stream. It was a good example of technology supporting communication.
ReplyDeleteCarol,
ReplyDeleteNice posting! I also agree that people, regardless of age, can collaborate with each other to share ideas. I realize that within the school environment there would be obvious limitations, but that is not to say that multi age classrooms wouldn't work. In my district there are MAC (Multi-age classroom) for 2-4th graders. I also have a multi age integrated language arts class (7th and 8th).
I could not imagine not using my cell phone as a tool to communicate and work, often collaborating using the internet etc.
Jane