Putting it into Practice: Online Collaboration

Benefits of Social Networking and Online Collaboration:

To begin, let us first discuss the benefits of collaboration on its own.  Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski (2007) explain that students construct and make sense of knowledge better while working together.  Looking at this week’s resources, Hargis and Wilcox (2008) cite several sources that have shown collaboration not only helps students retain information, but also enjoy the experience more.  So where does technology come into play in all of this.  Pitler et al. (2007) say it best when the explain how technology can aid collaborative learning by: “Facilitating group collaboration, providing structure for group tasks, and allowing members of groups to communicate even if they are not working face to face” (p 140).  Technologies ability to help students collaborate this seems to evolve exponentially as more freeware and updates are added online almost daily that teachers can take advantage of.

Davis (Laureate Education, Inc., 2012a) echoes all of these benefits of technology in student collaboration.  She also adds another key point that online collaboration expands a sixty-minute block throughout the rest of the day.  Students now have time to process information and think about their responses instead of feeling the pressure that the school bell brings.  Davis (Laureate Education, Inc., 2012b) also discusses the benefits of expanding the classroom by using an online presence to connect to the world.  She explains that online collaboration opens up the door for talking with professionals and students from around the globe.  This, she says, greatly expands the diversity of experiences students have.

 

Challenges of Social Networking and Online Collaboration:

While the benefits of collaborating online are many, so too are the challenges.  However, Davis (2012a) walks us through a few.  For one, there is the fact that students, along with me, will be using new technologies.  This always instills fear into teachers, as we can never be prepared for everything that can go wrong.  This is something that any teacher introducing technology just has to get over, as not knowing is part of the territory, and part of the fun.  Perhaps more challenging are teaching the skills that go along with online collaboration, such as students’ ability to write collaboratively (2012a).  This is something that had not even occurred to me, probably demonstrating the amount of online collaboration I have had students do.

Other challenges that I will have to face are those related to my district and their conservative technology policies.  They seem to be slow at embracing modern trends despite the safeguards available.  Along with this comes a general lack of technology and appropriate support.  In the current economy, these were the first two things cut, all in a time where they are becoming more and more important.  This means that access to computers, especially frequent enough to make online collaborative work possible, is difficult.

Challenges of Management:

One fear that we all have that Davis (2012a) discusses well is students’ etiquette online.  I believe this goes hand-in-hand with keeping track of students work online, another challenge Davis discusses.  I believe she gave excellent advice about working into collaborative work rather than trying to do it all at once.  For instance, Davis discussed the benefits of using an RSS reader to manage her students work.  She suggested starting off where each post must be moderated.  This seems a daunting task, but I could also see using group leaders (trusted students) to do some of this for us.  As you continue to build your school’s online culture, eventually moderation can be removed. 

This RSS reader can also be used to sort out your students from larger collaborative project by taking advantage of “tags” (2102a).  A concept I have often used, but never quite understood the power of.  By having students tag their assignments with a specific “tag,” a teacher can follow that “tag,” thereby collecting all of their assignments.  Brilliant is all I have to say.

Insights Gained as an Online Student:

One insight I have discovered is that you need to know your clientele.  This means you need an understanding of what they know (in terms of tech) and how willing they are to learn.  It has been an interesting experience working with teachers in this program who all have a desire for knowledge but come with a wide variety of backgrounds.  With our students, I believe it would be wise to do a technology survey to see where students stand and access how much you will need to teach them. 

Another insight I have gained is that online collaboration can be frustrating.  Whether it is technology that is not cooperating, or the group members themselves, we need to be prepared to work through, and teach students to work through, whatever comes.  It will take practice, which means we cannot lose hope if it does not go great the first time.

Resources:

Hargis, J., & Wilcox, S. M. (2008). Ubiquitous, free, and efficient online collaboration tools for teaching and learning. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 9(4), 9–17.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2012a). Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, Part 2. [Course Media]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2012b). Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, Part 1. [Course Media]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.