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Collaboration Makes a Comeback
3/1/2008
When it comes to virtual collaboration between teachers and learners, today's passwords are 'synchronous' and 'instant.'
WHERE ARE YOU NOW? Today, more often than not, this is the opening line of our social exchanges. With mobile cell and IP phones, smart phones, and other such tools, we can work, share, collaborate, or socialize anywhere. And eLearning exchanges are no exception.
Still, in designing eLearning environments, a major challenge is selecting and supporting the synchronous collaborative environments that support spontaneous social and interactive exchanges. We want teaching and learning environments that support open dialogue, study reviews, presentations, and project work including brainstorming, producing, and revising. We want environments that are flexible and engaging, yet affordable and instantly available.
The full-function synchronous collaborative environments are invaluable for teacher-led gatherings and smaller group gatherings, making possible the types of synchronous interchanges between teacher and learners that we have valued so highly in the classroom environment. Once again, teachers and learners can discuss and dialogue in real time, bringing spontaneity back into teacher-learner interactions. The good news is that we now have available to us not only fullfunction synchronous environment tools such as Elluminate, Wimba, and Adobe's Acrobat Connect, but also a new set of mix-and-match instant synchronous collaborative environments, such as the free Google Apps Education Edition.
Why Synchronous Collaboration?
OPEN DIALOGUE, study reviews, presentations, project work that includes brainstorming, producing, and revising: Why are these types of synchronous collaboration gatherings so desirable for successful eLearning experiences? Answer:
- They support Vygotskian constructivist and social learning strategies (Lev Vygotsky is the 20th century psychologist who promoted the theory that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of thought)
- They support the three types of presence (social, teaching, and cognitive) described by the University of Calgary's (Canada) Randy Garrison in 2006, that make learning effective and satisfying
- They support students' desires to be socially active and networking while learning
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