Another missed deadline
Argh! I knew there was an assignment due, but earlier in the week I was looking for a description and couldn't find one... therefore, I forgot all about my assignment. Until now.So, here we go, I am asked to 'create a blog post showing some thoughtful reflection on any topic related to "online collaboration" ', mmmmmm (thinking, thinking).
As is normally the case, I believe there are good things about online collaboration and bad ones. Starting with the negative ones, I think that for some students it is easy to hide behind the shroud of the online community; I can make postings in forums that are basically a 'me too' kind of post and shy away from any real discussion. I can write brief postings that only fulfill the minimum requirements from my instructor - never stretching my mental muscle to it's maximum capacity, never exploring what I do and do not know. I equate it to hiding in the back row when we used to have f2f classes.
On the positive side, I think that an online environment allows for students that may be shy to 'blossom' and express themselves (since they don't have to do it in front of other students), it also allows students that might be struggling with the material to study and prepare their answers (so they may feel more appropriate when doing so).
Linda brought up a good point in her blog (she normally does) - I think that, especially in higher levels of education, students come to the table with a myriad of pockets of knowledge (whether tacit or explicit), when they interact, these pockets of knowledge may be tapped into by the person, or their teammates.
Strength in numbers? Blaise Pascal said that " We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything". If I know something, and you know something else... will we know more when we work together?
posted by ap @ 2:35 PM
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