The Art of Collaboration

After reading Group Genius, I have become more aware of collaborative learning in action. During the snow day, my roommate and I decided to go build a snowman. We both rolled large snowballs and realized we couldn't lift one on top of the other. Our next move was to make a snowman that was lying down. We began to place one snowball in front of another. Then after completing this, we realized we could design anything, not just a snowman. So we decided to create a cat.

The cat we created was in a crouching/pouncing position. We gave him four legs, a tail, and a face. Some would describe it as tiger face, cougar body. The next day, we woke up to check on our cat and found that there had been some additions made. 

Someone etched lines on his tail. 

He was given eyes and fangs

Individual toes were added. 

In reality, we had expected to walk out and see that someone had destroyed or peed on our cat. It was pleasant to see the improvements that someone had made. While this example is nothing like the creation of a new marketable shopping cart, it was a fun experience to be able to relate the conception of an idea and the final production to the process of collaboration. And we created a cat, which is much better than a snowman, so I guess it is lucky that we are too weak to lift large snowballs.

We are conditioned to observe learning and teaching methods solely within the context our a school system. As future educators, we are encouraged to examine educational policies, standardized testing, group work, etc. Yet rarely are we given the tools to be able to explore these concepts in the context of social interactions, family interactions, and community interactions outside of the classroom.

When Group Genius identified the Wright brothers as a collaborative pair, the fact that this collaboration was organic and as a result of the two brothers living together was strongly explained. I am not sure why I myself have been viewing things that I learn in the classroom as solely things that I learn in the classroom. In the days after reading Group Genius, I began to pay attention to interactions I have with the people that I live with, the interactions that I have with my co-workers and interactions other people have with each other.

The concept of collaboration seemed so structured in my mind before. Group projects have a specific framework with guidelines. However, as a result of Group Genius and the making of a snow-cat, I am realizing that all of our interactions and the way we learn how to interact are part of our educational experiences. Further, I am coming to understand how organic so many of these interactions are.

Summary of Systems

Summary of Systems Table

MOOC's

There is a new dialogue centered around Massive Open Online Communities (MOOC). Many argue that MOOC's are detrimental to education, taking away the face to face interaction and taking place behind the anonymity of a computer screen. Others argue that the nature of MOOC's attract those who want to ask questions while learning, as well as facilitating access to education. My discussion of MOOC's will focus around the Huffington Post's article "What are MOOC's and Why are Education Leaders Interested in Them?"

There are a lot of questions regarding online education and whether it is valuable. There are also a lot of questions regarding the high (and increasingly higher) costs for higher education. I have many questions regarding both topics. Is online education the future of education? What are the benefits? What are the downfalls? Who are the big supporters and who are the people against it? 

When Teresa Sullivan was dismissed from UVA, one of the reasons cited was her hesitancy to jump aboard the online education trend. When she was rehired in July of 2012, she announced that UVA would be partnering with Coursera and offering four UVA courses at no cost to the general public.*1This demonstrates that universities are taking note of online education. 

MOOC's are a way to grant easier access to education. The thought is that people who sign up for these free courses are eager to learn. However, Forbes examined this thought and reported that an average of 4% of enrollees complete the courses, while only half of the people who register for a course ever look at an online lecture.*2 While there seems to be a lot of initial interest in MOOC's, there seems to be a lack of follow through. 

I signed up for an MOOC course last year. I dropped the course after a week. It was a lot to handle as a current full time student. The particular course I signed up for utilized four different types of websites, including social media. MOOC's (at least the one I signed up for) seem to overdose on the number of resources they utilize. 

Those that argue for MOOC's state that they can serve as the equalizer to education. However, Forbes data seems to discredit this statement. 80% of MOOC users around the world already hold an advanced degree. *2 Forbes further pointed out that in order to access MOOC's, users had to have some relative wealth and access to internet, thus missing a large target audience. 

Forbes identified an interesting concept that I think could gain great popularity. Using MOOC's or online education as an addition to face to face teaching. Similar to the way students use Kahn academy to receive tutorial videos on material, university course could utilize MOOC's to supplement their teaching. This fits very well with the idea of innovative education. The reality is that online resources need to be used in the classroom, further, I think that schools should be teaching students how to use the web as a tool for life; the internet is simply a fact now, schools should use this as a tool while educating students on the 'internet/technology.' 

I agree with the conclusion of the Huffington Post and Forbes, online education is here to say, but it is too soon to deem it a success or failure. Similar to the telegraph, there is a lot of failure to happen before there is success. I think that professors and teachers need to start examining how to use online education as an additional tool in the classroom, not as a rival. 

*1 news.virginia.edu "University of Virginia Enters Agreement to Distribute Courses Online."

*2 forbes.com "Are MOOCs Really A Failure?"