George Siemens has steadily increased his voice in the world of distance education since the publication of his theory of Connectivism in December of 2004. My recent experience of him was in a video produced for Walden University on the future of distance education (Siemens, 2008). While a thoroughly discussed topic, Mr. Siemens once again demonstrates there is still plenty of room for innovation and insight. In the video program, he highlights three unique characteristics of eLearning that will help formulate its future: connectivity at the individual level, global diversity, and collaborative innovation.
While all three of these are a part of distance education, the aspect of collaboration is most intriguing to me. Our connection to global diversity would be for naught if we could not collaborate with each other. Certainly, humans have been doing just that for millennia. We created family groups, then communities, then villages, then cities … you get the idea … all of which required collaboration. Of the multitude of definitions, "collaboration [as] a recursive process where two or more people work together toward an intersection of common goals … by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus" reflects what I imagine our earliest ancestors must have done to survive, and what we must continue to do now ("Collaboration", n.d.). (Ironic that it was created on Wikipedia, ostensibly the most successful example of collaboration on the net.) Our ancestors' goal was survival; our goals are increasingly complex, requiring increasingly diverse methods of connection. Our means of collaboration have grown with that complexity; now today, there are an overwhelming number of collaborative opportunities (screen share, co-browsing, web conferencing, video conferencing, VOIP, file sharing, collaborative reviewing, event scheduling, and mind-mapping) (Karrer, 2008).
In relation to eLearning, collaboration has been written about in numerous blogs, journals, and dissertations. A search for "collaboration eLearning" on Google Scholar returns about 24,000 items. A search just in Google returns about 5,420,000 items. Mr. Siemens has compiled a nice list of learning and technology blogs for review. From a technology perspective, Dr. Tony Karrer's blog, eLearning Technology, is a wealth of information on the development of these innovations. His recent post on this very topic includes a mind map of these tools created collaboratively by professionals and amateurs alike. most prevalent for education are screen-sharing/conferencing (i.e. GoToMeeting, WebEx, Adobe Connect), content management systems (i.e. Blackboard, Moodle, Angel), wikis (i.e. Wikispaces, MediaWiki, PBwiki), and chat (i.e. Skype, LiveMessenger, AIM).
To reach out and engage the global community, we will need to utilize these technologies, and develop learning theories like connectivism that support their enhanced capabilities to foster community and education.
References
Collaboration. (n.d.). Retrieved December 23, 2008, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration
Karrer, T. (2008, December 2). Collaboration Tools: eLearning Technology. Message December 23, 2008, posted to eLearning Technology: http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2008/12/collaboration-tools.html
Siemens, G. (Speaker). (2008). The future of distance education [Video]. Video December 19, 2008, posted to Walden University Web site: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=3206859&Survey=1&47=4198219&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Collaboration is in essence what community is all about. The ability to work together and communicate with others to share knowledge reinforces group bonds. In today’s environment open source may be a throw back to this level of group knowledge. Siemens (2006) defines knowledge as the connection of individual information nodes to create knowledge. A collection of knowledge nodes results in understanding. We have come to understand that knowledge building may be more effectively accomplished when not done in isolation. Society may have to transition from self-lauding to group promotion to reach high levels of collaboration and understanding.
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Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing knowledge website. http://knowingknowledge.com/2007/06/a_simple_definition_of_knowled.php
Thanks, I couldn't agree more.
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