Collaboration

Howard Rheingold in his video on colllaboration suggests that humans have always had the basic instinct to interact. I agree that humans have the need to interact, but I feel that they will only collaborate and work together on something if they feel that it's beneficial. I believe that people do things for personal gain in most cases, don't get me wrong there are some that genuinely just want to help others. For instance a lot of people do not lean towards group projects if they feel they can get the project done alone. I have many students that would much rather work alone than pull the weight of the group. Those that look forward to group work often tend to be those who want the bulk of the responsibility placed on someone else. I also believe that the evolution of wikipedia came together because those that contributed to it's content felt that they could benefit from some aspect of the site. In essence people have a basic instinct to interact because they know they need other people to make personal gains.

The constructivist theory is weighted heavily on the idea that "higher mental processes in humans develop through social interaction." (Driscoll, 2005, p.396) With this thought in mind Driscoll points out that collaboration is a critical feature in a constructivist learning environment. (2005, p.396) Goal-based scenarios and problem-based learning, two of the methods of instruction for constructivism, are facilitated by collaborative activities. One person may not have the knowledge base to successfully answer a question, but members together have the knowledge necessary to construct an answer. Technology facilitates social interaction among students, facilitating collaborative activities. The use of wikis, blogs, and virtual worlds help develop ideas and promote the constructivist view of learning. With these social sites students can collaborate and construct their own knowledge base for learning. For instance blogs are controlled by individual students and ownership motivates student participation so students more voluntarily participate in collaboration on these sites.

Reference:

Driscoll, Marcy P. (2005) Pyschology of Learning for Instruction 3rd Ed. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.