Benefits
and successes:
-
Brings
diversity: An online community like this allowed us to collaborate with people
from different, towns, cultures, backgrounds and teaching disciplines. This
broadened my own perspective on topics through seeing the different viewpoints
and ideas other people from the course had on particular topics.
-
Increased
flexibility: we were able to review other people’s blogs and comment and
respond to comments at any time and in any place. This was very convenient, as
with being a uni student and part-time worker it can difficult at times to be
online at a particular time or meet people at a particular place to collaborate.
This is also relevant to contemporary students who often are busy with
extra-curricular activities.
-
Increased
opinion: As a student who is more of a quiet voice in class it was easier to
respond confidently to the content through having the ability to prepare and
reread contributions before posting them. This would also reflect the
personality of some students in contemporary schools.
-
Constructive
feedback: It was easy to review and provide feedback. The feedback provided
allowed students to develop and become more competent over the weeks. This
would also be expected if this type of online learning community was run with
contemporary school students.
Drawbacks
and failures:
-
TECHNICAL
DIFFICULTIES!! : technology can often fail and is unreliable.
-
Communication
challenges: tone of voice, facial expressions and body language cannot be deciphered
in the online context.
-
It
is open to plagiarism – anyone can look at your work
-
Cannot
really have an in-depth conversation
-
Feedback
depends on your peers - may not be
instant
-
It
is easier for people to cyber bully, as they don’t have to face you in person.
-
Doesn’t
suit auditory learning types
Through partaking
in this online learning community I have become aware of the significance of
online collaboration. Furthermore, the major benefit of online collaboration is
that people have the opportunity to further their education through learning
off their peers. Therefore, it broadens students’ knowledge base and makes them
more educated beings. This type of online collaboration will inform my own
teaching after seeing how valuable it is in increasing students’ perspectives.
For example, due to me being a pre-service English teacher I may get students
to keep a blog on class content where students can reflect on their own
learning and review and comment on their peers’ to further their own understanding.
This type of collaborative work would especially be of benefit during character
study, as students would be able to see different ways to view characters and
challenge other peoples perspectives.
After
reading Morrison’s (2012) review of cooperative and collaborative learning I
believe a collaborative approach is more beneficial for student learning. For
example, Morrison (2012) when describing cooperative learning refers to it as a
“divide and conquer” approach. However, I do not believe this to be an
effective learning style. For example, students are not really working as team
as they are just working individually on their own parts. Therefore, they are
not broadening their perspective, as it is still their own input going into the
task. They are also not receiving feedback from their peers which can advance
their work. Furthermore, after participating in this online learning community and
reviewing Morrison’s (2012) understanding of cooperative and collaborative
learning I will now opt for a more collaborative approach in student learning than
a cooperative approach.
References
Great work Louise! This is a great blog post. I liked your detailed analysis of the benefits and drawbacks and input of theory for your rationale for collaborative learning in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post, Louise! Very spot on. You also offered a different perspective on cooperative learning. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThanks Clare and Brooke!
ReplyDelete