- When computer networking became available, some educators started writing about cooperative learning over a distance. But many educators who used cooperative learning objected that this kind of activity could occur only in person. This idea may seem quaint now, but it was a real concern, and networking was a real shift in thinking. Now we probably all would agree that people can work collaboratively over the Web. But there are still things to think about: What are the differences between f2f (face-to-face) and distance collaboration? In what ways do these differences change the experience -- for better or for worse?
- Another course of ours considers equity issues very closely. But we should still think about them here. Some people have already brought up the fact that some students have more access to hardware and software, or to better hardware and software, than others. What are the implications of these differences? And beyond equipment, as we will find, there are skills and dispositions necessary to use Web 2.0 tools well collaboratively.
Differences in f2f and distance collaboration:
At this point I can only speak from personal experience in both being a student in online courses and being an online collaborator. I feel that it's important to observe my own work and experience with online collaboration to be better able to understand how our students and my staff will learn and collaborate online.
Collaborating over a distance allows each team member to economize their time and work wherever they happen to be, whenever it's convenient for them. It's efficient in that arrangements to meet are minimized and/or eliminated, traveling to meet with collaborators is eliminated and actual work time is maximized.
What it doesn't allow is collaborative free thinking and tossing around and working through ideas. I work with colleagues in the UK and Australia. We do quite a bit of online collaboration. We recently met in the UK and spent 2 full days which were immensely fruitful. The online collaboration could not replace what we accomplished in person. The feeling of teamwork is minimized in an online-only environment. This may or may not be an issue.
Do you think the success of your UK meeting was because there is inherently something necessary with meeting someone f2f, or could you have had nearly the same effect if you were synchronously meeting within a high-quality video conference? (Debra M)
ReplyDeleteI think that, for this group, for this meeting, we need to meet face-to-face. This is strategic planning with stakeholders with very different motivations. The group dynamic is critical and really can't be cultivated when people are not sharing 18 hours a day with each other.
ReplyDelete