This annotated bibliographycomposed of a small group of articles and sites that I thought interesting helpful in order to understand what cooperative learning its pros and conseducation and the challenges in promoting it in class whether face to face or online.
Through them I came to the conclusion that group based learning is a very valuable learning strategy can foster learning gainsboth the individual and the group. Thoughface to face learning environments, it issince the development of more synchronous
In nowadays society learning is more a dynamicThe act of learning, sharingtechnologies and the different waysengage in learning ( formal , informal or non
Learning communities are establishedthem people can learn quicklyhis/her own knowledge or experience both in a collaborativecooperative way.
Innovation is important and learning quicklyadequate response to the challenges is imperative. This is best achievedlearning communities through group work. The nature of knowledge is also changing, because the rhythmsfaster and increasingly demanding. Knowledge that is now up to date will in the very near future be old fashion
Learning in discussion groups is also a very efficientwhile people are discussingdoubts and are making the learning process visiblecooperation, the group members can profitlearn how to learn. There aren’t bad lethere are strategies that work better in particular contexts.
Annotated bibliography 1 Annotated bibliography 1 Annotated bibliography 1 Annotated bibliography 1 –––– The The The The changing nature of changing nature of changing nature of changing nature of
Comments:
ibliography is a small group of
that I and
in order to understand learning is,
its pros and cons in and the
it in class whether face to face or
Through them I came to the that group based
learning is a very that
learning gains for and the group. Though it is not in itself an innovation
face to face learning environments, it is only possible in distance learning more synchronous CMCs.
society learning is more a dynamic and a group orientedof learning, sharing information is changing due to the new
fferent ways they allow people to communicateengage in learning ( formal , informal or non-formal) .
are established based on the social networks. Within quickly by participating actively and contributing
her own knowledge or experience both in a collaborative and in a
Innovation is important and learning quickly and efficientlyto the challenges is imperative. This is best achieved
through group work. The nature of knowledge is also changing, because the rhythms in which society advances are faster
demanding. Knowledge that is now up to date will in future be old fashion and useless.
Learning in discussion groups is also a very efficient way of learning becawhile people are discussing, they are putting forward their insights,
and are making the learning process visible to other people. With this , the group members can profit from each other findings
how to learn. There aren’t bad learning strategies in themselvesthat work better in particular contexts.
Pedagogical Processes in E-Leanring by Morten Paulsen Helena Prieto
Master degree in E-Learning Pedagogy
Open University, Lisbon
3
With the nature of knowledge changing so rapidly and irreversible so do the learning strategies change. Some change implicitly. For instance young people nowadays are multitask – they can do many things at the same time – and bricoleurs - have the ability to find something and are able to build something else they need or find important -. Some learning strategies are to be learn and improved in more formal learning contexts. However learning is regarded as a never-ending process. Thus, everyone must update their previous knowledge and move on to adapt to new jobs or simple new ways of doing things.
As for the instructional design of cooperative learning based courses they are quite demanding because encouraging cooperative learning methodology is a difficult skill. However, they are feasible and the new group communication technologies open many new and challenging possibilities for delivering knowledge and making it.
Reference bibliography and sites
Knowing Knowledge by George Siemens ( 2006 ) ( last accessed Feb.7th)
I think it is worth reading, because it brings some interesting insights to the way communication and the learning process is changing and how important cooperation and learning networks are in our society today and in the future.
It attempts to redefine the concepts of information , knowledge, learning and teaching.
All knowledge is information but not all information is knowledge”
The focus of the book is on knowledge but it has some very interesting points of view regarding the way people communicate and learn in our society today. Words like sharing, networks, connectivism come hand in hand with individuals, personal, self.
As in the cooperative freedom theory, the role of the CMCs are of capital importance to make it all possible.
In this article entitle Cooperative Learning the term ” cooperative learning is defined and based on a wide bibliography the author defends that there is much to be learnt and substantial learning gains by interacting in group work namely higher productivity and personal achievements and improved social skills. Although this article is not referring to distance learning in particularly , it is worth reading because it face to face group interaction as similarities with distance learning group interaction as we can see from the conclusions drawn by Alan Dennis and Joseph Valacich in the article Rethinking Media Richness – Towards a Theory of Media Syncronicity (1999) published in Proceedings of the 32nd Hawaii International Conference on System.( last accessed Feb. 7th)
Pedagogical Processes in E-Leanring by Morten Paulsen Helena Prieto
Master degree in E-Learning Pedagogy
Open University, Lisbon
4
In this article the authors discuss the characteristics of different media and the way they allow group work to be done more efficiently and they come to the conclusion that group performance will improve in time not only because gradually group members become more proficient in using different CMCs but because they establish relationships and methods of work. The emphasis in the relationships is crucial for a task to be accomplished successfully.
In a short monograph entitled Cooperative Learning: Increasing College Faculty Instructional Productivity by David W. Johnson ,(1992) the relevance goes to the instructional design of cooperative learning. Teacher’s instructions to lead and encourage group work are here discussed and cooperative learning is defined clearly:
To be cooperative, a group must have clear positive interdependence, members must promote each other’s learning and success face to face, hold each other personally and individually accountable to do his or her fair share of the work, use appropriately the interpersonal and small-group skills needed for cooperative efforts to be successful, and process as a group how effectively members are working together. These five essential components must be present for small-group learning to be truly cooperative.
Furthermore, the author argues that cooperative learning is not the easiest way to teach but it is certainly one of the most productive.
A list of the forty-four gains of collaborative online learning made by Ted Panitz can be consulted at http://www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/c-learn/44.html. last (accessed in Feb. 7.) This list offers a wide view on the different type of skills that are involved in group work and collaboration and which will eventually be developed through this form or learning.
But although this teaching/ learning technique seems to be quite a treasure of skills development, implementing it isn’t not easy. Many mistakes can be made by teachers even with the best of intentions. In the article Cooperative Learning Methods: A Meta-Analysis, by David W. Johnson, Roger T. Johnson, and Mary Beth Stanne (2000) published a set of conclusions on what can go wrong with this methodology.
Here is a list of the most common obstacles to effective cooperative learning and teaching. In spite of the obstacles mentions cooperative and collaborative learning are being developed within learning communities.
In the article Connectivism -A learning theory for the digital age (first publishedin dec.2004/ updated in 2005) George Siemens analyses briefly the most representative learning theories - behaviorism, cognitivism and construtivism, and points out their inadequacy to today society learning requirements. However, connectivism seems to be more adequate and more in tune with those requirements. The need to learn in real life contexts which are by its very nature more messy and complex. The need to be always innovative and creative. Connectivism by its own characteristics helps foster different ways of acquiring knowledge within a learning community. Although “the starting point of connectivism is the
Pedagogical Processes in E-Leanring by Morten Paulsen Helena Prieto
Master degree in E-Learning Pedagogy
Open University, Lisbon
5
individual”, the learning process is developed within a learning community in a never ending circular movement that goes from the individual to the community and from the community to the individual. And ” This cycle of knowledge development allows learners to remain current in their field through connections they have formed”. This feature is particular important to meet the need of being always up to date. Some key thoughts in this article are:
“Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today”
“When knowledge is needed but not known, the ability to plug into sources to meet the requirements becomes a vital skill.”
Life long learning is required. So, how can individual be up-to-date and manage all this requirements with their personal and family life? That is challenge for higher education institutions.
In the article, published in DEOSNEWS Vol. 3 No. 2, Cooperative Freedom: An Online Education Theory, Morten Paulsen (1993) presents an adequate solution for this challenge: By making the most out of communication technologies and group based learning ( learning communities) it is possible to draw course design models where there is a balance between freedom - freedom of access, medium, pace, space and content - for the student and group cooperation. How can this be achieved in online education? Many procedure will have to be changed in order to make this possible. But the important is that this is possible and feasible. In this article the author explains how is this feasible and which procedures must be changed from the institutional and teacher’s part to provide the foundations to implement cooperative freedom.
Another interesting an worth while reading article about the advantages group based learning and the way younger people learn - the digital generation- that supports the value of group based learning through the use of CMCs is Growing Up Digital – How the web Changes, Education and the ways people learn by John Seely Brown . Here some interesting concepts such as learning ecology, help-mentors, multitask, bricoleur are put forward and discussed in a new light. In this article the author presents some experiences and studies done to search for effective learning ways and he reaches the conclusion that group based learning, small discussion groups are one of the best learning strategies both for younger and adult people.
An interesting blog regarding these isues is Connectivism by George Siemens.
Nowadays, there are a greaonline teaching techniques put to good use by teacherstheir course. Instructionacourse online can be planed consideration the learningstudents. What do I want my students to achieve and how will they do it are the most basic answers to foster successcourse design.
Distance education courses have design due to technologicallow teachers to implement groupthis new technology helps to learning process in the distance education coursesconstructed through the help of web2.0 learning platforms that allow between students. This possibility answers to students learning needs better hands on and active in their students, on the other handoutcomes. The implementation of more implies a great change on the role of everyone – the teachers and the studentsstudents become much more active and process, the traditional role ofbased teaching strategies alsoand student and interchange information, making the learning more visible to everyone
Bibliography and sites
In the paper The future of online teaching and LearningKing and Curtis J. Bonk
assessing the current state and of prededucation in Higher Education. From this surveyJanuary 2004 they reachedfor an online instructor during the next few years will be how to modefacilitate learning and how to developAs for the pedagogical techniquesbased solving and collaborativefollowed by discussion, case basedgenerated content, coachingdiscovering. The least favouredmodeling of the solution process and socratpublished in 2006 in Educase
the current state and of predicting the future trends in Higher Education. From this survey done from November 2003 to
January 2004 they reached to the conclusion that “the most important skills during the next few years will be how to mode
learning and how to develop or plan for high quality online courses”. techniques , the three most favoured were
solving and collaborative tasks, and problem based learning (PBL) case based strategies, simulation or roleplays, student
generated content, coaching or mentoring , guided learning and exploratorydiscovering. The least favoured were lecturing or teacher directed
process and socratic questioning. This paper was in 2006 in Educase Quarterly, nº 4, vol 29
In the paper The Online Report on Pedagogical Techniques for ComputerMediated Communication, Morten Flate Paulsen makes a comprehensiveof online teaching techniques, defining them and pointing out their plus points to the teaching/learning process online. The interesting aspect is that the innovative aspect of many teaching /learning techniques are group based. This can only be possible with CMCs. This
article is complemented by Online Educational Terms, an article that ( defines) a wide range of educational terms relating them to each
. It also presents a useful mind map with teachingPublished in 2006, the article The Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for
by Brian Alexandre , Director for Research at the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE). In this paper,
to present “a diverse set of digital strategiesfor higher education.”
This article is interesting reading and enhances the fact that most Web2.0 a new kind of understanding and manipulation of information,
with the collaboration of many – a community. It on how researchers, teachers, students, staff can use Web2.0
tools to set up a large variety of tasks involving group work and trackingother people are doing. It presents a wide range of Web 2.0 tools available that can support teaching/learning activities. It states that Web2.0 also poses a
to higher education.learning 2.0 (2005) , Stephen Downes from the Nationa
Research Council of Canada, points out the pedagogical value of learning based on blogs for example) to foster both collaborative
Pedagogical Processes in E-Leanring by Morten Paulsen Helena Prieto
Master degree in E-Learning Pedagogy
Open University, Lisbon
8
challenges in Higher Education(HE) that can be promoted and met with web2.0 tools for everyone involve. “The introduction of Web 2.0 systems into HE is not without problems, as there are ramifications in the areas of the choice of types of systems for institutional use; external or institutional hosting; integration with institutional systems; accessibility; visibility and privacy; data ownership, IPR and copyright for material created and modified by university members and external contributors; control overcontent; longevity of data; preservation; information literacy; staff and student training; and appropriate teaching and assessment methods” –
This article can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/digitalrepositories/web2-content-learning-and-teaching.pdf
In the article Minds in Fire – Open Education, The long tail and Learning 2.0, (2008) , the authors John Seely Brown and Richard P Adler point out how learning is done within learning communities and how study groups that are formed within these learning communities are very powerful in creating free open validated resources. They present good and innovative examples of how knowledge is transmitted, produced and validated and how quickly learners become experts on their particular field of studies. These example have some common features – learning within communities, learning from peers or from experts (scientists /scholars) in a particular field. They also argue that a hands on approach, dealing with the real thing is both more engaging, motivating and successful for the individual and for the group. They enhance the importance of critical thinking and doing as key to the learning process and innovating open source resource making, and point out that these achievements can only be possible through social learning.
Learning techniques are acquired both through legitimate peripheral participation – a more traditional process where “ apprentices begin learning by taking on simple tasks, under the watchful eye of the master” and then progress to more demanding tasks as their skills improve. This a much more slowly and time-consuming learning process based on knowledge transference. – or by full legitimate participation where learning is based on active participation and “understanding is socially constructed”.
In a full legitimate participation system of learning, learning takes place in more demanding and supportive environments that allow students to fully take part in the learning community and progress faster as point out in the examples referred in the article.
At Twelve-Essentials-for-Technology-Integration we can find a digital booklet with hints and practical suggestions of sites and web 2.0 tools to be used in teaching/ learning.
Pedagogical Processes in E-Leanring by Morten Paulsen Helena Prieto
Master degree in E-Learning Pedagogy
Open University, Lisbon
9
Annotated bibliography 3 Annotated bibliography 3 Annotated bibliography 3 Annotated bibliography 3 –––– Transparency Transparency Transparency Transparency for a better for a better for a better for a better
cooperation and cooperation and cooperation and cooperation and learninglearninglearninglearning gainsgainsgainsgains
Introduction
Cooperation is best achieved through transparency. The information that people in a learning network share among themselves in different levels (personal, social and in learning itself) is vital to promote insights of the students and for the other students. This information whether put forward through personal presentations or through the work (writings, blogs,films…) people produce, helps foster cooperation and better understanding of other people’s interests and learning processes along with their skills, frustrations and developments. There for, transparency means exposure - making yourself known to other people. So how much information and what kind of information should a student or teacher expose?
References
In the article Students and social networking: Should you “friend” your students? Kathryn Linder, M.A discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of interacting through networks to create learning communities. She also points out some boundaries and guiding lines to follow in order to protect yourself from too much exposure.
George Siemens in his blog Connectivism, published an article “Teaching as transparent learning” (April 28th, 2009) where he argues that transparency is a building process – a sort of work in progress -. Using blogs for instance some known theorists and teachers put to debate some ideas and thoughts which will develop through the multiple contributions of other people.
Pedagogical Processes in E-Leanring by Morten Paulsen Helena Prieto
Master degree in E-Learning Pedagogy
Open University, Lisbon
10
Making thoughts and ideas visible and sharing developments makes learning more transparent.
By seeing others learning we can also learn.
When we are making learning transparent we become teachers ourselves.
Another interesting concept related to transparency in learning is that people with similar cognitive architectures tend to understand each other better and learn from each other better because they can relate better.
Assuming that this is true, learning from learning partners is a plus in the personal development of everyone envolved. People can learn a lot from more skilled and knowledgeable partners but they can also learn by sharing thoughts ideas, doubts, and frustrations with their peers – people on the same level of knowledge as them.
In Learning partner opportunities for cooperation in distance learning by Torhild Slaato and Morten Flate Paulsen , the term learning partners is defined and a practical approach how we can be and have a learning partner is explained clearly. The article explains how a system of finding suitable learning partners is built and put to work and the gains it represents to online students in terms of learning and socializing. This article is also an account of a successful experience put forward at NKI In creating a learning networks a personal presentation is key. Many personal presentations come together to make an open web catalogue for NKI which is the cornerstone of the process of finding, inviting, accepting (or not) learning partners. How much information and what sort of information should there be on these personal presentations? That is left for the students to decide. Students are responsible for the amount and type of information they wish to show about themselves and they also invite other students to become learning partners. The invitation can be accepted or refused. Having a learning partner is not mandatory. Be or having a learning partner is volunteer and it’s student’s personal choice. Creating a learning network based on personal presentations has been an important step towards adding an effective and efficient social dimension to the online learning process where learning is supported by other students. It is a learning experience in which both parts profit by sharing knowledge, thoughts and ideas .
The article by Christian Dalsgaard entitled Social networking sites: Transparency in online Education , explains how personalization and socialization , central characteristics of social networking sites can facilitate transparency between students giving them insights into each other’s work. He points out that the starting point is individual or personal.
People don’t necessarily have to dialogue or collaborate with others. But by updating their profile, adding pictures or texts to their own page they actually engage in an indirect or passive form of communication and sharing in the social network to each they belong.
Pedagogical Processes in E-Leanring by Morten Paulsen Helena Prieto
Master degree in E-Learning Pedagogy
Open University, Lisbon
11
But still the question remains- what kind of social relations support learning? Awareness entails a kind of relation that supports transparency but not necessarily collaboration or discussion. There are two different relations: Collaboration (when people work together with the same aim ) and cooperation ( when people work by themselves but connected to others, sharing their work ). The article aims to highlight pedagogical potentials of social network in relation to transparency. In online education this is particularly important.
The author distinguishes between networks (individually focused) and communities (spaces shared by groups) and argues that to foster transparency networks are more suitable because personal pages provide opportunity for personalization - a person can choose the content and the look of the page and is always present through his/her page. Socialization begins when the personal page is connected to other personal pages. Students can also establish a group of friends through the use of personal tools. These personal tools are used to organize work, collect literature, write notes, brainstorm, develop thoughts and ideas, write assignments. Sharing these tools with other students supports transparency and awareness – other students are a source of knowledge and information.
Still, regarding cooperation and transparency, we can see it being implemented both in networks and learning communities.
In the article Minds on Fire , Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0, by Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler , published at Educase Review, vol. 43, no. 1 (January/February 2008) a new concept is put forward – open participatory learning ecosystems -. What is this and how is it related to transparency in learning?
Open participatory learning ecosystems are learning web based communities where learning takes place in very active and open (transparent) ways . Both the content and the ways by which the content is created is visible to everyone and everyone is invited to join in actively, sharing their knowledge, ideas , insights, making improvements, innovating and producing free open valid resources. Full legitimate participation is encouraged both between peers and between learners and experts (scientists or scholars). In these communities learning also takes place both in formal or less formal environments. Examples to illustrate these good practices are presented - Wikipedia strategies of article writing and reviewing, The Faulkes Telescope Project, the Decameron web , Terra Incognita on Second Life among others- and regarding as harbingers of Learning 2.0.
