CCK09 Emotions and collaboration in networks

Here is a wonderful discussion on Help with Some Clarifications please  posted by Ailsa

@ Ailsa Here is my view on learning principles. We are humans, not “non-human”, so I would like to see more than just firing of neurons, in the connections, but the establishment of human relationship in networks, in the history of learning. At the end, I like to learn with humans, though often technology is part of that mediation (is it part of ANT??). Agents, actors mean differently to different people. At the other end of the network, it is more than a node, it has feelings, “it” is breathing air and taking water (knowledge), and it lives..and is engaging, interacting. That makes human more than just human, beyond behaviorism.

I remember that when I conducted my last class with my learners, especially in my early years of teaching, I always have an emotional response. We have once upon met here together as a learning group or network, and our identities are inscribed in the history of learning. Ten years later, we might still be able to remember each other, as once upon we have been with the same network and learn together.

Would networks be forever? Like diamonds are forever, when it comes to collaboration in the networks.

Roy: Replicator, host, and everyone of us will become history, but the learning and relationship stay forever in networks.

Diamonds are the girls best friends (from Fickr)

Communities of Practice

Here is a paper on Communities of practice
It mentions the 3 characteristics of communities of practice:
1. Domain – more than a network connections between members. It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest
2. Community – members engage in joint activities and discussion, help each other, and share information
3. Practice – members are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems. This takes time and sustained interaction.

It further highlights that:
- Learning is a process of social participation
- Learning as increasing participation in communities of practice

It’s has been more than 4.5 months since our community  on Connectivism Education and Learning was created. Would it be time for us to reflect on our community progress?
We have 111 members in our Community, and there have been numerous events held and forum discussions shared.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to our members who have contributed and supported the communities in various ways, including the presentations by Nellie and various facilitators, the sharing of personal blogs and their presentations, the sharing of learning through postings and comments in forum, the sharing of resources, artifacts, and URLs by our members etc.

As we are still a young Community (or Community of Practice), your views, sharing and contribution are important in ensuring our growth, development and sustainability.

How about our sharing of views on the characteristics: domain (identity), community and practice?

What are your views and expectations of our community?
To what extent do you think we have achieved our goals in sharing and learning?
How could we build a community that could better serve you?
What would you like to see for the rest of this year within our community?

As a start:
Would our sharing of learning via blog/wiki/delicious/Facebook/Tweeter help? Would you like to share your address of blog/social networks so we could visit each other?
Would you like to let us know more about you – in your introduction here, or your personal blogs?
Would you like to share a story, an experience, a video, a tool, a slide show, or a blog post that may be of interests to our members?

My blog http://suifaijohnmak.wordpress.com

I am also available in Facebook and Tweeter.
Many thanks for your support.

John

Collaborative learning in an online environment

I like the reflection here in Collaboration Online . Jenny writes:

“Can tutors prepare students for this – Yes, of course – good teaching doesn’t change just because it’s online. Obviously there are things that you can do face-to-face (like a science field trip to study rock pools on a Northumberland beach) that would not be possible to capture in exactly the same way online, but an awful lot of what we do face-to-face can now be done online.” 

Collaborative learning is both an art and science, I suppose.

It may not be for everyone, especially when people don’t have liked minds, or not willing to share with each other, or that there are some personality crashes. That is human nature.

So, it is challenging especially if it is to be done online.  Sometimes there may be conflicting views, arguments or strong criticisms between people, and such connections and interactions may result in alienation.

It could also be one of the most difficult tasks in this world, as people have different needs and expectations.

If one is mixing and matching each other (learners) to collaborate, then some socialisation and consultation would surely help all parties.

A metaphor for collaboration is love formation and development amongst couples.

During dating, the lovers would think they could work things out together upon meetings and engagement. This is in preparation for the marriage forthcoming. After marriage, the partners must collaborate to ensure a happy family. Otherwise, that would lead to separation or a divorce.

I have witnessed such happy and unhappy endings with face-to-face and on-line learning. So, as an educator, we could facilitate such “matching” if possible, but that we must let go of the thinking that it would always work.  Collaboration could be complex and emergent in nature.

Adaptation, consultation and a flexible mindset in collaboration would help us (educators) to cater for the learners’ needs.

So, would this be any different from the learning situation and environment, especially with the on-line situation, where trust and commitment (and reciprocity) is crucial to the success of collaboration?

Cooperation and Collaboration in networks

This is my response to  cooperation or collaboration 

 

We seek cooperation when “we want others to assist us in achieving our goals”. When teaching in a traditional face-to-face class, the teacher is seeking the cooperation of their students to maintain classroom discipline, to participate and contribute in the learning activities, and to complete the assessment tasks that would lead to the accomplishment of learning outcomes etc.

The students would collaborate with other students in working on the learning activities or student projects.

The same principles could be applicable when teaching in an online class, using Moodle Forum or Elluminate or Adobe online session.  The teacher is seeking cooperation from the participants to participate and contribute to the session. 

The participants may collaborate with other participants or teacher in working through the activities.

 

The “seeking” of cooperation is normally from one party (the teacher) to the others (students or educators).  In this case, it is an outcome which results from one party complying with the requirements and expectations of the other party.  Sometimes it requires negotiation of both parties, who may or may not be having the same degree of powers in the teaching or learning process.

In case of community networked learning, the teacher is seeking collaboration (working in partnership) with other teachers  or community network members to achieve common and agreed goals. This is likely to happen in team or group projects in educational networks, or cross functional teams where parties would collaborate in solving problems.

Currently, I am working with Jenny Mackness and Roy Williams on a collaborative research project, and we collaborate in planning and conducting the research.  We also cooperate with other members of  the Community Network in sharing our research process, information and experience.

Another example is when teachers are cooperating with management in carrying out their administration duties or working on learning or research projects, while collaborating with other teachers in developing learning resources.

In case of mentoring, the mentor (teacher) is collaborating with the mentees (in partnership) to achieve the goals (likely more with the mentees goals, though it may also be negotiated goals agreed by both parties). The mentor is also seeking cooperation from the mentee to develop and implement the learning plan in the mentoring process.

Referring to the above cases, the relationship between one party – teachers (mentor) and the other party – students (mentees) will determine whether it is cooperation or collaboration or both.

The relationship may be complicated when there are so many factors which could affect the situations (differences in skills, experience, power, perceptions and attitudes). However, you could still analyse and possibly list these factors to understand the relationship between them, based on experience.

The situation is complex when we focus on the group of feelings or ideas that influence the people’s behaviour or mental attitudes.  Feelings, emotions or ideas coming out of the interaction are often dynamic, emergent, and therefore unknown and unpredictable (and uncontrollable) to the participants. We would classify such interactions to be complex.

The emergent learning arising out of the interaction and communication would be complex due to the dynamic changes in the learning goals and teaching, learning strategies and emotions of the parties concerned.

So, in case of networks, I think the relationship between the “members” of the network would be complicated, and the feelings or ideas that influence the network members (nodes) would be complex due to the emergence arising from the interaction and communication.

In summary, I would suggest that complication and complexity both exist in networks.  Both cooperation and collaboration would exist in complex networks with complicated relationships amongst their nodes or network members.   Learning would also be complicated and complex in learning networks.
John

Reflection on Connectivism

I enjoyed learning the example cited by George here – the building of airplanes which requires expert knowledge of different domains, where no particular experts could even master. 

Learning would no longer be effective in an isolated ecology.  Collaboration with others could greatly enhance one’s learning experience, and accelerate one’s development of metacognitive skills and sensemaking.

Learning successes rely greatly on how well and adaptable we are in connecting with accurate, up-to-date information sources,  technologies and people. 

Individual may also require the re-wiring of how one is connected with others, through existing or new connections, communication and collaboration with emergent technologies.  This requires an effective personal learning network to foster the learning process.   

Emergent learning could come through the effective use of Connections, Communication, Interaction, Collaboration, Cooperation, Creativity, and Community.  Such learning are often mediated by ICT (Information and Communication Technology) under a Web 2.0 environment.