28.9: Summary

Last updated
Save as PDF

Page ID: 89599

\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

“Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.” (Alexander Graham Bell)

“Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like the river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem.” (Rollo May, 1975, p. 115)

We have presented background on circumstances and factors that ideal collaborative learning in an online environment might require, and we have indicated potential pitfalls of such collaboration. The first pitfall is definitional, and we follow researchers’ attempts to draw distinctions between what is cooperative and what is collaborative.

Understanding that collaboration represents a deeper and richer notion than cooperation, we examined how diversity in the classroom naturally lends itself to collaborative learning, and we then looked at the roles of teachers, moving on to focus on the core of such learning, which is the group. This served as background for a variety of issues such as tools, assessment, and a range of other concerns that may influence the success or failure of collaborative endeavours. It is noteworthy that the learners’ stories highlight assessment as an area where advances in collaborative learning next need to take place. Perhaps this should not be surprising, given that learners’ primary feedback from a course is assessment.

Although rote memorization may once have represented the be-all and end-all of learning, we have arrived at a more sophisticated notion that what needs to be evaluated is how learners use the knowledge they acquire. However, there is no consensus on how such evaluation should operate. In this sense, collaboration, as the Rollo May quote (above) suggests, can be regarded as a way not only to bring new material to the learner, but also to foster collaborative endeavours that may help us to reach a consensus on evaluation, a consensus that may provide seeds for ubiquitous, spontaneous, continuous, and collaborative learning.