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12 Jun · Mon 2006

Telecollaboration

It seems like a logical progression to move from a webquest to telecollaboration or online research, which according to Harris is learning activities in which students communicate electronically with others. Collaborative online learning activities can offer many educational benefits to the students. The nature of these benefits may depend of the specifics of each activity and the appropriateness for the students? level of understanding.

Teleresearch is not an educational activity unto itself. It serves different purposes for students' learning, determined by the purposes for and ways in which information is located and used. Telecollaboration can take many forms. For example, exploring a topic of inquiry or finding answers to a particular question, reviewing multiple perspectives upon a topic, collecting data remotely, assisting authentic problem-solving and publishing information syntheses or critiques for others to use, to name a few.

Summary of Activity Structures (from Dawson & Harris, 1999, p. 2)

Genre	Activity Structure	Description
INTERPERSONAL EXCHANGE	Keypals	Students communicate with others outside their classrooms via email about curriculum-related topics chosen by teachers and/or students. Communications are usually one-to-one.
	Global Classrooms	Groups of students and teachers in different locations study a curriculum-related topic together during the same time period. Projects are frequently interdisciplinary and thematically organized.
	Electronic Appearances	Students have opportunities to communicate with subject matter experts and/or famous people via email, videoconferencing, or chatrooms. These activities are typically short-term (often one-time) and correspond to curricular objectives.
	Telementoring	Students communicate with subject matter experts over extended periods of time to explore specific topics in depth and in an inquiry-based format.
	Question & Answer	Students communicate with subject matter experts on a short-term basis as questions arise during their study of a specific topic. This is used only when all other information resources have been exhausted.
	Impersonations	Impersonation projects are those in which some or all participants communicate in character, rather than as themselves. Impersonations of historical figures and literary protagonists are most common.
INFORMATION COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS	Information Exchanges	Students and teachers in different locations collect, share, compare and discuss information related to specific topics or themes that are experienced or expressed differently at each participating site.
	Database Creation	Students and teachers organize information they have collected or created into databases which others can use and to which others can add or respond.
	Electronic Publishing	Students create electronic documents, such as Web pages or word-processed newsletters, collaboratively with others. Remotely located students learn from and respond to these publishing projects.
	Telefieldtrips	Telefieldtrips allow students to virtually experience places or participate in activities that would otherwise be impossible for them, due to monetary or geographic constraints.
	Pooled Data Analysis	Students in different places collect data of a particular type on a specific topic and then combine the data across locations for analysis.
PROBLEM SOLVING	Information Searches	Students are asked to answer specific, fact-based questions related to curricular topics. Answers (and often searching strategies) are posted in electronic format for other students to see, but reference sources used to generate the answers are both online and offline.
	Peer Feedback Activities	Students are encouraged to provide constructive responses to the ideas and forms of work done by students in other locations, often reviewing multiple drafts of documents over time. These activities can also take the form of electronic debates or forums.
	Parallel Problem Solving	Students in different locations work to solve similar problems separately and then compare, contrast, and discuss their multiple problem-solving strategies online.
	Sequential Creations	Students in different locations sequentially create a common story, poem, song, picture, or other product online. Each participating group adds their segment to the common product.
	Telepresent Problem Solving	Students simultaneously engage in communications-based realtime activities from different locations. Developing brainstormed solutions to real-world problems via teleconferencing is a popular application of this structure.
	Simulations	Students participate in authentic, but simulated, problem-based situations online, often while collaborating with other students in different locations.
	Social Action Projects	Students are encouraged to consider real and timely problems, then take action toward resolution with other students elsewhere. Although the problems explored are often global in scope, the action taken to address the problem is usually local.

When I read about Tellecolaboration in the Harris article, I couldn?t help but to think about Vygostky (my heroe!). Vygotsky, a developmental theorist and researcher who worked in the 1920s and early '30s, has influenced some of the current research of collaboration among students and teachers and on the role of cultural learning and schooling. His principal premise is that human beings are products not only of biology, but also of their human cultures. Intellectual functioning is the product of our social history, and language is the key mode by which we learn our cultures and through which we organize our verbal thinking and regulate our actions. Children learn such higher functioning from interacting with the adults and other children around them.

The zone of proximal development, scaffolding, and dialogue are especially useful concepts or frameworks for school learning. Vygotsky observed that effective teachers plan and carry out learning activities within children's zones of proximal development, through dialogue and scaffolding. Dialogue, scaffolding, and working in one's zone of proximal development can be accomplished in collaborative classrooms, and are being accomplished in many classrooms today. Vygotsky also provides us with a framework for thinking about an important function of teaching and the multicultural perspective. His research suggests that school learning enables students to connect their "everyday concepts" to "scientific concepts." In other words, schools help students draw generalizations and construct meaning from their own experiences, knowledge, and strategies. Knowledge learned in the community and knowledge gained from school are both valuable. Neither can be ignored if students are to engage in meaningful learning. Effective teachers help students make these connections by scaffolding and dialogue. In fact, these are the essence of mediating. Teachers plan learning activities at points where students are challenged. Teachers plan activities and experiments that build on the language of students' everyday lives through familiar examples and behaviors, analogies and metaphors, and the use of commonly found materials. Teachers demonstrate, do parts of the task students cannot do, work collaboratively with students where they need help, and release responsibility to students when they can perform the task independently.

Finally, Telecollaboration encourages cooperative learning. It has the potential to improve learning, more effective social skills, and higher self-esteem for most of their students. In addition, due to our changing world demands more and more cooperation among individuals, communities, and nations are needed, and as such we are indeed preparing our students for this world.

Posted by dkarpel @ 12:16 PM EDT [ Comments [0] ]

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