This affordance of collaboration is vital in present day fabric of learning in a social manner. As we deviate from didactic model of learning where the learners is the solely responsible for demonstrating learning using his/her memorized content, this collaborative knowledge creation has helped in creating learning ecologies where learners have the facility to engage in reviewing other learners work and in return can on one hand learn from them and on the other hand can support them improve upon their work.

“Traditionally, schooling has been based on the idea of individual intelligence, where intelligence itself is narrowly conceived as personal memory and the mechanical skills of deduction. The human mind, however, is an intrinsically social thing” (Gee, 2013 [1992] in Kalantzis & Cope (2015)).

In an example share in Update #4 (recursive feedback)  [URL: https://cgscholar.com/community/community_profiles/e-learning-ecologies-mooc/community_updates/72784] I have discussed an opportunity where learners created their SOW demonstrating the effective use of technology over a unit; they were engaged in giving feedback to each other and help highlight areas which are either good or need further exploration. In return they also got the chance to review others work in order to rate and then improve own performance; the feedback from other also helped them. In this way they got the to see ‘what good work looks like’ Cope (online - video 3&4 on course page).

Siemens (2005) has also stressed on ‘organizational knowledge creation’ in his theory of Connectivism. According to him one cannot hold ‘All’ the knowledge in the worl, but it’s the connections to knowledge nodes which make it possible for an individual to get to the required knowledge (See image 1 below). The terms ‘connected Teacher’ (See Image 2) and ‘connected Learners’ are essential to be understood in this reference Couros (online: https://clalliance.org/blog/professor-alec-couros-the-connected-teacher/ ).

Image 1: How a person is located in collaborative knowledge environment

Connected Teacher

It’s the recursive feedback on e-learning spaces which make it possible for participants to make comment at any time using various media to support their point of view. The collective approach along with opportunities for reciprocity are a good potential for teachers make benefic of.

References

Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2015). Learning and new media. In D. Scott and E. Hargreaves (Eds.), The sage handbook of learning (pp. 373-387). Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.

URLs

Couros, A. (online). “The Connected Teacher”. https://clalliance.org/blog/professor-alec-couros-the-connected-teacher/ [Accessed: Sep 9, 2018]

Siemen, G. (2005). Didactics of Microlearning. [online: https://books.google.com.pk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=J0-KAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA53&dq=connectivism+nodes+network&ots=3sP4tiDJqv&sig=bx8DrRREtro3MYjEaPJwmqp3GQs&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=connectivism%20nodes%20network&f=false ]