Natural Instinct of People to Seek Groups and Collaborate
Do you believe that humans have a basic instinct to “interact and work as a group,” as Rheingold (2008) proposed ?
I gathered from Rheingold’s lecture that humans work together whether it is for profit or not. For instance, Rheingold discusses that many people collaborate on a voluntary basis in order to input data on free informational websites such as Wikipedia. (2008). On the contrary, others will become enrolled in a project if there is profit involved
I personally believe that whether there is a financial gain or simply the gain of “feeling good”, both are considered a gain, therefore humans interact and work as groups, for a price. Some humans are better at it than others. When I say better at it- I simply mean that some people love the interaction with other humans more than others. I have a friend that stated she wished she never had to work with people. She simply preferred to work independently. It comes down to personality. I like working with people as I see it as a way to work on myself. Conflicts and collaboration with others help me to find new ways to form relationships and see, in myself, what personality traits are accepted, refused, and what needs work.
How can technology facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles?
According to Rheingold (2008), Ebay, Google, and Amazon all “enrich others while enriching themselves”. So there is a collaboration of sorts. With learners, technology is ever-changing and can facilitate collaboration. Dewey (1997) describers learning as what occurs through a person’s experience. Learning activities such as simulations, cooperative group work, and open-ended problems are examples of constructivist learning experiences (Driscoll, 2005).
Dewey, J. (1997). Experience & education. New York: Kappa Delta Pi.
Driscoll, M. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction. Boston: Pearson.
Web video. (2008). Howard Rheingold: Way-New Collaboration. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
I agree with you that humans tend to work together whether they can make a profit or not, and that some people enjoy it and are more adept at human interaction than others. This may be explained by especially strong or weak levels of Interpersonal Intelligence, one of the seven intelligences proposed by Gardner (1985) in his Theory of Multiple Intelligences. I think we all know certain people with excellent social skills and others with poor ones. Most of us probably fall somewhere in the middle.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of social grace or awkwardness, I believe some amount of collaboration and communication with others is necessary for cognitive growth, as demonstrated in social constructivist approaches to education (Driscoll, 2005). I also think it's possible for a person to improve their social skills by working with others and practicing collaborative skills or just chatting. Conversely, I believe a person's ability to work with others can deteriorate if they avoid it for too long.
Driscoll, M. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction. Boston: Pearson.
Gardner, H. (1985). Frames of mind the theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.