Howard Rheingold (2008) gave a summary to the fact that people naturally have an instinct to seek out alliances to collaborate. He quoted, “Technology provides tools for collaboration across time and space, as exemplified in Wikipedia.”
I am unsure I agree with this statement. I believe the truth to this comment lie in the fact of the prior knowledge one may have to offer to the discussion. According to George Siemens (2006) human existence is a quest to understand (p. 4). The more knowledge, the more one would seem amenable to collaborate. I do not think individuals strive to appear ignorant in any subject area, which may influence their amount of involvement.
Face-to-face communication devices (e.g. Skype, ooVoo) are essentials tools for effective collaboration for certain personality types. Furthermore, individuals who learn linguistically may choose devices such as, blogs or wikis in order to use written language to express their thoughts, questions, and concerns.
A vital area in education research is the effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on students’ academic learning gain and students’ motivation toward school. To achieve the goals set by NCLB, an educator must seek the required variables to ensure all academic students will obtain adequate yearly progress (AYP) by NCLB’s deadline in 2014 (NCLB, 2001). Parental involvement, either directly or indirectly, has been identified as a crucial variable (Rogers & Wright, 2007). Parental involvement is linked to students’ outcome in various ways, including higher academic achievement, greater self-efficacy, and more positive attitudes toward education (Rogers, et al., 2009).
Communication between classrooms and families is essential for establishing trusting relationships that foster parental involvement in the child's learning experiences. Communication technology (CT) offers elementary school parents the means to become actively involved in their child’s learning experiences. CT offers the mean for parental involvement without losing valuable time from their work place. It creates a balance for active participation of the elementary school parent without being visible in the classroom setting, therefore, cultivating adolescent independence in a collaborative fashion (Rogers & Wright, 2007).
Rogers, R. & Wright, V. (2008). Assessing technology’s role in
communication between parents
and middle schools. Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education.Vol. 7
Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing knowledge. Retrieved from http://www.lulu.com/
.
I am unsure I agree with this statement. I believe the truth to this comment lie in the fact of the prior knowledge one may have to offer to the discussion. According to George Siemens (2006) human existence is a quest to understand (p. 4). The more knowledge, the more one would seem amenable to collaborate. I do not think individuals strive to appear ignorant in any subject area, which may influence their amount of involvement.
Face-to-face communication devices (e.g. Skype, ooVoo) are essentials tools for effective collaboration for certain personality types. Furthermore, individuals who learn linguistically may choose devices such as, blogs or wikis in order to use written language to express their thoughts, questions, and concerns.
A vital area in education research is the effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on students’ academic learning gain and students’ motivation toward school. To achieve the goals set by NCLB, an educator must seek the required variables to ensure all academic students will obtain adequate yearly progress (AYP) by NCLB’s deadline in 2014 (NCLB, 2001). Parental involvement, either directly or indirectly, has been identified as a crucial variable (Rogers & Wright, 2007). Parental involvement is linked to students’ outcome in various ways, including higher academic achievement, greater self-efficacy, and more positive attitudes toward education (Rogers, et al., 2009).
Communication between classrooms and families is essential for establishing trusting relationships that foster parental involvement in the child's learning experiences. Communication technology (CT) offers elementary school parents the means to become actively involved in their child’s learning experiences. CT offers the mean for parental involvement without losing valuable time from their work place. It creates a balance for active participation of the elementary school parent without being visible in the classroom setting, therefore, cultivating adolescent independence in a collaborative fashion (Rogers & Wright, 2007).
For further
information: http://ejite.isu.edu/Volume7/Rogers.pdf
References
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,
20 U.S.C. § 6319 (2008).
Rheingold, H. (2008, February).
Howard Rheingold on collaboration [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
Rogers, M., Theule, J., Ryan, B., Adams, G., & Keating, L.
(2009). Parental involvement and
children’s school achievement: Evidence for Mediating Processes. Canadian
Journal of School Psychology, 24, 34 – 58.and middle schools. Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education.Vol. 7
Siemens, G. (2006). Knowing knowledge. Retrieved from http://www.lulu.com/
Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what you mean when you say that people with more knowledge are more amenable to collaborate. I would think that people with less knowledge would be interested in collaboration to gain more knowledge. I see what you mean when you say that people who have knowledge are more likely to share it. Perhaps I'm not reading your comment correctly...
Curt
Hi Curt:
DeleteI think people fear what they do not know. If one is unknowledgeable toward a topic, he or she may become resistant to participate. It may be their opinion they have nothing to offer to the group's collaboration.
I witness this concept often in my own classroom.
Cheryl
Hi Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteYou stated that face-to-face communication devices such as Skype, ooVoo are essentials tools for effective collaboration for certain personality types. I believe that we all have our preferred methods or devices that we like to use for collaboration. However, the Internet offers us a wealth of tools to use for collaboration. Also, I agree with your statement about individuals who learn linguistically. I would be one of those type of learners. I do prefer blogs, disscussion forums, wikis, email, and google docuements. My thoughts are better expressed through writing. You make a great point in your post. Great post!
Sandra Dykes
Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point in your post concerning parent involvement. Through the use of technology parents in our system are able to communicate with the teacher and in turn end up collaborating with teachers and other parents about classroom issues (positive and negative). Through tools such as iparent and classroom web pages, our parents are able to see their child's grades, activities and performances at most any time. I wonder if we will soon see schools implementing technlogy for parents to have access to visit classrooms virtually.
I would become an advocate for virtual classrooms! I have already suggested to my principal to put in a camera to record actions. I think this would be the only way for law makers to understand and empathize the daily classroom occurrences. Many teachers video tape for classroom critique, but generally that is only for one lesson with the students aware to the fact they are being recorded.
DeleteCheryl, great post. I love the input about parental involvement. I have so many parents who only get involved when they see their child not meeting certain goals. I have a wikispace for parents to communicate with me and I do not have one that signed up. Collaborating with teachers is a big part of the kid's success in school.
ReplyDeleteI have responded to:
ReplyDeleteNadine Petrie-Waymyers
http://waymyersedtech.blogspot.com/
Martha Bless
http://marthabless.posterous.com/
Belinda VanNorman
http://belindavannormaneduc7105.blogspot.com/2012/01/collaboration-module-3.html
HI Cheryl,
ReplyDeleteAs I read your blog, I put together the various things you focused on, Skype and the need for parent involvement, and thought about how nice it would be if teachers held virtual office hours using Skype, for example, to reach out to parents who may not be able to get away from work or simply prefer the convenience of using an online communications method. This seems like it would address the need to improve parental communication as well as helping to support the student in the classroom. With this in mind, I actually do agree with Rheingold's statement but am not quite sure why he chose Wikipedia as the tool to use to exemplify it. Somehow, that is what seems like a stretch to make a valid connection.
Thanks for your post!