Today’s
classroom may use technology to engage learners and enhance learning
experiences in ways that the classrooms of five or ten years ago did not
through the use of the Web 2.0 technologies. However educators long before the advancement
of computer assigned various actives to engage the leaner in a collaborative
learning environment. For educators this
exploration as a means of “knowing” was the core or student engagement. The observation of different social classes,
conversation and debate, or the exploration of music, dance and the arts, for
example. These traditional means of this
engagement can be enhanced through the use of technology to be sure, and through
the use of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) an educator may
further enhance the learning experiences of students. Their engagement in an interactive
environment may begin with scaffold course work so that it supposrts "different
domains of learning, including knowledge construction, critical thinking, and
contextual application." (West, 2009 p 58).
The
focus of this essay is incorporating technology, not the technology itself.
However, an example of a Web 2.0 technology that incorporates the use of CSCL
environment may prove useful. The use of
social collaboration software like “wikis” has been widely explored in
secondary and post-secondary education. “The
simplicity of wikis makes them a wonderful tool for young” and experienced “learners
in collaborative tasks” (Fu, Chu, & Kang, 2013 Pg. 85). Wikis are a collaborative tool that can be
edited by students who can each contributed to the discussion. Assessing participation of each student can
be accomplished by examining the quality of edits made by students. This technology moves us past the simple
domains of cognitive development, to accessing the intelligences of individual
students.
Howard
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) fits the use of CSCL perfectly
and the web 2.0 (wikis) in particularly. Wikis are the perfect collaborative learning
tool to ensure and monitors student participation, further each student can add
to the project based on his/her MI. For
example, a student may have a high degree of spatial intelligence; this student
would then find inserting video or pictures appealing. However, another student may have a high
degree of Logical-mathematical intelligence; this student would learn best from
the collaborative environment the wiki provides.
More
importantly, students are familiar with blogs and wikis and as such accept the
technology as logical extension of the educational environment. “Results suggest that individual technology
acceptance behavior is a function of their holistic experience with the
technology and cognitive perceptions formed by rational assessments and these
impacts are mediated by individuals’ attitude toward the technology” (Tan, 2007
Pg. iii). Therefore the use of wikis
enables the assignment to easily facilitate interactions between group
members. In this type of learning
environment the talents of each student can be accommodated thus promoting
active learning. Gardner (2000) makes the connection as well as warns educators
“Clearly, a marriage of education and technology could be consummated, but it
will only be a happy marriage if those charged with education remain clear on
what they want to achieve…Otherwise, like other technologies, the new ones
could end up spawning apathy, alienation or yet another phalanx of consumers”
(p.35)
Reference
Fu,
H., Chu, S., & Kang, W. (2013). Affordances and constraints of a wiki for
primary-school students' group projects. Journal of Educational Technology
& Society, 16(4), 85-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1462203798?accountid=32521
Gardner,
H. (2000) Can technology exploit our many ways of knowing? Retrieved from https://howardgardner01.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/can-technology-exploit-our-many-ways-of-knowing1.pdf
Tan,
W. (2007). An integrated view of cognitive absorption in a technology-mediated
learning environment. (Order No. MR34783, Concordia University (Canada)). ProQuest
Dissertations and Theses, 112-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304797056?accountid=32521
West, J. A. & West, M. L. (2009). Using
wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write web. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.
