Module 2 Post: Technology enabling collaboration

While I agree with George Siemens’ (Laureate Education Inc., 2008) that distance education creates more opportunities for /facilitates group interaction and cooperation, I do feel that it may have some negative impact on how we communicate. What I mean is, I feel that there is a growing expectation of immediacy when the medium of communication is online. Instead of the lag time between message and response as we would have had maybe even 10 years ago, the expectation is that you are always connected and therefore always available to meet others’ needs.

That said, there are conveniences to the collaboration afforded by current technology. No longer are students forced to meet up face-to-face at a set time to complete group projects. There are video resources like Skype and Youtube, or social networking tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Wikispaces which allow students to discuss topics as well as upload and share files. The challenge may then be with whether each group member is comfortable enough using these technologies for communication. I suppose the advantage that individuals have now is the amount of choice in mode of communication. We’ve gone beyond the three choices of meet face-to-face, call, or e-mail. In addition to those options, we can also Skype, message someone on a social networking site, text, and communicate via blogs/wikis.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). The future of distance education featuring George Siemens [Video]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4449103&Survey=1&47=5970302&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1