What is the role of collaboration in understanding?

An interesting thing about the virtual environment is how it compels you towards collaboration as a means to understanding. I know this is simplistic, but hear me out. I spent the past several days working on a paper analyzing the marketing prowess of the New York Public Library (note – not as grand as it sounds) which involved collaborating with 3 other classmates. Each of us took a section of the assignment, did the appropriate research and posted it in a coherent manner on a shared Google document where we will edit as necessary. We communicated extensively via Gmail and made use of Elluminate.  Now I know a little about marketing because I use to DJ (a lifetime ago) in the SF Gay scene and promotions/marketing was key to survival in that cut throat business. Because of this dejaying experience, I was able to contribute some expertise or ‘understanding’ to our marketing project. On the other hand, another member actually worked for the NYPL and brought a different perspective and skill set to the project. Likewise, the other group members added their expertise about marketing to the project to facilitate new understanding and to build new knowledge among the group. The experience shows students do learn more through collaboration with other students. I think as far as citing a learning paradigm for this discussion, Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development theory supports this concept by presenting a model for understanding how students/peers learn from each other or what we can do with the help of a more “capable peer”. As an aside, this marketing project was assigned as an individual assignment with the group component optional!

Online Learning

The role of proximity in the learning process comes to mind when thinking about some of the differences between online and face to face learning. I took a calculus for the social sciences class (face to face) a few years back. The class was challenging to say the least and I spent many hours in the math lab taking advantage of the ‘free’ tutorial services, also face to face. The class met three times a week for 50 minutes and the instructional strategy aligned with what McLaren describes as “Information Transfer”. He writes, “during information transfer, learners are usually passive participants in the learning process” (p.230). Basically, the students watched the chalk board and listened to the professor. You might say that this is not a very progressive or exciting learning paradigm, but there was one activity that occurred in this class that I cannot imagine being replicated in the online environment. Every class we turned in problem sets from the text related to the lectures and the professor began each class painstaking working through several of the assigned problems, answering questions along the way. The way this relates to proximity is in the give and take interaction between the students and teacher in real time. Moreover, a question from one student encouraged other questions which solidified the learning exchange. As an aside, I also had the opportunity to participate in a study group, an event not likely to happen online because of issues of proximity.

On the other hand, online learning is more conducive to learning outcomes related to reflection, self-regulation and self-monitoring because you have to take responsibility for your own learning. And because online learning is more self-directed, for example, I can spend more time on the concepts that are unfamiliar and less on concepts that I can pick up quickly. This may be self evident and commonsensical, but it is a level of control not apparent in a face to face setting.

Orellana, A., Hudgins, T.L., Simonson, M. (2009). The Perfect online course: Best practices for designing and teaching, (Ed.). Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.

Assessment

The role of assessment for me, as a learner, is an affirmation of skills or the attainment of some level of proficiency in a subject. A part, and in some cases, a big part of the engagement with the subject matter is based on the assessment process and how the achievement or mastery of the material will be evaluated. As an undergraduate, I was required to take several math and science courses which were very challenging to say the least. Although this logic may be flawed, as a political science major (liberal arts), I assumed the assessments in my science and math courses would be more objective. I felt the cut and dry nature of the science and math curriculum provided a straightforward path to what was needed to pass the “test” and most time it was a test. This is not a diminishment of testing, on the contrary, in the end I greatly valued the achievement that acing a biology or calculus test signaled.

In my limited experience as an instructor (I taught an adjunct government class), assessments were crucial for me and for my students. The government class I taught was a required general education class, i.e., must take in order to graduate and as such, the students were fairly attentive (or captive, if you dislike politics). I mentioned this because whatever the assessments used had to cater to a very diverse crowd. For this class, the students wrote timed essays twice a week on questions about the functions of government and current events. The essay questions enabled the students to make connections between seemingly quiescent institutions and current issues facing them as citizens. The results were mixed, but the essay responses alerted me to gaps in the comprehension of the course reading materials which in turned helped to focus my lectures.

As an aside, I have to comment on Harlan’s assessment video. I laugh out loud when Harlan mentioned Michelle Rhee. What an absolute nightmare for those of us concerned about K-12 education here in Sacramento, where I live, because Rhee is married or will be marrying Mayor Kevin Johnson! I am sure she will be subjecting us to her foundation MichelleFirst, err, I mean StudentsFirst. Here is a nice Eva Peronish response from Rhee about the latest high stake testing scandal, http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/29/rhee_cheating/index.html

Some Critical Thoughts

The main idea behind teaching information is to provide people with the skills needed to evaluate, locate and use effectively the needed information which is covered exhaustively in the ALA Information Literacy Competency Standards. The information efficacy of the individual is crucial in order to navigate the information landscape and ultimately contribute to the individual’s ability to be a lifelong learner. And to conceptualize this further, Bruce associates people’s empowerment with the ability to operate within complex information environments.

Bruce, in her book, Informed Learning, goes on to develop this construct of “Informed Learning” as a compliment to Information Literacy with applications across disciplines, in the work place and the community. So while the ALA Information Literacy Competency Standards present a lists of skills necessary for utilizing information, the Informed Learning concept is a more comprehensive and transformative approach to information use ( Bruce, 2008).

My thoughts on the nature of information and literacy rest on access, aka politics, and questions regarding who gets what, when and how. For example, literacy rates in the US are high because of mandated public education courtesy of the State. Information Literacy is very much dependent on the information economy which is trending more towards the commodification of information. Just this week the New York Times announce that users of their web site will now have to pay for content. While this is not surprising and as a business decision, it makes sense for a newspaper to develop other revenue streams because the old advertisement base model is no longer viable in the Internet age, these are the decisions of a proprietary entity seeking to make profits.  But I believe more and more information sources will choose to operate behind a pay wall of some sort. A tension exists between the public service principle of libraries, and an information society framework that is linked to privatization strategies that can further commoditize information. The ALA Information Literacy Competency Standards states that “the sheer abundance of information will not in itself create a more informed citizenry without a complementary cluster of abilities necessary to use information effectively”(American Library Association, 2000, p.4). I don’t believe this admirable and necessary goal (creating informed citizens) can be realize if libraries become just access points for ICT’s (Information and Communication Technologies). I know this may be far adrift from the blog question, but any discipline that claims to study the creation, use and access of information cannot ignore the larger socio-economic critiques.  

American Library Association (2000). The Information Literacy Competency Standards for

    Higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html.

Bruce, C. S. (2008). Informed Learning. Chicago: American Library Association.

Frames, Faces and Agendas

     I think I will explore this through the social impact frame. In 1995, noted political scientist Robert Putnam wrote an essay titled Bowling Alone (Putnam, 1995). The thesis of his essay suggested that social capital, a crucial component of any liberal democracy, has waned significantly in America since the 1960’s due to declining participation in civic organizations. The bowling alone concept pointed to an isolated and marginalized citizenry with little political efficacy. This theory has been cited as an explanation for the general retrenchment of a collective spirit (declining commons) and the primacy of the individual rational actor model. I thought of Putnam as I read about Information Literacy because community and the creation of community is a key point mentioned repeatedly in the readings. Community is a big idea and an assumption in Information Literacy. Social capital refers to connections within and between social networks, and in Putnam’s view, social capital flourished as a result of membership in social and fraternal organizations. On the other hand, proficiency in Information Literacy can aid in creating a new form of social capital with the emergence of new social networks courtesy of the World Wide Web.  

     Along with community, another assumption in Information Literacy is that not only are we living in a knowledge based society, but we are living in a knowledge based economy operating under auspices of globalization. Globalization creates interdependency between nation states which increases the need for Information Literacy as a bridge builder. Concerning globalization, I found this hopeful definition of Information Literacy on a UNESO primer: “Information Literacy as a mean to empower people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals” (Horton, 2008).  

References

Horton, F. W. (2008). Understanding information literacy: A primer; an easy-to-read, non-technical overview explaining what information literacy means, designed for busy public policy-makers, business executives, civil society administrators and practicing professionals. UNESDOC. pp.1-103. Retrieved from  http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?catno=157020

Putnam, R. D. (1995). Tuning in, tuning out: The strange disappearance of social capital in america. PS: Political Science and Politics, 28(4), pp. 664-683. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/stable/420517