Collaborative Interaction

"One of the most important facets of collaborative learning is the interaction between individual and collaborative learning activities - between divergent perspectives and shared knowledge building." (Puntambekar, 2006). Working together to solve a problem or to achieve a common goal has always been more effective than solving problems and goals alone. Collaboration allows for different talents and abilities to be used to meet a specific objective whether it via online through distance education or inside of a traditional classroom setting. Collaboration is important in every aspect of the society that we function in, however, it plays a major role in the field of distance education. Collaborative interaction plays a role in the relationship betweeen teachers and students and it is indeed a new type of approach for instruction.
Collaborative Interaction's Evolution:

It is fair to say that collabortative interaction evolved with the evolution of the Internet which created the electronic mail evolution. Email has long been the most widely used Internet application (Electronic Mail, 2009). For some people, it is also their most frequent form of communicationExchanging information and communication via email was the first type of collaborative interaction globally. I am sure that online education's idea was sparked from the high usage of collaborative interaction that was taken place because of the Internet.

Online Tools

Blogs, Wikis, Email, and Disucssion boards are all online tools that are available today to faciliate interaction among leaners. Blogs are websites maintained by individuals that contains content. Our current use of blogs for this course is an example of how collaborative interaction is taking place. After we were assigned groups, we interacted collaboratively with each other via our blogs. The interaction occured by our weekly comments to each others blog which sparks conversations within our learning community. In the other course that I am currently enrolled in, Wikis were set up so that we are able to collaborate and interact online. Disucssion boards and emails give the most type of collaborative interaction because it allows for daily collaborative and communication between learners and instructors.

References
Electronic Mail. (2009). Retrieved December 31, 2009, from Living Internet: http://www.livinginternet.com/e/e.htm

Puntambekar, S. (2006). Analyzing Collaborative Interactions. Computers and Education , 332-351.

Useful Information:
http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/796109-f1KWOQ/native/796109.pdf
This is a PDF file that discusses integrated set of software tools that helps facilitate the broad range of collaborative interactions.


Nonverbal Communication to Support Collaborative Interaction in Collaborative Virtual Environments for Learning
http://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Publications/CEUR-WS/Vol-384/FULLPAPER-p1.pdf

The Evolution of Distance Education

Distance education: the only type of learning with several different names such as distance education, e-learning, virtual school, online learning...however their is only one outcome the acquiring of knowledge with the use of a computer. After reading the article and listening to the vodcast Distance Education: The Next Generation” by Dr. Michael Simonson, it is safe to say that the evolution of distance education is a topic of discussion around the world. However, every one's views on the need to evolve distance education the next generation. Dr. Simonson believes that distance educations needs to be evolved to the next generation because it allows for learning different types of skills at a distance. Simonson compares the evolution of distance education to the evolution of the computer. He stated that the computer grew over time and "if you look at the pattern of distance education we can expect growth to continue". Anyone with vision can see how computers have shaped our lives and changed our lives, and Simonson believes that distance education is headed this way as well. He believes that it should be widely adopted and used, but never to abolish traditional schools.

Authors Moller, Wellesley, Foshay, and Huett of the articles Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web think otherwise. They have different reason to believe that distance education should not evolve to the next generation just yet. They feel as though there are some things that need to be worked out before it evolves. Some of those things include instructors having the proper training, broaden courses offered, cost, and distance education (virtual schooling) being used effectively.

Both authors believe that distance education has the potential to evolve and evolve rapidly because it is growing constantly right now as we speak. I agree with both of the authors and their views on the evolution of distance education. I believe that it does provide learners with skills that they never knew existed and that it is a powerful tool if used correctly. However, there are somethings that could be done differently with distance education before the next generation is introduced to it.

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. & Coleman, C., (2008, September/October). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.