2. WIKI's and Collaborative Learning

Most people with access to some form of media have heard of Wikipedia, Google, yahoo answers and other such similar sites. The aim of these websites is to provide a forum for a higher level of learning; where people can search for any amount of information or any subject they wish. Similarly schools try to in many ways provide a similar forum in the form of group assignments where students can collaboratively learn from each other.

Wiki's, short for wiki spaces or Wikipedia, is a forum where knowledge is accumulated. Any person with internet access can access a variety of pages, view, search and comment on the knowledge displayed and in some cases if even add to or change the post.

On sites such as Yahoo answers any person with an account can ask a question to the community. For most questions, an answer is given by someone with the knowledge or previous experience to solve it or even deeper questions are asked, promoting higher level thinking and understanding.
 
For students this means that they are able to share idea, concepts, questions, issues and methods about solving the question. Any student can learn from these sites, it is just a matter of reading. As these sites are maintained externally to a school environment it is not teacher led, but if an internal discussion board were created in a learning environment students have the choice of asking generally to the public or to the teacher. Possibly the greatest about collaborative learning is that it is in fact peer led for the most part, students learning from students; where concepts are explained on a level of understanding equal to that of the other student.

Students do not reap all the benefits, in fact teachers benefit also. Teachers can view these internal discussion boards and questions prompted by the students. This allows the teacher to gain an understanding or where the students are at within their learning, what struggles students are having and make an effort in lessons to bridge these gaps not only answering the student’s questions or concerns but also improving their teaching.

Below is a video about collaborative learning and how it has affected students and teachers through a 'digital conversion' or implementing technology.


Learning colloboratively in the classroom (Cisco, 2012)

There are many benefits to collaborative learning but there are some draw backs. With the increase in the sophistication of technology some students have found a new realm for bullying. Cyber bullying is the newest form of school bullying. Usually where the victim is bullied through text messages, emails or other instant messages, it is very hard to detect and prevent this from happening if the victim is shy about speaking up about it. Thus for collaborative learning to be in any way beneficial in schools and learning environments a high level of care must be taken to prevent any such occurrence. Features on most websites include a 'report abuse' button, a blocking/booting system where people are barred by others from chats (be cautious because this can be used to bully) and simply an administrator, probably the most important feature, whom oversees any malicious behaviour.