Siemens (Laureate, 2008) explained that the process of distance education has been enhanced by innovations or tools that enable communication and collaboration with diverse groups in diverse time zones, and diverse geographical locations. Tools that facilitate videoconferencing, such as Skype and ooVoo; social software; such as Facebook for building and maintaining social networks; Flickr for sharing photographs; Delicious for sharing bookmarks; Moodle, wikis, and blogs for sharing, editing, and publishing curriculum and class projects, enable and enhance collaborative interaction.
Palloff & Pratt (2005) commented that we are in the second wave of online instruction. “The second wave, which is concerned with best practices and improving both interaction and interactivity in online courses , is upon us” (Palloff & Pratt, 2005, p. 3). The authors further explained that collaboration is the, “heart and soul” (p. 6) of any online course that finds its roots in constructivism. Constructivist theory involves the learner constructing his/her own knowledge and active interaction with course content, the course instructor, and one’s cohorts in a collaborative learning environment facilitates this construction of knowledge. Online collaboration engages the learner with the content, and allows the learner to develop much needed social skills (Palloff & Pratt, 2005), and as such, “contibutes to positive student learning and is a key to effective instruction” (Durrington, Berryhill, & Swafford, 2006).
Vida Martin
References:
Durrington, V. A., Berryhill, A., & Swafford, J. (2006). Strategies for enhancing student interactivity in an online environment. College Teaching, 54 (1), 190-193.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of distance education: Distance Education: The Future of Distance Education. Baltimore: Author.
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
HouseOfDavid 
Vida, I think collaboration is essential in any setting, whether it is a face-to-face setting or an online setting. Students must be able to interact with one another so that they can be engaged in the learning process. For example, being able to respond on various people blogs or discussions helps us to gain a better understanding of what we are learning.
Charee, I completely agree that we gain much from our exchanges in discussion and blogging. As Kear, Woodthorpe, Robertson, and Hutchison (2010) indicated, the concept of online collaborative learning is not innovative educational technology, however, with the addition of tools such as wikis, tools which enable and enhance the ability for videoconferencing, and tools which facilitate social networking, “educators have a wide choice of communication and collaboration tools to use with students” (p. 218).
Reference:
Kear, K., Woodthorpe, J., Robertson, S., & Hutchison, M. (May, 2010). From forums to wikis: Perspective on tools for collaboration. The Internet and Higher Education, 13(4), 218-225.
Vida,
Wonderful blog! Collaboration is the cornerstone to learning and is not limited to face to face classes. Distance education has been able to bridge the gap that correspondence schools could not with the advent of technology. It is interesting to note that as large business, corporations and government invest and utilize new technology – educational organization follow suit. Or is it vice-versa? It is actually hard to say which came first since there is such an overlap.
Happy Blogging!
Kimberly Arlia
Kimberly,
Perhaps educational technology adopts the educational technology later so that they can see evidence that the technology is tried and tested and indeed effective, before introducing the technology in the classroom. Education is such an investment into the lives of our students that we can hardly afford mistakes. Nice response.