Online Collaborative Learning Theory: An Innovative Technology

In an earlier post, I began talking about the use of an established social-constructivist learning theory as a tool for designing learning that encourages direct collaboration among students. Check that out here. Although I digressed into a description of the digital technology that students frequently have trouble collaborating in (wikis), I decided that in a later post I would explain my thinking behind that idea. Harasim's (2012) Online Collaborative Learning theory (OCL) (which I described here) is aptly designed to scaffold collaborative processes for students. However, as I explained before, such frameworks have seldom been used in the structuring of collaborative assignments like Wikis.

In our digital tools assessment assignment I did simply that- I justified OCL as a technological tool to support collaborative wiki assignments in higher education. This justification was made on two assumptions: 1) a theory can be a tool, and 2) an innovation or technology's "newness" is subjective.

Rogers (2003) defined an innovation as “an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by the individual or other unit of adoption” (p. 12). He claimed that it was of little concern as to whether an idea is “objectively” new, rather the individual perception of “newness” is of sole importance. He stated that if an idea seems new to an individual than it is indeed considered to be an innovation. Further, the terms innovation and technology are often used interchangeably; however, Roger’s distinguished between the two and defined technology as “a design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome” (2003, p.12). Rogers interpreted that technology is frequently comprised of two components: 1) a hardware component understood as the physical or material object, and 2) a software component comprising the information base of the technology. Although technologies are often embodied by both components, in other instances, a technology can be made up completely of software (information only). Examples of such technologies could be political or religious ideologies which are designed to achieve a desired economic or societal outcome,.

Thus, the same can be assumed for (information based) theories of learning and instruction which seek to predict certain learning outcomes for students. For example, Rogers’ (2003) definition of an innovation is appropriate for demonstrating that although an instructional technique such as collaborative learning is not objectively new, an individual learner’s experiences with collaborative learning activities is what determines its “newness.” Moreover, his definition of technology is helpful for understanding that a pedagogical model or theory consisting entirely of information (software component) is subject to the same principles of adoption as material technologies. Nonetheless, from this perspective, pedagogical theories of learning and instruction can be easily recognized and understood as tools for achieving a desired outcome. In fact, Bates (2016) succinctly stated that an educational technology is simply as a “thing” or a “tool” that, in some capacity, supports teaching and learning.

Although, it is completely acceptable to describe Harasim's OCL as a tool for facilitating collaboration in online environments, I think that I will take a slightly different route for the final lesson plan assignment in our course which will make up the content of my culminating Blog post in Week 10. 

References:

Bates, T. (2016). Teaching in a digital age: guidelines for designing teaching and learning. British Columbia: SFU Document Solutions. 

Davis, F. D. (1986). A technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information system: Theory and results. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Massachusetts Institute of           Technology.

Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319–340.

Harasim, L. (2012). Learning theory and online technologies. Routledge.

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.