Reflection 6 : Collaboration

Throughout this course I have been asked to work collaboratively, I have found that the task has tested my abilities. As some of my past experiences of working collaboratively have shown that I need improvement of skills to move forward. I have however gained a greater understanding and can see the benefits of working collaboratively with others. By working collaboratively within this course it has shown advantages and disadvantages of what, when, how and why collaborative learning is utilised. It has been thought provoking and has helped me to become more creative with the use of technologies, enabling a deeper understanding of how to use connectivity on a larger scale (global), receiving and providing feedback on activities. I have found that collaborative learning is an effective tool to evaluate, analysis and synthesis and most importantly share thoughts and perspectives whilst engaging in higher order thinking. Throughout the course the activities have allowed collaboration with my fellow classmates and one that highlighted the benefits was in the first activity in week two. This activity enabled the sharing of ideas and understanding others perspective’s.  Some of the disadvantages of collaborating within the course is how time consuming it is to navigate through every ones blogs and post comments. Although this points out another benefit that is if it was not as time consuming then more are likely to contribute to collaborating on sites. Posting comments also showed that even if you had a negative point about another’s blog, I would not communicate feedback out of respect of the other person. I don’t consider myself educated enough to judgemental towards others and I have been brought up that everyone is entitled to their opinion, right or wrong. This is the most confronting part to these new era of blogging, twitting etc. I am, after weeks within the course gaining an understanding of posting both positive and constructive feedback, as this is developing the necessary professional skills that are going to be required to collaborate and teach in the 21^st century.