Collaboration software may operate either synchronously, allowing all users to participate simultaneously, or a synchronously, allowing users to participate at any time. Synchronous tools allow collaborative partners to meet and discuss projects, give presentations, view and edit documents in real time, or share applications. Synchronous collaboration tools include videoconferencing, online meeting platforms, shared whiteboard, Voice Over Internet, voting, chat or messaging, and immersive 3-D environments. Asynchronous tools allow collaborative partners to exchange materials, contact lists, or to access shared files or resources, libraries or archives. Asynchronous collaboration tools include e-mail, Wikis, blogs, shared calendars, polling, track changes, and document exchange
Published in Chapter:
E-Social Constructivism and Collaborative E-Learning
Janet Salmons (Vision2Lead, Inc., USA & Capella University, USA)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-106-3.ch019
Abstract
Social constructivism is an established educational theory based on the principle that learners and teachers co-construct knowledge through social processes. This chapter proposes an updated theory, e-social constructivism, that takes into account the milieu of electronic communications in which e-learning occurs. Thinkers such as Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner, who laid the theoretical foundations of social constructivism, wrote in a time when face-to-face interactions were the basis for instruction. The works of these writers are reviewed in this chapter. Together with the results of the author’s phenomenological study of collaborative e-learning, they form the basis of e-social constructivist theory. The author uses grounded theory and situational analysis to derive and support e-social constructivist theory. This chapter discusses the implication of that theory for research, teaching and instructional design.