Use and Mis-Use of Technology for Online, Asynchronous, Collaborative Learning

Abstract

Online learners are typically considered to be isolated learners, except for occasional opportunities to post views on an electronic bulletin board. This is not the team orientation that is so central to collaborative learning (CL) theory. Why does formal CL receive so little attention in online instruction? First, the teachers who do value CL generally are traditional educators and not involved in online instruction. Second, online teachers often have little understanding or appreciation for the formalisms of CL. In this chapter, electronic bulletin boards, although universally used, are shown to provide poor support for Collaborative Learning. As a better alternative, shared-document conferencing environments that allow learning teams to create academic deliverables are discussed. Finally, examples are given of well-known CL techniques, illustrating how these are implemented with shared-document conferencing.