Collaborative
learning is primarily mediated by language. Acts of communication or language acts function as social interaction mechanisms
building up collaborative learning processes. (Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. & Webb,
C.) Collaborative leaning language is not
competitive in nature, and it shares ideas in a way that promotes the
task. Collaborative communication seeks
to set goals and reach those goals, with mutual respect. With this in mind, it behooves an online
facilitator to learn and become well versed in modeling and mediating online,
social discord. This is the crux of the
resource I found, “Towards a Communicative Model of Collaborative Web-Mediated
Learning.” The authors describe
collaborative language as falling under three main headings: subject matter,
norms and rules, and personal experiences/desires and feelings.
Palloff
and Pratt, in “Building Online Learning Communities” describe habits of speech
that may promote collaboration: dialogue of inquiry, encouraging expansive
questioning, promoting feedback and sharing responsibility for
facilitation. Certainly it is evident
that there is overlap in these two resources.
As with
any successful communication, a collaborative spirit is valuable. A group member who is insecure and thus
argumentative or competitive may truly stifle group participation, and though a
facilitator will not be able to control each group members’ posting and
responses to postings in an online community, setting norms that lay the groundwork
for collaboration and the start of an online PLC will go a long way in setting
guidelines to refer to if a member steps over the boundaries.
References:
Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (2007) Building online learning communities; effective strategies for the
virtual classroom. San Francisco, CA: Wiley Imprint Press.
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