Cooperation and Collaboration

One of the videos we needed to watch this week was a talk by Clay Shirky at a TED event about how the "cognitive surplus will change the world".  I am somewhat inclined to agree with the speaker.  Overall, I believe that people want to help each other when it is feasible.  Mr. Shirky's premise is that through technology, people are much more able to help others with their resources.  Before the communication paradigm changed within the last 10 years, people were only able to help with what they knew about.  This meant that either they needed to be connected to an event though people in their lives, or needed to be made aware of a situation due to the traditional media.  This did not lead to many areas of need being addressed or an area of need being superficially addressed due to the attention of the media being redirected to something more "newsworthy" or just more "up to the minute".  If the earthquake in Haiti had happened fifteen years ago before this communication  paradigm shift, I do not believe that the global resources that are still being directed towards rebuilding that country would have been sent.  This would have led to a longer rebuilding period with many more deaths due to disease and/or civil unrest.  The country of Haiti is still recovering, but is much further along than it would be without communications platforms such as Ushahidi which communicates where help is needed.  This is just one example of how the world is changed by the "cognitive surplus" (the human impulse to help and the technological ability to do so).


Strategies Discussed 


   The educational strategies that were discussed in class this week were: Cooperative Learning and Reinforcing Effort.  Many examples were cited and many possible problems were posed.  I have attempted to use both in my classes and have had mixed results.
  Using cooperative learning can be a useful tool where students are able to add their strengths to a group assignment.  In many cases, this is where "shoulder partners" are used in professional development situations.  In the classroom, there needs to be a level of trust built up between the students who are expected to cooperate in their learning processes.  So, in many cases, having students rely on "shoulder partners" that may change often (when ever the seating chart changes), is not the best idea.  When assigning students to work in groups, I usually attempt to have students strengths and weaknesses complement the weakness and strengths of the others in the group.  If I did not attempt to do this, the ability of the group, or at least individuals in the group, will be severely limited in the ability to enhance the learning of the group as well as the quality of the product that is made by the group.  Also, if strengths and weaknesses are not considered in creating a group, one of the major problems of group work usually creeps to the fore.  This problem is that not all group members contribute to the product made by the group.  If this happens, not only is the learning of all the group members compromised, but there usually are hard feelings on all sides due to the level of effort not being "equal". 
   Reinforcing effort is also something that can have mixed results (and has) in a classroom.  There is a very fine line between reinforcing a good level of effort and reinforcing an inadequate level of effort.  I have seen this in many cases with regards to my special needs students.  Some of my students feel that as long as they are not a disruptive force in the classroom, they are owed a good grade for a class.  While this might be the case for severe cases of emotionally and/or behaviorally disabled individuals, it should not be considered appropriate for students who have specific learning disabilities.  In the case for these students, they need to be pushed to achieve as much as they can in all areas, even in the areas of their academic challenges.  This is something that is very frustrating for the teacher who is doing this, and usually met with resistance by the student who has been given standards that are not as high as could be due to their limitations.  I am the father of two girls.  One is in the Special Education program due to having such ear and sinus infections that she was effectively deaf for the two years before starting school.  My other daughter is precocious and into everything.  My wife is also worried about ADHD for both of them.  However, when I get to see my kids after I get home from work, I ask them the same question every night.  It is, "Did you do your best in school today?"  Even though one daughter might have some delays, this does not mean that she should be able to give less effort at learning what is being taught in the school.  To me, if she has a problem with learning something (in this case reading), then more effort should be expended to get her to where she is expected to be.  This means that I as her father sit with her and help her with her homework and make sure she logs onto Raz-Kids in order to try to get her caught up to where she is expected to be for a "normal kid".  My "precocious" daughter is not allowed to relax on the fact that reading comes more easily for her though.  She is expected to do her best, and her mother, her grandparents or I work with her every night after she comes home from school.  Maybe I am more of a parent like the "Tiger Mom" that has been in the news, but I truly believe that I need to teach my kids that they should strive to do the best that they can do when they do something.  I don't go as far as making them study until they go to sleep, we do go to movies as a family and play games, but if they need to get some work done, that is expected to come first, regardless if they "don't want to" or not.