networked learning

Today in ED4134 we have invited people to join our blog and make contributions about social constructivism and ICT. What would it have been like if last night we decided to all hop on the internet at our homes and linked up via some IM tool to do this?

It would have been a bit crazy, as IM discussions can be very tricky, especially when lots of people are involved. IMing is not like talking, where communication is directed and facilitated by the use of tone, volume and other nuances in verbal communication, not to mention the physical cues if talking with people face to face. There is no such thing as interruption in IMing, and it is easy for a lag to develop between msgs if one person is distracted, or if one person types two or more msgs in quick succession.

However, with a bit of co-operation it would be possible for the group to achieve this networked learning. In fact i think it may have worked a bit better than just inviting the ppl sitting next to you as we did today because if everyone shared their e-mail addresses by IM then everyone could copy and paste the addresses into their blog and then everyone would be connected with everyone else.

With a network this large you could get a lot more done! (this would be JACKPOT!) So, instead of a class working in pairs or small groups and writing one posting in someone else's blog, you could have different groups working on several different things, and then each group sharing with each other group. The learning occurs when the blog owners read their new postings from their classmates and reply to it, perhaps asking questions or sharing a new way of understanding the info.