This blog post is in response to watching the “Howard Rheingold: Way-New Collaboration” video at: www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
In this video, Rheingold discusses the ways people use participatory media and collective action to collaborate.
I do believe humans have a basic instinct to interact and work together as a group. As the social creatures that we are, and with the creation of capitalism, according to Rheingold, cooperative arrangements and enabling technologies have helped solve two “social dilemmas.” The first social dilemma called the “prisoner’s dilemma” was solved by EBay. It turned the dilemma into an assurance game, showing that if trust can be proven, others will cooperate. The second social dilemma called the “tragedy of common goods” was solved by Wikipedia, by the thousands of volunteers who have created this institution for collective action.
Technology can facilitate collaboration among learners based on constructivist principles by enhancing the learners’ ability to think about learning; make connections to prior knowledge through virtual reality, various media, and artificial intelligence; and construct new knowledge through hands-on activities. Open-source is one particular new form of technology, promoting a new sense of cooperation and wealth that is significantly different from previous ones. I am ready to help get Rheingold’s transdisciplinary study of cooperation project started and continue this new-way of collaboration!
Related Resources:
http://www.rheingold.com/
http://www.smartmobs.com/
Very good post LeAnn! I couldn't have said it better. Being able to continue in the trans disciplinary study of cooperation is one of the many reason Walden is in existence and why we are here at this point. Well said!
ReplyDeleteI could not agree with you more. Like most primates we are truly social creatures. Over thousands of years our very survival as a species has depended upon community structures. From early days as hunter gathers employing cooperative hunting and gathering methods to our transition to agrarian dependence on farmers to today’s complex global interdependence we have always relied on others to live. While the success of electronic communities maybe a natural outgrowth of our social nature I am not so sure I do not agree with Rheingold that the “tragedy of the commons” was necessarily solved by the likes of Wikipedia. Technology maybe the solution to many global ecological crises, but it has also been the cause. Many scientists working in ecological fields see the collapse of some ecosystems such as rainforests or natural fisheries as imminent. Incredibly efficient harvesting methods of fishing, lumbering, and agriculture all play a part here. Global climate change is a reality and significant action, either individually or collectively, has yet to be taken to change the habits and technology, which have contributed to this troubling issue. (Believe it or not the notion of climate change was developed and studied by several scientists in the 1880s). While Rheingold feels Garret Harden was being gloomy in predicting that humans would always desecrate any commons he was probably being more a realist and was merely observing and reporting on what was actually happening. The reality of the ecological bad news that many scientists bring is often diluted, dispelled, or muted by political and economic forces. I most definitely agree that technology has fostered collaboration and dissemination of information that has helped alleviate numerous issues around the world. It is a powerful tool for positive change, but the mere creation and production of technology, let alone its uses, maybe exacting a massive toll on our planet. Hopefully our instinct to interact and cooperate can lead us beyond these issues just as it is transforming how and what we teach to our future leaders.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.peak-oil-news.info/global-ecosystem-collapse-wwf-report/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6077798.stm
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/timeline.htm
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/simple.htm#L_M018
Nice job LeAnn! A very short and concise post that outlines the video and your thoughts. I agree!!!
ReplyDelete