We're human, therefore we're social. It's part of our composition. Does that mean that we naturally seek out others for collaboration? Based on EDUC8440 we'd reminisce about hunting and gathering, agriculture, and industrial ages. It seems that as a species we were much more collaborative earlier on than once we hit the industrial age. Interesting that the assembly line, where one's role was intricately dependent on the person standing before them, was the beginning of an independent streak that we're now trying to undo in our attempt to fight the bigger, nastier problems of today. Rheingold (2005) followed this thought process and acknowledged the importance of collective action in his talk, "Howard Rheingold on collaboration". I agree with Rheingold that we need collaboration, that we need human interaction, but I disagree that evolution has sped up. In our short time in this life, who are we make such an assumptions? Maybe the rapid development of a tool upon its discovery is the evolutionary norm, it's difficult to tell. With technological development, my greatest concern is that we develop and implement without a plan, without consideration of consequence, without thinking about the next step. I hope at some point we slow down upon development of a tool and think through consequences before implementation.
Rheingold (2005). Howard Rheingold on collaboration. Ted. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html
Jodie,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that with our increases in technology we tend to move forward without truly researching the issue. Not to point out something that has been a thorn recently, but look at BP. Initial efforts to stop the oil leakage resulted in many blunders and solutions that did not work. If the leaders at BP had examined the solutions presented, it may not have taken the 80+ days to stop the leak. Understand, this is an assumption, however, it follows the example provided.
To move from this, the increases in technology have given us opportunities to evaluate the methods of delivery in the classroom and we are now seeing that we can look at different ideas and marry them to make a difference.