I believe that humans definitely have an inclination to group together. One only has to look at the cliques that form in middle school to discover that people do group together and very often there is a heirarchy among the groups. In my opinion, people with a common goal tend to group together. Perhaps these groups form to create a synergistic effect in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In Rheingold’s video, he makes reference to the need for hunters to group together in order to be successful. I feel that this need to group is innate and can be traced back through evolution to the days in which grouping was an absolute necessity to survive. I also believe that people tend to group together in order to gain acceptance and to share common interests. If you have ever seen a really good movie but had no one to share that experience with, then the experience itself looses its value to an extent.
Technology can definitely foster collaboration among people. Look at the popularity of facebook for example. If I need to talk to any of my co-workers over the weekend or after hours about something work related, I chat with them on facebook. Learning can also be collaborative through the use of technology. For instance, with my 7th graders we do an at home lab in which students need to post their data on Google Docs. By the time they are through, students have 130 sets of data to work with instead of just their own. Additionally, sites such as http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/ allow learners worldwide to post real time data regarding the migration of butterflies. Blogs such as this can also serve to be collaborative as well.
Your statement, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts", sums up what I wrote about in my blog. People tend to group together when they need something accomplished and they are drawn to those people that are strong in the areas that they are weak. Cliques in middle schools are a good example of people naturally grouping together. I even see this in elementary school. These groups are furthered through using the technology of text messaging and social networking sites. People naturally look for people that they can bond with. Technology allows people to bond all around the world. The internet, email, and programs like Skype easily allow people to bond and collaborate, no matter what their location or time zone.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about students grouping together in cliques. Students tend to group together in high school as well. They will group together based multiple reasons such as common interests or locality. Several students may belong to the same church or live in the same neighborhood. As for technology, most of the high school students tend to have facebook as well. I have not personally tried facebook; however, I know many people who have a facebook page. Since I am not familiar with the use of facebook, why is using facebook better than just emailing someone? Isn't it basically the same process? I do know that technology does provide more opportunity for grouping and with a larger range of people.
ReplyDeleteyou can chat on facebook as well as email
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