Reflection, Conversation, Co-Learning
Image by Suus Wansink
When a cohort of learners, who may or may not meet face to face, move through the same material on the same schedule. their blogging and commenting offers individual learners opportunities to learn more about the material by reflecting publicly about what the material means to them. There are lots of ways to do this. I like (and have adapted) Gardner Campbell's "nuggets" assignment for course-bloggers who aren't sure where to begin with reflection. (And when I looked for a good example of a blogging nugget that exemplifies public reflective learning, of course I immediately came across "As we may nugget.")
Image by AnanthBS
Reflecting on texts is a path to understanding by an individual learner, but when a group of learners reflect in public, they provide a rich field for conversations about the material. Debates. Conjectures. Contrapositives. Analysis. Conversations can lead to co-learning, when other elements -- trust, shared purpose, fun, reciprocity, serendipity, lead learners, skilled facilitation -- combine to influence groups of learners to be co-responsible for each other's learning. And co-learning over time can grow into learning communities.
Image by Lili Olivares
The best courses, from small face-to-face seminars to massive online cohorts, come to life when groups of learners come to know and trust each other enough to co-learn. I have some expertise in a particular aspect of our mutual interest to offer. Others provide to me kinds of expertise that I don't have. When I know what would interest you, I send it your way. In 1987, I wrote almost exactly the same thing as I'm saying now:
If, in my wanderings through information space, l come across items that don't interest me but which I know one of my group of online friends appreciate, I send the appropriate friend a pointer to the key datum or discussion. This social contract requires one to give something, and enables one to receive something. I have to keep my friends in mind and send them pointers instead of throwing my informational discards into the virtual scrap-heap. It doesn't take a great deal of energy to do that, since I have to sift that information anyway in order to find the knowledge I seek for my own purposes. And with twenty other people who have an eye out for my interests while they explore sectors of the information space that I normally wouldn't frequent, I find that the help I receive far outweighs the energy I expend helping others: A perfect fit of altruism and self-interest.
I can see now that in my 1987 description of what I now recognize as co-learning communities, I left out one of the essential elements -- not just exchanging and gifting bits of information, but striving to make sense of the material together. That's what I try to encourage my students to do, and it's been a way of life for me nearly thirty years.
