In class on Tuesday we watched a video and read an article considering the ideas of collaboration and idea generation. I found their claims interesting and very valid. I have found in my educational past that the better ideas and higher quality projects have been a result of group collaboration. Bringing together several students with different talents and different ideas has proved very helpful, granted the group can work together with harmony and make the best of each member's talents. It coincides with the idea of synergy, which I learned about in a class last fall. The concept essentially is explained by the equation 1+1=3. The premise is that when two or more people collaborate to complete some task, then result is greater and more effective than the total if the same amount of individuals did the same task independently. This is likely in part due to the concept of idea collaboration which Steven Johnson considered in his video, Where Good Ideas Come From (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NugRZGDbPFU). He argues that a vital step in the development of good ideas is collaboration and bouncing smaller ideas off one another to combine and build them up.
It will be important in my future classroom to facilitate this type of group collaboration, not only to help students see the benefits and potential of it, but to help them to develop the interpersonal skills involved with teamwork in their future career fields. One way to help students see the benefits of collaboration is to ask thought questions in class, and have students independently attempt to answer the question. Then I will have them gather into small groups and discuss the question, and eventually share their ideas with the class. This will illustrate the evolution of "the idea" from individual, simple ideas, to the more complex, developed, thorough thoughts that arise from group discussion. Other simple ideas would include combinations of group and individual projects and quizzes.
Exactly! Great reflections, Brett.
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