Discussion: Many beneficial elements of face-to-face collaboration may never be replaced by any technology, but the pressing need to convene distributed teams, cohorts and individuals to collectively explore ideas and resolve complex challenges has inspired the development of scores of networked collaboration technologies. At first glance it might seem infeasible to collapse such systems into a handheld form factor, but we have to remember that one of the original and still-most-effective networked collaboration applications is the teleconference.
523 Inspiration: The accessibility potentials of emerging Mobile Collaboration technologies, both live and asynchronous, is the driver for a global transformation involving telecommuting and distributed work of all kinds. Building on decades of innovation in web collaboration tools, Mobile Collaboration within education is an exciting new frontier, brought closer rapidly by the recent pandemic. Most offices may never go back to the ‘old normal’, so what about classrooms and learning more generally?
I been working with some “home school” students who are learning through a platform/company called “Self Design”. They come to me for some hands on Art and ADST work in ceramics and I am impressed with how the parents and children are able to design their curriculum. I’m starting to imagine what we might do with empty schools as learning becomes more and more mobile. Will they become learning hubs? A place to connect and visit (like a public library) or will they be maintained for hands or group projects? There are so many possibilities, yet some scary alternatives where learners might fall through the cracks. How will we mindfully keep as many options for learning available to all as possible?
As a sport coach, mobile collaboration platforms are becoming critical in the effective running of a team: changing gym schedules, arranging rides to and from games, players letting the coach know if they will be missing a practice or late, are far easier to manage with apps like TeamSnap, TeamLinkt, Remind, and many others. While sometimes I feel overloaded by the different apps in use by the various collaborative groups I belong to, when I imagine that all messages and communication would come through a single portal, that seems a whole lot worse. At the least, the various platforms allow me to compartmentalize the incoming information.
The various collaborative projects I have worked on for this program have been so much more efficient and rewarding with the ability to see, hear, and work with my teammates. Adding the ability to take this work with us on a mobile platform is even more powerful; finishing up the details of a project this summer while I was on the veranda of a Thetis Island cabin was awesome.
I’ve actually had to silence the notifications from TeamSnap, as the hockey parents are such prolific communicators. I love that it is a separate location that I can move in and out of and that I have control of when I engage. I find that it does require much self-regulation skill to move between multiple apps for information, while trying not to get sucked into constant data flows. I find TikTok particularly bad for this, but had students create awesome educational videos for their peers on this platform.
Mobile collaboration has dissolved the boundaries between formal and informal spaces of learning. This lack of boundaries in learning could open up more honest and vulnerable spaces, which I am unsure if it’s beneficial as it can go in both directions. Additionally, mobile collaboration has brought learners closer, closing the distance, location and timezone barriers to diversifying the students.
While at the pool this morning for my swim, one of the ladies there gave me a pamphlet for her massage therapy classes that she is doing via Zoom. She even commented that she didn’t think that she would ever go back to a traditional classroom. I have been looking into getting a Yoga certification, and there are many that offer online courses, but I am reluctant with the hands on things like yoga and massage that should require some kind of in-person learning to correct positions, and pressure etc. While I can see the benefits of mobile collaboration, I do still see a need for face to face for the moment.
I get this feed back at my pottery studio all the time. Students will watch lots of YouTube videos and pick up skills and ideas that way, but they still like the hands on learning of having an instructor with them in the space. Some preferences seem to be ingrained in the learner, and others in the medium.