Cocreativity 2.0

I think collaboration is hard-wired in humans. As social creatures, we cannot exist completely on our own; collaboration and working together is how we have survived as a species. I greatly enjoyed reading Dana Ouellette‘s blog on collaboration in academic libraries, which I found to be a good reminder of what collaboration 0.0 is–collaboration  outside of the 2.0 virtual world.

Collaboration has always been necessary to accomplish tasks or goals, whether it be hunting for dinner, building a barn, or making a wiki. But, as any student who has had to work on a group project knows, collaboration is not always easy. We’ve all been in those group projects where someone doesn’t pull their weight, and everyone else has to pick up the slack. I often wonder if that stems from a lack of interest and connectivity on the part of that person, or perhaps because the person was not sufficiently engaged and excited by the learning experience. Or they were just a selfish s.o.b., but I prefer to give people a little more credit than that–even the ones that leave me hanging (though perhaps this is a sign of a larger personality flaw on my part). When collaboration is not connected with creativity, but rather with rigorous goals which just aren’t fun, some people disengage and check out.

That’s why I found Sir Ken Robinson’s talk on Collaboration in the 21st Century to be so exciting. I saw Robinson’s TED talk on “Do Schools Kill Creativity” last year, and found it incredibly eye-opening and stimulating. Kids in schools (in America, specifically) are not being taught to collaborate, rather they are learning how to be mindless vessels for information, if that. Without encouraging creativity and imaginative thinking, how can we collaborate effectively? Collaboration is useful because multiple people or entities come together to create something one person could not have created on their own effectively. As  M. Shrage wrote, “the true medium of collaboration is other people.” I find the value of collaboration in the discourse it engenders. Conversations, bouncing ideas off of each other, figuring out which ideas suck and which ones have value….this is the purpose and strength of collaboration. I can’t always see all of the holes If people are the medium, then innovation is the finished work. Robinsoin says at one point, “if you’re interested in innovation, you have to cultivate your imagination…creativity is a step up from imaginative.” I like how Robinson looked at creativity and collaboration systematically, addressing collaboration as an “operating principle,” and looking at creativity as “the process of having original ideas that have value.”

Dean posted some questions about collaboration to us in Module III of LIBR559M, and I thought I’d tackle a few of them here:

Developing a collaborative spirit and skills – how will you learn them?

I think developing a collaborative spirit begins in childhood, in play-learn environments which foster team-building and inquisitive thinking.  Which is why Robinson’s TED talk about how schools kill creativity is so gut-wrenching. Because if kids are not being encouraged to develop these critical thinking skills in childhood, many will not have the framework to really delve into collaborative enterprises later on. This is a generalization, of course, but if you grow up abhorring learning, or even just being disinterested, because you equate it with the life-suckingness of school, then you’re not  primed to collaborate effectively.

Collaboration skills:

1. articulating ideas as they form

2. accepting that there is not “one right answer”

this is especially relevant, because so much of the 4-12 educational system [in the US] focuses on standardized tests that are dependent on the ONE right answer. By collaborating, people create the best way possible, but there’s no RIGHT bubble to fill out–it all comes from within the person; there is nothing to memorize and spew out later.

3. ability to think abstractly

4. LISTENING skills–making all parties feel heard

-ability to pull apart other (multiple) people’s ideas for the salient components and build something new

5. The ability to work smarter, not harder

6. and then the social media component!

which leads to…

How can you use communication technologies to promote collaboration?

7. Collaborating effectively in the 21st century means taking advantage of the collaborative platforms now available! Skype! Google Docs! Wikis (though, as my group works on our wiki for LIBR559M, I realize those things are hella complicated)! These social media technologies make collaboration global, efficient, and affordable. People on opposite ends of the country or continent can collaborate on projects which would not have been possible even five years ago. Just a few months ago I was working on creating a meta-finding aid for researchers online, and the web-designer was in Toronto when I was in Vancouver. Through Skype and e-mail we were able to collaborate and work together to create the necessary documents. It was awesome.

 

And…scene!