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This is totally applicable to educational settings: both for teachers and administration work to facilitate the school year and the teachers and students who are working through the curricular content and competencies.

The content of the podcast reminds me of a New Yorker article that notes: "Brainstorming didn’t unleash the potential of the group, but rather made each individual less creative. Although the findings did nothing to hurt brainstorming’s popularity, numerous follow-up studies have come to the same conclusion. Keith Sawyer, a psychologist at Washington University, has summarized the science: 'Decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas.'" (from Groupthink by Jonah Lehrer - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/30/groupthink)

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Really collaboration works best when the group organically forms some sort of balance where everyones ideas and questions are valued and taken into consideration.  As the podcast suggests we need time away from the group to digest and come back with how to best approach the project.  As we are doing in our MET courses we are constantly collaborating on projects and learning how to form that equilibrium within a group.  It's "bad" when that balance is not found and group members cannot function as a unit to complete the task.

-Nate

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An important element when it comes to working with others is the personality of the individuals. Personalities will impact if a group is motivated to work collaboratively. Interestingly, John D. Mayer's book Personal Intelligence was based on his study of individuals personalities for years. He is developing a test to let people measure and better understand their own personal intelligence. The results of this test could steer people into or away for certain collaboration situations. However, shouldn't we be teaching learners to be resilient and adapt to different scenarios and not to pick a group based on a personality test?
The Science of Reading Your Coworkers' Personalities
~Mary

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Wikipedia works because of the sheer volume of collaboration. I'll start with a metaphor. A stream becomes a river because trillions of molecules of water moving in the same general way act upon the earth and carve the river further down. Many contributors refine popular topics on Wikipedia, all of whom are continually updating and correcting information; a sort of 'informal moderating.' Wikipedia was less reliable in its early days due to fewer contributors, and this remains a problem for obscure topics. The original aims of Wikipedia's founder to remain neutral on topics has somehow prevailed, perhaps against all the odds. But when you have contributors from a global audience, poor quality or inaccurate information is flagged, questioned and culled.

-Neil

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I enjoyed this podcast and one of its main messages: don't mistake collaboration for disruption. We all reach a saturation point for how many times we can be disrupted, and now that's not just happening in the work environment, but in our private and public lives as well. I like the narrator's advice to be interrupted when you're available. Knowing when to make yourself available and when you're available for disruption is definitely a learned skill but not always something that's taken well by others! However, I do know that in my personal experience it's in those moments that I make myself "unavailable" in a sense that I am far more creative and open to solving problems. For me, the big takeaway from this podcast is that it doesn't necessarily mean we have to be less communicative or collaborative if we're not physically present, just that the dynamics shift and potentially open ourselves up to new possibilities if we reframe how we're available and in what contexts.
- Paige

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I agree that the results of this test could potentially steer people away from diversity and inclusiveness and that students need to learn to work with other people who have differing opinions. I think disagreement and divisiveness are important pillars for learning, and being open to debate and critical thinking are skills that develop over time. These are also key parts of collaboration, because not everyone who collaborates will always agree. We are motivated to collaborate when we have a common goal, yet can be easily de-motivated when there is too much tension.

My interpretation of the article was that the personality test could be used to help people relate to others and learn to manage personality types in ways that benefit mutual collaboration: "One thing Mayer’s research has shown is that people who are able to better understand and react to people’s personalities tend to be happier in the workplace." This is an interesting concept, and I agree there needs to be some education around any kind of test or tool that is used to help people relate to other personalities.

Just as learning styles may have its limitations, so too can any kind of test. It's the interpretation and application of these tests that shape the outcome of our experiences.

Thanks,
Paige

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Can we really organically collaborate anymore?

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Can we really organically collaborate anymore?

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I found this podcast interesting and   enjoyed the ideas it lent itself to.  I was left wondering if we can actually collaborate anymore, in typical settings such as offices or schools?  With all the constant notifications, communication distractions, or the push to keep up with the newest technology , do we really have any authentic time to honor the true meaning of collaboration? At about 5:19 into the podcast there is talk about Lennon and McCartney collaborating with lyrics and guitar strings, the comment is made that people in that time had more time to collaborate and that is where a lot the great ideas came from.

Collaboration is a very useful and effective idea if done correctly. It makes me think of the many times during staff meetings where your group is supposed to collaborate about a topic, and they sit around off topic and then quickly rush to get something down on paper for the principal.
-Sabrina

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Aside from all the great stuff Neil has mentioned, Wikipedia also works because of its user friendly and easy to use formatting.  It's contributors are also very diverse, and so additions and negations to content will be constantly peer reviewed.

Here's an interesting Youtube video about how one professor used Wikis in his class. - Paul

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Jon Beasley-Murray on teaching with Wikipedia

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Dr. Jon Beasley-Murray, Assistant Professor in Latin American Studies, UBC. Coordinated the educational project Murder, Madness, and Mayhem. In one semester they promoted three articles to Featured Article status, eight to Good Article status, and one to B-Class status.

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I found this podcast very interesting and one of the points that stood out to me was the idea that collaboration does not necessarily mean everyone needs to be in the same location. The example mentioned in the podcast was Wikipedia. The contributors are collaborating on the same resource at their own time. They do not hold meetings beforehand to discuss about how they should collaborate. I think we should consider this model before scheduling meetings. In the ETEC program, we are always working collaboratively with our peers on projects. Based on the experience of the 6 courses I have taken so far, I find we are most efficient when tasks are allocated to each individual person and we go off and complete our parts individually. I've had experiences where we tried to collaboratively write something together while everyone is on Skype together but it took hours to just write a paragraph. I feel that meetings are most productive after the group members have completed their own parts and then we come together to discuss, revise, and improve each other's work. - Jenny