Collaboration Age

 I took some time and read "World without Walls: Learning Well with Others" written by Will Richardson. Basically, Richardson is talking about how modern communication technology has changed the whole way people learn. He refers to it as "The Collaboration Age." In the past, we collaborated generally with people that were local or on site but today in an instant you can be working with or learning from someone that lives on the other side of the world. He touches on some positives and a few pitfalls that this shift in learning has created but leaves us with a call to action for teachers to embrace the changes and strive to implement more technology into the classroom.

I have to share Richardson's opinion that connecting technologies have transformed the way we learn. I also believe that students being able to seek out rewarding learning experiences easily from the comfort of their own homes is a great thing. Free online college programs, forums, online groups, etc have allowed people to gain valuable opportunities to learn. I agree with Richardson that educators need to embrace this shift in education and introduce their students to all that is available to them online. I wasn't really shocked to read that a college student in Canada faced expulsion because he set up a group to with his classmates to share notes and ideas, as a lot of education institutions are still not sure what to accept when it comes to the utilization of online resources.  I can only imagine how this paradigm shift will affect the way I learn and teach my class in the future but it's my responsibility to keep up to date with it and provide my students with the best learning experience possible.