Learning is Inherently Social

My experience with online communities has grown steadily over the past few years. It started simply enough with my teenage daughter encouraging me to start a Facebook account (of course, she refused to be my friend on Facebook at first). A colleague suggested using LinkedIn when I was looking for a new job and I have found that to be a valuable professional networking resource. Since starting at my current job as administrator for a virtual charter school, I have been inextricably linked to the online school community. And since starting the M Ed in Instruction Technology program at Cardinal Stritch University, I have expanded by online community repertoire to include forays into Twitter, Diggo, Delicious, Flickr, YouTube and Blogger. 


I believe the biggest benefit of collaborative groups is that it reflects the social nature of life. Human beings are naturally social animals. Even in today's increasingly digital, connected society, human interaction is required and inevitable. The traditional school model may have students together in a classroom, but the paradigm is for them to sit quietly at their own desk, listen to the teacher, read the textbook on your own, do their own homework (which is usually only viewed by the teacher), then take a test on which each student supplies their own answers. That is completely unnatural. I can't think of a single work environment that operates that way. So how does learning that way prepare students for what they will encounter after graduation? 


The greatest challenge about working in collaborative groups is conflict resolution. Every person is unique, so by it's very nature, group interaction is bound to involve conflict. Conflict of opinion, conflict of background/experience, conflict of culture... all kinds of conflict. The question is what do we do about it? Conflict actually can be healthy as it can lead to discussion and debate and encourage group members to examine a problem or situation from a variety of viewpoints. But it can also be destructive if group members are unable or unwilling to cooperate and compromise.


If human beings are indeed social animals and learning is inherently a social activity, then it stands to reason that social development and socialization skills are essential in education and in life. However, I take serious issue with the widely held belief that students need to go to traditional face to face schools in order to learn socialization skills. If that were true, where did young people learn social skills before there were schools? Just as learning does not take place exclusively in the classroom, neither does the development of social skills. And just because a student does not attend a traditional face to face school does not necessarily mean they can't develop good, healthy social skills. Many parents object to the kind of socialization skills children can learn in traditional schools and embrace the opportunity to exercise a greater degree of influence over the kinds of social situations to which their children are exposed.