This week you will continue working on your project according to your timeline.  Be sure to remember to reflect about what you are learning, doing, accomplishing. I do not require a great deal - can be stream of consciousness - but you need to reflect weekly in your wiki.  We will NOT be meeting on Wednesday but please use this time if you need to meet with others in your team.  You will also be responsible for reading and synthesizing Brain Rule #2: Brain Evolution.

• Week 11 Materials - this page, Brain Rule#2 and any research you may need to conduct based on your client's needs.
  

The actions you need to complete this week as well as directions for each activity follow.

Read Brain Rule #2. The brain evolved too.

The  real takeaway from this chapter is the power of collaboration - not only in learning, but also in the very survival of humans as a species. This is really an important topic for those who are involved in online learning. In every semester, in classes which have collaborative activities and group activities, some students have really positive experiences that build relationships with others which are maintained far after graduation. The exciting thing about this is that often students become friends although they will never meet in person. Often, students build relationships with others in far away locations and find a commonality of experiences and ideas that are enhanced by collaborative activities.  Team collaboration can, simply put, be magical.

Sadly, in every semester, we find that some students have very negative experiences with collaborative learners that can create a shadow over online learning. Indeed, more than once, students have decided to drop the program because these experiences are so negative. When others in the collaborative team do not respond, fail to meet deadlines, become pests by sending elaborate emails several times a day, or produce inferior work, the experience can become extremely negative. Students who are high achievers are often stressed by collaborative work because they must share responsibility and rely on others - hoping that other team members perform to the highest standards.

All around, this does not sound very enticing.  So, why do instructors continue to require collaboration in courses?  The simplest answer is that collaborative learning, when it works, works incredibly well. After reading the chapter on Brain Rule #2, you can get an idea of why collaborative learning is so powerful.  Take a look at the videos below to see a teacher who uses collaborative learning in a middle school with positive results.  The three video series details how a group of people gathered together to create an even more effective collaborative learning environment in one short weekend.

Granted, this was not an online class.  Or online instruction.  But, it is a good indication of how important collaboration is in learning.  Yet, collaboration is a relatively new phenomena in distance education with little research on how to build collaboration online effectively. Take the time to think about your best experience in online collaboration. What made it effective or positive?  Now, think about your worst experience in online collaboration. What made it a negative experience?  Now comes the hard part.  You are now the designer of the collaborative project - the one that was a horrible experience.  What would YOU do to turn it into a positive experience?  

Reflecting on your positive and negative experiences will help you make design decisions in the future that will improve the instruction you develop.  Reflecting will also enable you to explain your design decisions to your clients and help them to understand your recommendations.