Learning, Unlearning, and Relearning - E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning - page 305

versy, debate, and negotiation on their thinking and
learning (Glaser, 1991)—again, all skills needed
to be effective lifelong learners. Additionally,
participating in social networks can help students
learn how to ask questions based on personal
knowledge deficits and formulate learning goals
to address those deficits. If students can learn to
ask questions to guide their knowledge building,
and are encouraged to do so—thus assuming
more control and ownership over their learning
activities (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991)—stu-
dents are more likely to take ownership of learning
activities, find personal relevance during learning
activities, and cultivate a lifelong-learning dispo-
sition (Dunlap & Grabinger, 2003). These skills
will also help students to be wiser consumers of
online information, and—in general—more ef-
fective users of Web 2.0 technologies to support
their lifelong learning.

and, ultimately, lifelong learning. Educators can
enable and promote dialogue and collaboration
by involving students in:

• Problem analysis, hypothesis formulation,

and solutions brainstorming;

• Debate and argumentation to test and chal-

lenge each other's knowledge and learning;

• Teaching each other;

• The negotiation of meaning;

• Small group problem solving and projects;

and

• Peer evaluation and review.

Luckily, there are a number of Web 2.0 tech-
nologies that educators can use to support this sort
of dialogue and collaboration, such as document
co-creation tools (e.g., Google Docs) and resource
sharing tools (e.g., Flickr, Slideshare, Diigo).

Supporting Dialogue
and Collaboration with
Document Co-Creation and
Resource Sharing Tools

Document Co-Creation

Many of us have to collaborate and co-create
products day-to-day in our jobs, often with people
in different geographic locations. Collaboration
and co-creation is no longer an option but more
of an imperative in the world we live in today.
Unfortunately, we often assume that students
know how to collaborate and co-create, activi-
ties that require self-directed learning skills and
metacognitive awareness; but in our experience
many do not. In the past, to collaborate and co-
create, we might begin with a meeting or two to
discuss the project and brainstorm and then once
we began to co-create, we would send different
versions of a Microsoft Word document back and
forth to our colleagues using track changes or the
commenting tool. This should sound familiar. In
fact, many people still work this way. However,
this is often not the most effective or efficient way
to collaborate and co-create—especially when
more than two people are working on a project
at the same time.

Another key strategy to use when providing
students opportunities to develop an overall dis-
position toward lifelong learning is to encourage
dialogue and collaboration. Through dialogue
and collaborative work, students experience and
develop an appreciation for multiple perspectives;
refine their knowledge through argumentation,
structured controversy, and the sharing of ideas and
perspectives; learn to use colleagues as resources;
and are more willing to take on the risk required to
tackle complex, ill-structured problems (Dunlap &
Grabinger, 2003). Collaboration elevates thinking,
learning, and problem solving to an observable sta-
tus (Glaser, 1991; Von Wright, 1992), which then
enables learners to receive feedback and to reflect
on their learning, and cognitive and metacogni-
tive processes; collaboration, therefore, helps
students develop their metacognitive awareness
so they can better engage in self-directed learning