Collaborative Learning in a Global World

The 21st century has brought about changes in every aspect of life through ubiquitous technology and Internet-based social media. The distances between cultures and continents have narrowed, the world has become flatter, and multicultural, international work-teams have become a daily reality in global businesses. In spite of the power of Web 2.0 platforms to help people create and share information online, the impact of online collaboration tools and practices is not yet widespread in education in general and in higher education specifically. To better prepare students for the information age, researchers and policy makers are beginning to reach an agreement about the skills needed for shared knowledge construction that is ubiquitous in online collaborative learning. Indeed, the education systems in several different countries have begun to integrate these skills into teaching and learning and are beginning to place emphasis on their implementation. For example, in 2015 the OECD PISA exam included assessment of collaborative problem-solving in its country-by-country comparisons for the first time. Collaborative teaching and learning approaches are thus gaining in popularity and an “Online Collaborative Learning” (OCL) theory has recently been developed to better reflect the skills required in the information age. However, online collaborative learning is not a trivial challenge nor is it intuitive for all teachers and learners. New tools and practices become available at a rate that outpaces the abilities of many higher-education institutions to adopt and implement, so practices in teacher education lag behind industry in using global communications technologies. This presentation will present ideas from the book “Collaborative Learning in a Global World” that surveys the current state of online collaborative learning and provides theoretical guidance and practical examples to help meet the gaps in research, development, and practice. The book presented can serve as a compendium of ideas for research faculties of education, classroom instructors, and practitioners to find rationales, ideas, and teaching approaches that support collaborative learning in a global context. The writers of the book will discuss main issues aroused while writing and working on this subject.