Abstract:

When learning involves the assistance of another, it is by nature collaborative. Learning collaboratively enriches and enlarges those involved. It lessens feelings of isolation and provides an ideal opportunity to remove gender, culture, and racial bias from the educational experience.  There are ambitious, ongoing efforts to provide the world’s static repository of knowledge online for free and tools are available for people to publish new knowledge as it is created. This position paper addresses learning that requires or is improved with the assistance of others. Existing educational models of instruction are too costly and inefficient to bridge educational gaps that exist throughout the world. This paper explores issues in leveraging technology to harness what each of us knows to facilitate learning without regards to borders.