A couple of unrelated acronyms here.  However, reading two separate articles- one about a free online university and the other about a the new methods of research and development seem to be singing the praises of collaborative learning and creating.

Collaboration in learning- students learning from one another may be the wave of the future. P2P U is just the beginning.  R & D in business and education was often confined to each corporation’s or university’s research center.  These centers were often in competition with each other.

In the world today, research centers need to collaborate to survive.  It began with Tim Berners-Lee and the first web browser in 1990.  He wanted to make sure that research documents could be shared easily and linked to similar documents.  Hypertext markup language was then created. It continued with the expansion of the Web and the vast content of knowledge that it exposed to the world. Then that knowledge was combined in technology such as WIKIs and products like Wikipedia.  It is continuing with the social online networks of today that foster learning and sharing. The technology that allows FaceBook, Wikipedia, Twitter, YouTube, etc. is essentially the same and has been around for 15 years.  It proves, that it is not really the technology that has changed but the culture around that technology.  The college students and young entrepreneurs who have developed these new online social networks have used collaboration, both human and digital to create their products and earn their fortunes.

I don’t think we actually realize how vastly the culture has shifted.  It is affecting the human community on every level.  We are witnessing something quite amazing.  We need to provide the tools to those in this world who are isolated and deprived.  That is why programs like the XO laptop and Give One Get One program are so important.

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