Jan. 18 -- Cooperation vs Collaboration

This is a wonderful piece first posted in Edutopia and later in cm duke's EdTechatouille. It sure knocks the stuffing out of 1980's style "co-operative learning" and puts a huge emphasis on partnership which is rare and truly to be savoured when it comes into your life. Here are the key characteristics of collaboration as summed up by cmduke:

* If you could accomplish the work by yourself, you’re cooperating, not collaborating. Many hands are making light work, but that is not collaboration.
* To collaborate you must “accept every offer” and “make your partners look good.”
* Collaborators are "interested" rather than being "interesting."
* Collaboration is reciprocal: your ideas are shaped by the ideas of others and theirs by yours, so your ideas have to be communicated in a way that others can truly understand and appreciate them.

Perhaps one of the greatest things we have to teach and model for our students in this day of instant everything is how to forge true partnerships. How powerful a life lesson is that to leave them with!