Final+Report+personal+opinion

PPEL - Final Report Transparency in education is one of the concepts that I have learned during the course and that seems very important to validate online learning. Being able to watch others to learn, as [|Siemens (2009)] said - //Watching others learn is an act of learning//. The Web 2.0, with the use of several tools available online, allows that the process of sharing becomes a reality, with quality and speed.  Transparency means that we can have insight into each other’s work, thoughts, and productions. Students might work at a distance and individually, and, thus, they are not necessarily aware of the activities of other students. In their individual work, however, students write notes, search for literature, find relevant websites, write assignments, etc. This information and these products are relevant to other students.  Social networking sites do not necessarily involve communication, dialogue or collaboration. Instead, the paper will argue, transparency is a dominating feature. An interesting aspect of social interaction in social networking sites is that the starting point is the individual or personal. This is in opposition to discussion forums, in which communication always takes place in a shared forum. In a social networking site each individual has a personal page and profile, which the individual develops and modifies. Other people can view these pages and follow activities of their”friends”. In other words, actions within a social networking site are transparent. This creates a kind of indirect or “passive” form of communication and sharing. In opposition to discussion forums, people do not necessarily send messages or documents in order to communicate or share. Instead, they update their profile, add pictures or texts, etc. to their own page.  [|Cooperative Learning Requires Transparency] (**Christian Dalsgaard and Morten Flate Paulsen**

 Cooperative learning and a socio-cultural approach provide a strong motive for support of transparency between students. A cornerstone in cooperative online education is that cooperation should be voluntary, but attractive and appealing. It should be offered as an appealing opportunity to those who seek cooperation. The challenge is therefore primarily to help those who are interested in cooperation to engage in a network of suitable learning partners. In addition it is necessary to stimulate the rest of the students to contribute to the learning community. This means that students should not be encouraged or tempted to withdraw from the learning community. Total seclusion is undesirable. Students should be stimulated to be visible as potential partners and resources for others. Transparent information could be a huge cooperative resource. The dilemma is that students who do not contribute to the community cannot be perceived as learning resources for others. The potential of the learning community will then be diluted. So one may argue that a successful cooperative learning community may depend on a mutual understanding that the members have a commitment to serve as a resource for the learning community. There are many interesting presentations in youtube that clarify the idea of sharing but always connected with transparency: media type="youtube" key="emeApKvbQ0o" height="385" width="480"