Cooperative Freedom -

- An Annotated Bibliography...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVXtbLg5ycE

• Paulsen, M. F., 2008, Cooperative Online Education. Seminar.net, Vol. 4, No. 2.

A very “real” and up-to-date article, for it shows graphics regarding the popularity of cooperative online education among students as well as other resourceful illustrations on individual, cooperative and collaborative environments, namely regarding the question of flexibility and others. It starts by saying: “Cooperative learning seeks to develop virtual learning environments that allow students to have optimal individual freedom within online learning communities”. To introduce the topic it starts by doing a brief background information on cooperative online education and it refers to have been built under the scope of The Theory of Cooperative Freedom, by prof. Morten Flate Paulsen, who is also the author of the article in question. Bearing this in mind, Prof. Morten Flate Paulsen makes reference to NKI – as well as its graphics to corroborate his version -, one of his creations, that was “developed to support cooperative freedom and transparency in a large-scale online education environment” and that “it facilitates individual freedom within a learning community in which online students serve as mutual resources without being depend on each other.” According to the article thanks to NKI, in cooperative learning, individual flexibility and freedom is center of the question and in his theory the claims that there important flexibility facets to consider, such as time, space, pace, medium, access and content and students whether they decide to work alone or with “(online)learning partners” their success is granted.

• Theory of Cooperative Freedom, MortenFP . toonlet.com
http://toonlet.com/archive?m=s&i=10870

A straightforward and “amusing” way of giving highlights – sort of a BD - on online education and the Theory of Cooperative Freedom. Its author Prof. Morten Flate Paulsen presents “a concentrated recipe” about this theory in a very concise and a joyful manner by offering the reader some of the main ideas described in the thinking of Cooperative Freedom. Through the existence of individual learning, collaborative learning and cooperative learning in online environments, students, either those who search an individual way of study or a collaborative one, or a cooperative way to achieve their aims and goals within their pace, time, content, space access and medium reach their academic success.

• Paulsen, M.F. 2003, Part One: Online Education, Teaching and Learning, Cooperative Freedom: An Online Education Theory (p. 39 – 50), Education Online.
  

A very interesting, concise and challenging article that gives us insights on The Theory Cooperative Freedom, by exposing right at the top that “the theory of cooperative freedom argues that online education can foster both freedom for the individual and group cooperation”. At first, the articles provides a sort of chronological information on Distance Education Theories, explores their content and shows some of the most preeminent writers for each theory, namely The Theories of autonomy and independence, by Moore, 1983; the Theories of Industrialization, by Peters, 1988; the Theories of Interaction and Communication, by Holmberg, 1988, and others up until nowadays with The Theory of Cooperative Freedom, by Prof. Morten Flate Paulsen. According to this more recent perspective this theory presents a solution for the tension existing between the notion of individual independence and collective cooperation that in most cases stresses students as well as their academic work. The theory depicts a scenario in which online education can give the individual freedom and the group cooperation needed, by offering the right dimension of space, pace, medium, access and content within its contexts for student to achieve individually, or in a collaborative and in a cooperative way his achievement academically. Although at first sight finding the right way to study may seem difficult to conceive and achieve for we know that while some students seek individual flexibility and freedom, others the group collaboration and social unity, this study concludes that with online education we can have the both options working side-by-side in a cooperative and flexible environment.

• Paulsen, Morten Flate et Slaatto, Torhild, 2006, NKI in Learning Partner - Opportunities for Cooperation in Distance Learning, elearningeuropa.info.
  

“NKI Distance Education facilitates individual freedom within a learning community in which online students serve as mutual resources without being dependent on each other."
A brief article on what is NKI’s premise and on what it has to offer to online learning communities. NKI’s philosophy is based on the Theory of Cooperative Freedom by Prof. Morten Flate Paulsen. NKI is innovative and through it individual freedom within the learning community is facilitated for with it online students voluntary may study wherever they are, they can also become mutual resources without being dependent on each other and it also offers them the possibility to start a course at any time of the year and always be able to follow their study progression. According to the theory, there are six facets of flexibility of high importance – time, space, medium, access and content. In order to have a worldwide cooperative learning environment online, NKI invites all students to enter a personal presentation and in the future they may become “learning partners” and help those who are feeling unmotivated and unsatisfied with the progress of their studies by working in a cooperative (online) perspective, for there are others that prefer to continue their work individually. NKI’s main goal is students’ satisfaction on online education environments.

• Millis, Barbara J.,2oo2, Enhancing Learning - and More! - Through Cooperative Learning, theideacenter.org.

An overview of cooperative learning divided in subtitles. It gives brief explanations on several pertinent issues regarding cooperative learning, namely the premises underlying it, which are three; the first one deals with the respect for students “regardless of their ethnic, intellectual, educational, or social background” and it has a strong belief in students potential and academic success; the second one illustrates the strong sense of community, “for learning, like living, is inherently social” and it helps students to enlarge and improve their relationships; the third one is based on the notion that “learning is an active, constructive progress”. The article delves into several interesting subtitles for it explains what is cooperative learning, its effectiveness, the motivation implicit on it and so on. In conclusion, cooperative learning is seen as an essential part of online education because it satisfies, for students, a human desire for connection and cooperation. Besides that it gives the opportunity to deal and to handle complex tasks very difficult to solve alone. Remember we are social human beings and therefore the sense of a learning community helps us/students to enhance the social and communication capacity needed to succeed in a (future) career.

• Tips on Cooperative Leaning

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LWE2HF1v1Y

A sort of casual encounter between colleagues gives room for a talk on tips for cooperative learning for it suggests good strategies for teachers to work with students. There are several suggestions very easy to put into practise, bearing always in mind, students interest, motivation and cooperative group work input. The presentation starts from scratch, that is, it explains how to start cooperative group - pair work - and goes to bigger groups. It is a very concise way of highlighting this tipe of learning in "presential" classes.

• In conclusion...

Bearing in mind my readings, I conclude that in attended classes cooperative learning provides for students’ interaction in heterogeneous groups for it is built with the purpose of offering a leaning support for the elements of the group. In online education, cooperative learning provides the encouragement of individual flexibility and the affinity of learning within an educational community (Prof. Morten Flate Paulsen, 2003).

Although these two perspectives may seem difficult to combine, for they lead us to a controversy, the truth is that cooperative learning in online learning environments emerges as the solution for it emphasizes the co-existence of students that enjoy individual work and its benefits and outcomes, and the others that prefer the benefits of collaborative learning, or a so called, a learning community.

“Future adult students will seek individual flexibility and freedom. At the same time, many need or prefer group collaboration and social unity. These aims are difficult to combine, but online education, when integrated with other media, can be the means of joining individual freedom and collective unity into a truly flexible, cooperative distance educational programs.” (Prof. Morten Flate Paulsen, in Cooperative Freedom: an Online Theory Education, 2003)