We explain what collaborative work is, its characteristics, advantages and examples. Additionally, collaborative work in the classroom.
What is collaborative work?
Collaborative work It encompasses all those dynamics of peer-to-peer production or mass collaboration that is, in which the work of a large number of individuals is coordinated and driven towards a common objective. This coordination generally corresponds to self-organized communities, in which the work is carried out without formal obligations and without recognition of an exclusive author of the result.
Collaborative work should not be confused with teamwork, even though all collaboration necessarily implies joint or team work.
While teamwork recognizes a defined leader, collectivizes responsibility and organizes a human group to accomplish a specific task, collaborative work It is usually carried out without the presence of formal bosses, through individual contributions of knowledge, and with the ultimate purpose of sharing the knowledge achieved.
Different forms of collaborative work have existed since ancient times, but never before have there been examples as palpable and evident as those that the Internet has allowed. The voluntary sum of the effort and knowledge of a community of users easily bears fruit when it comes to people who do not even need to share a physical space and a time slot.
A perfect example of this is open source software, in which any user can voluntarily invest their time and effort and release new forms of updated and improved code.
Characteristics of collaborative work
Broadly speaking, collaborative work is characterized by the following:
- It is a form of voluntary collaboration between members of a specialized community capable of sharing effort, time and knowledge in the construction of new knowledge platforms.
- It consists of the synergy of knowledge and efforts of an organized community, generally of people who share passions or knowledge.
- It is usually governed by the principles of free flow of information of altruism and volunteerism, so it is often considered a work culture in itself.
- Unlike other forms of work, does not generate a group feeling but one of belonging to a collective project.
Importance of collaborative work
Collaborative work facilitates the achievement of long-term goals by allowing continuous individual contributions to move freely towards the goal.
However, there is an important margin for coordination: the collaborative dynamic, being free and voluntary, receives continuous contributions that increase the value and scope of the project. In fact, this type of work does not pursue optimal results in quality or productivity, but rather aims at the integration of shared knowledge.
Advantages of collaborative work
Unlike other forms of work, collaborative work does not require a formally defined structure, so is less rigid and coercive in its forms: without bosses, without official distribution of tasks, this type of work is based on the continuous updating of shared knowledge. It is a task that depends more than anything on the dough.
In the same way, it is a dislocated, massive and dispersed work model, which is not governed by schedules and which, furthermore, is supported voluntarily so its production costs are, at least in that sense, very low. On the other hand, the project does not depend entirely on any of its collaborators but rather it is a form of collectivization of knowledge, alien to traditional chiefdoms and leaderships.
Collaborative work in the classroom
Many contemporary trends in education see collaborative work as a valuable process for the classroom. First of all, because allows us to understand the educational process as a dynamic of integration of knowledge and practices rather than as a vertical process in which the teacher transmits knowledge to his students.
These new work dynamics are conducive to diversity, inclusion and motivation individual to group work, since the notions of success and failure then become dependent on the entire group, and not only on an individual at the head of it. Either everyone wins, or everyone loses.
Examples of collaborative work
Some examples of successful collaborative work are the following:
- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and all other similar “Wiki” projects, in which it is the users themselves who enter the data that make up the encyclopedia.
- Linux and open source software whose own users can contribute to the improvement of its programming code, forging together a more solid and updated program.
- Digital libraries in whose “pages” there are archives of books, series and films for free distribution, in order to obtain a complete and important catalog of works that is available to everyone, and to third parties.
Continue with: Teamwork
References
- “Collaborative work” on Wikipedia.
- “Collaborative work: what does it consist of?” at the American University of Europ (Mexico).
- “What is collaborative work and how to introduce it in the classroom” in Education 3.0.
- “Cecilia Sagol: what is collaborative work?” (video) in Educar Portal.
