The threat of global pandemics. The instability of the world's resources. The question of privacy and security in a digital age.
Meeting these 21st-century challenges will test our political, environmental, and scientific ingenuity. It will require creative solutions and innovative new discoveries. And, as institutions, it will mean that the walls erected around our campuses, our disciplines, and our geographic borders will have less relevance in a world linked by the pursuit of common solutions. But what does it mean to effectively work together in the process of discovery or the pursuit of change? How do we teach cooperation and collaboration, while modeling the practice in our own offices and corridors? How do we break down the walls that divide our departments, our institutions, and our regions? And how can technologies facilitate the process?
At the 2009 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, Participation and Collaboration: Social Learning for the 21st Century, we explored processes and practices focused on social learning and student success. Sessions highlighted:
- How to facilitate inquiry and innovation using Web 2.0 technologies, cyberinfrastructure, and social networks
- The importance of learning how to collaborate—connecting with others and content, in and outside the classroom
- Strategies to develop communities built on engagement, participation, and co-creation
- Cultivating institutional cultures of collaboration, openness, and sharing
- The ways in which collaboration skills can help us build relationships across disciplines—both within and across institutions