Are we preparing students for a future of mass collaboration?

No, the school focusses students on achieving locally and individually (often in preparation for an IB curriculum) and in small groups. For schook, students go to their classes, then their activities, then gather in groups or individually and do their homework. This part of their lives is not an example of mass collaboration.

What goes on outside of school and may matter more in their lives, what challenges them and motivates them, is often related to the digital world. Students are on their cell phones as soon as they are out of class. They are combatting in the World of Warcraft before they think about homework, and they are deciphering their class notes and teacher expectations by cell phone when they do get down to homework. But these are not preparing them for mass collaboration.

As I see it, mass collaboration involves the responsible contribution to the growth of a societal system. The development of edible grains from wild grasses to the formation of a CreativeCommons concept would be included in mass collaborative efforts. I fear (probably not unlike my parents when I was in high school) the youth are learning how to collaborate as users, rather than creaters, of products.

But maybe the World of Warcraft is giving these youth not only the exposure to working in teams toward a common goal, but the strategies to effectively size up team members' collaborative skills, trustworthiness, and responsible behaviors in real life simulations. Students learn from mistakes they make on their profile or sharing with "friends" on Facebook. Students communicate with efficiency when they text message. The digital contacts they make worldwide by blogging, tweeting, and sharing of music and images gives them contacts that may be the most important individuals in their future university success, job placement, or mate selection. We cannot know which of these actions today will lead to having an advantage in tomorrow's society. These skills my give students an advantage, but no matter what, "we" are not preparing the students for this future by what we do in our classes.

But are we preparing them for mass collaboration by raising them in the Eastern culture instead of the West? Whereas, the West is know for its focus on the individual, the East is known for its community orientation.