Collaboration Breeds Innovation #IMMOOC

Urban areas have many problems such as overcrowding, crime, poverty, and pollution, but they have advantages as well, such as people's innovation and creativity.

I believe that urbanization (which is the human movement from the rural or farming area to a urban or city area) has brought the explosion of innovation we have seen in the last century.   For centuries, people lived in rural areas until the Industrial Revolution.  In 1900 only 15% of the world’s population lived in urban areas; but 107 years later in 2007 over 50% of the world’s population does.1  So what happened when human beings who for centuries only knew a handful of people their whole lives suddenly started interacting with hundreds?  Increased collaboration happened, that’s what.  

Now, Collaboration is a “purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate in order to achieve shared or overlapping objectives."2  When people get together, they tend to collaborate.  As pointed out above, up until a 117 years ago; the average human being only knew a select few individuals (family, some friends) because the majority lived in a rural area.  This tended to foster group-think (which is a desire for harmony that leads to conformity;3 the enemy of innovation and can create a dangerous situation; see video below) where the same ideas were passed down from generation to generation because no one wanted to be an “unique” individual (might get you “burnt at the stake” for being a witch in some communities).  When people started coming to cities in droves, many found their age old ideas challenged.  

New ideas were adopted or old ideas were enhanced due to the increased collaboration with other human beings that did not share the other person’s ideas passed down through tradition.  More and more human beings became “risk takers” (which is someone willing to make mistakes in order to follow a passion or idea) because they were no longer under the strong influence of a rural community that gyrated towards a group-think mentality.  Worldviews, (which are issues that affect a person’s view on life4) that had been held on for centuries by many were replaced by new ones in the minds of individuals. This lead to many developing a growth mindset where it was OK for their long held beliefs to be challenged. An explosion of innovation was the result where we went (for example) from the telegraph, to the phone, then the radio, TV, Computer, and now the internet as people challenged and inspired one another through various means of collaboration (and as our means of collaborating quickened).

Around 1991, I had a front row seat on the emergence of the internet age (the quickest means of collaboration to date).  In fact, I started participating in the first chat rooms (IRC chat rooms5) around the mid-90s; communicating with people I would probably not have had the chance to otherwise if it were not for the internet.  To me, this was the dawn of “cyber urbanization” with human beings moving from the “rural area” of paper letters and local communities towards a world wide community or “cyber city.”  As an Educator, I've joined thousands of others to "cyber collaborate" through on-line PLNs via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. I have both been challenged and challenge fellow educators on their educational "Sacred Cows" from homework and grades to cell phone use in the classroom. I may or may not have accepted another educator's ideas, but I will at least listen to them. Why? Because I want to foster a culture of collaboration and with collaboration comes innovation. Through this latest form of collaboration, Educators will be inspired to be true innovators of education by others who are and won't be hindered by the dangers of "group-think" traditionally found in Public Schools where they have had to "go along to get along." No longer will Educators have to pretend what they were doing was "working" because everyone in the teacher's lounge said "that's the way it's always been." They will be inspired to change their classroom culture (or the School's if they are an Administrator) by fellow Educators who share a growth mindset and want to ALWAYS go with what is BEST for the students.

1"Urbanization - Wikipedia." https://en.wikipediaT.org/wiki/Urbanization. Accessed 7 Oct. 2017.
2 "Collaboration - Wikipedia." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration. Accessed 7 Oct. 2017.
3"What is Groupthink - Psychologists for Social Responsibility." http://www.psysr.org/about/pubs_resources/groupthink%20overview.htm. Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
4"Worldviews - AllAboutWorldview.org." https://www.allaboutworldview.org/. Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
5"Internet Relay Chat - Wikipedia." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat. Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.