Interview with Prof. Morten Paulsen

Q & A with Ed Tech Leaders
Interview with Morten Flate Paulsen, by Michael F. Shaughnessy and Susan M. Fulgham

In this entreview, Prof. Morten Falte Paulsen talks about some projects in witch he has/is envolved. Then Prof. Morten describes the main ideas of his Theory of Cooreative Freedom.

The Theory of Cooperative freedom states that, online students seek for freedom, flexibility and social unity, all together, which is most of the times difficult to combine.

For its comprehension, the following explanations are of great help:

Individual learning provides superior individual flexibility, but very limited affinity to a learning community. It has a strong position in online education delivered by institutions with a tradition in distance education.

Collaborative learning requires participation in a learning community, but limits individual flexibility. One may say that collaborative learning requires that students sink or swim together. Collaborative learning is common in online education offered by traditional face-to-face institutions.

Cooperative learning focuses on opportunities to encourage both individual flexibility and affinity to a learning community. Cooperative learning seeks to foster some benefits from individual freedom and other benefits from cooperation in online learning communities. It thrives in virtual learning environments that emphasize individual freedom within online learning communities.

Through out the interview, Professor Morten Paulsen answers to some of the biggest pedagogical challenges that online courses providers (institutions, teacher, designers, …) face wile trying to respond to online students needs:

We should urge students to take part in and build a learning community. But we should also respect students’ preferences and choices, if they prefer to study alone. Therefore, a cornerstone in cooperative learning is that cooperation should be voluntary, but also attractive, appealing, and alluring. It should be offered as an omnipresent opportunity to those who seek cooperation.

The challenge for educational networks is to include services that allow students to produce and refine content that contributes to learning and sharing of knowledge.

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