Social Networks and Learning

In the 1960s, two military planes collided spilling the contents of one of the aircraft, four nuclear bombs, into the Mediterranean ocean below. The whereabouts of the fourth was anyone's guess. The US Navy put an unlikely salvage team together composed of myriad academic fields, which then used unorthodox methods to locate the missing nuke. This team collectively derived the bomb's location by pooling all their expertise and hunches together. How some groups, such as this one, can solve problems better than others can, is the crux of this short study. The purpose of this study is to inform airmen of some of the components of collaborative learning gleaned from three historical case studies and the potential benefits of combining these components with web-based tools. Combining components of collaborative learning, in conjunction with newer technology, could enhance a group's collective awareness and ability to solve problems.