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Collaboration Tools
Taking the 'A' out of Asynchronous
7/1/2008
"You can't argue against something that helps people work together," says Rabuck. "Increased communication, better efficiency-- these are things people all over this institution hope to achieve."
Sharing Ideas, Sharing Docs
Most of the synchronous collaboration examples highlighted above focus on one or two specific applications but, moving forward, the most intriguing deployments of collaboration in higher education may be those that mix and match a diverse set of enterprise-level tools such as those offered as part of the free Google Apps Education Edition. In fact, Arizona State University was one of the first schools to adopt Google's new solution back in 2006. According to Adrian Sannier, ASU's VP and chief technology officer, the tools have fundamentally altered the way students, faculty, and staff members work on campus-- both individually, together, and with colleagues from outside the Tempe campus.
The system works just like any other learning management platform. Users sign into the Google Apps system, and they have access to Google-sponsored e-mail, Google Docs, Google Sites, and more. The Google e-mail, dubbed "Gmail," works just like any other e-mail program, and sends messages asynchronously. The other applications provide collaboration in real time.
With Google Docs, for example, users can create or edit word processor or spreadsheet documents in virtual space, in real time, from separate computers on opposite sides of campus, just as they would if they were sitting next to each other in the library. Google Sites, on the other hand, permits users to work together on a website to add file attachments, free-form content, and information from other Google applications.
"With these two very simple applications, there truly is no limit to the ways in which our users can work together," Sannier remarks. "As a user-- even if you don't know how to use a particular application-- you just log in with some friends and fiddle around. Before too long, you'll not only figure it out, but you'll wonder how the heck you ever did anything differently." Sannier says ASU users have even embraced the Google applications to collaborate with colleagues on campuses outside the state. Still, most of the institution's Google Apps users are students; only a handful of educators have jumped on board, to date. This is perhaps the biggest challenge with synchronous collaboration: Many of the tools are so new, it takes time for users who have formed certain habits to change their ways.
To combat this problem, ASU recently kicked off an awareness-raising campaign to familiarize faculty members with the technology. Google has helped out, too, dispatching representatives to assist with workshops and other tutorials. Sannier says that ultimately, maybe as soon as a year from right now, he sees a scenario in which tech-savvy educators encourage students to submit files in Google Docs, and offer to provide instantaneous feedback right there in the interface. "Think of a writing instructor who can use the technology to look in on the process by which a student creates work, and then can evaluate things like how quickly a student is getting started and where he or she is getting stuck," he suggests. "The ability to intervene in that fashion and work with the student in real time is incredibly powerful. It could change everything about the way we teach."
::WEBEXTRAS ::
Collaborate! Teaching and learning is
reaching new heights via powerful (and
sometimes, unexpected) collaboration
tools: meeting, conferencing, class capture
applications-- even wikis and open
source course management systems.
American and Brazilian Students
Collaborate via Virtual Classrooms.
Four universities-- two in the US and two
in Brazil-- are testing intercontinental
distance learning.
Matt Villano is senior contributing editor of this publication.
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- Get Users on Board
- Greening IT
- It's a Zinch
- Meeting up Virtually
- Online Tutorials to the Rescue
Now's the time to use online tutorials to streamline professional development and help desk management.
- Retention Rx
