The focus of week three was the use of web tools for collaborative purposes. I like the idea of students being able to collaborate through alternate means. For us (SPU students) in particular, we have very busy schedules at the moment so being able to work on projects without having to meet and all be in the same place can make things more convenient. The Etherpad project was an interesting experiment. It is nice that we can all contribute our own information to the document, but there was a downside I thought. Here I am refering mainly to what content is being sought, especially in terms of formatting. Since this was the first attempt at using the Etherpad there was bound to be some confusion. I think there was a little uncertainty about what exactly was being sought in the piece or even how it was to be displayed. Maybe in some cases it was just how to start. Like I said before, this was the first time with an assignment on Etherpad, so perhaps these assignments will get easier and better as the year continues.
Another focus was on Wikis and how they can be used as a collaborative tool. I can see using a wiki for a class project some time in the future. For the students to be able to contribute to a class project on their own time without having to dedicate a lot of class time to it could prove to be very useful. Such a project would be a great learning experience for the students, and for us as teachers it could satisfy the the Washington technology education standards http://www.k12.wa.us/edtech/pubdocs/K12EdTechStandards6-8_12-08.pdf as required for us to teach. EALR 1 ,GLE1.2.1 reads: Communicate and collaborate to learn with others. (Washington 2008) The nature of the wiki would not only allow students to add content to the piece, it would also allow the students to review, critique, and edit other students work. The instructor would be able to review progress and and give feedback throughout the project.
