The challenge we faced was really short time. If you did it with students in a f2f session you could structure the collaboration considerably better. I think watching how chaotic it can get was an important lesson for all. There was one group where you even saw some disharmony. Very important to lay very clear ground rules prior to starting and remember we need to teach people what is collaborating.

1. I like the idea that, as an instructor, you can easily track who participates in a group project and how they participated. This can always be difficult to assess with small groups.

2. How did you get the different letter groups to each have the same page to work on?

2. When I started playing with the sandpit wiki as I listened to the webinar, I saw that it was difficult for the group to keep a good track on a topic. The group I decided to join–Group E-F–seemed to bounce around ideas about what to make their wiki page about, but it seemed difficult for there to be any consensus or for a final decision to be made. I think it would be advisable when setting up small groups to work on wikis that roles be assigned (or rotated during the project). Someone should be responsible for directing the discussion. When it is time for a consensus to be reached or a decision to be made, the discussion director could put it to a vote. Votes could be emailed to a pollster via email with final results posted back on the discussion board. It seems that assignments could be doled out in a similar fashion with confirmation via email from a job coordinator so that it is clear who is supposed to do what. Without some way of communicating group consensus and decisions, it can really stymy progress, cause unnecessary confusion, and result in several people trying to do the same thing. This is not to say that participants should not revise, edit, and provide constructive feedback and ideas about each others’ work, but that the creative process can still be organized.

4. I played around with group E-F’s page and made some of my own changes just to get a feel for it.

5. Having seen a wiki in action and playing with the sandpit wiki has now given me ideas on how to use them. I have started one experiment with a wiki on wikispaces–redwormcafe. I hope to initially collaborate with a friend in a different part of the state on building this wiki. I am also hoping to get my teenager and some of her friends to choose a topic and start a wiki as a practice project. I so love these tools and see such potential, but am learning to practice and learn myself before springing it on a classroom full of students.

Thanks for your work, Sue.

Here is how I look at it – if you are trying to pull together a finished type project than wikis are well suited. If you are wanting to reflect on a topic, get students interacting with others easily or respond to questions than I would use a blog.

Discussion board you are normally thinking of using a Ning community. Sometimes educators will use these for classes of students instead of a blog. Challenge is they reduce interaction with others because only people who are members can respond.

Mahalo for the post!