Horizon2007:Shortlist 1a
From Horizon Project
Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less
Online Collaboration: Easy, Accessible, and Virtually Free
One of the several categories of Web 2.0 technologies featured in the Horizon Report this year, online collaboration tools allow people to create and share documents or collections of resources—whether these are spreadsheets, text files, photographs, blog entries, audio or video clips, favorite places, or web links. What makes these tools effective is that collaboration and compatibility are built right in; no special process is required to make your media usable by, or shareable with, someone else. Issues of file format, operating system compatibility, disk storage space, and versioning, all of which can stand in the way of productive collaborative work, virtually disappear. Most of these tools are accessible from a web browser and data is stored remotely, on a server, rather than locally on a user’s own computer.
The value of these tools for education may lie in their ability to connect people and facilitate work without the need to consult a central technology support center. Researchers, project groups, and study groups can select only the tools that they need and set them up on their own, often simply by agreeing to use one particular tool or another or sharing usernames for services they already employ. Inter-institutional collaboration has become more common, and these tools support the kinds of work that happens at a distance. These tools also lend themselves to classroom applications, providing a space where work begun in the classroom can be seamlessly carried on outside of class.
Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression
- Makes it easy to cross institutional boundaries to work collaboratively on projects and research
- Enables students to work together on projects, sharing notes, documents, and research
- Supports groups working together at a distance
Examples
- Ben Rimes describes educational applications of collaborative concept mapping in The Tech Savvy Educator blog: http://www.techsavvyed.net/?p=164
- A weblog and dynamically tagged resource list is an ongoing complement to an educational technology course offered at UBC: http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/textologies/links.html
For Further Reading
Web's Second Phase Puts Users in Control (Steve O'Hear, The Guardian, June 20, 2006). This brief article discusses several web-based tools and describes potential applications to education. http://education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,,1801086,00.html Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0 (Brian Benzinger, Solution Watch, Sept. 29, 2006). This blog post reviews more than 35 online educational tools for organizing, grading, community building, notetaking, research, media sharing, and more. http://www.solutionwatch.com/512/back-to-school-with-the-class-of-web-20-part-1/
Riding the Waves of “Web 2.0” (Mary Madden and Susannah Fox, Pew Internet & American Life Project, October 5, 2006). This report provides a short history of the phrase “Web 2.0” and presents statistical data to help frame a discussion around the online activities and applications related to the term. http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/189/report_display.asp
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Discussion
Add your thoughts, suggestions, examples to add here, and indicate who wrote it-- e.g. [Alan]
Discussion
Add your thoughts, suggestions, examples to add here, and indicate who write it-- e.g. [Alan]
