Introduction
Let me explain why this feature image was chosen. Have you ever played in an orchestra? This is how Wendy describes the experience of playing in a regional orchestra:
I bring my instrument and setup with other cellists. Usually two share a music stand and other pairs may play different cello parts. I firstly concentrate on my own playing but at the same time, tune in with others and keep my peripheral eye on the conductor. It is a unique, intense and thrilling experience of individuals coming together to create and share music.
The connection we have with the others is not always through physical spaces and eye contact but an awareness of tuning in together and creating work towards one aim. Working collaboratively online is like that. Read this journal article about the ‘messiness of being human and what the non-human can make possible’ Barnes & Netolicky 2019 for another angle on how working online collaboratively can operate in the academic world.
Thing 6 explained the basics of how we can share documents according to where they are stored and permissions given. Pop into the shared Google doc to add to that work.
In More Detail below we will look at some of the programs that invite this type of collaboration. A single activity to ‘Try’ and some sharing prompts to end on.
Try
There is one activity this week.
https://padlet.com/w_taleo/23Things
Enter the padlet (no account required) and answer a short question. Padlet accepts text and other forms of media, experiment in what you add. (10 minutes)
Bonus Activity – For CDU people, go to Yammer and join the 23 Things group to find the bonus activity for this week. (10 minutes)
More Detail
Tech tools for online collaboration fall into two buckets. Synchronous tools allow groups of people to access the one interface and work together. Asynchronous tools shown below are in this category because they allow groups of people to create work in the one space. For example: Wendy uses Microsoft Teams for two different communities, one within the University and one for an associated Community of Practice that has members dispersed across Australia.
Synchronous
Video connections – Google Hangouts, YouTube Studio, Skype and Zoom are free to join. Blackboard Collaborate and Cisco Webex have a paid element and may be incorporated into a Learning Management System (LMS).
Google Docs – multiple people can edit the document and see live updates as each person types.
Etherpad – Open Source online editor providing collaborative editing in really real-time.
Asynchronous
Padlet – See the Try activity for an example of this flexible and open tool
FlipGrid – Used for video conversations
VoiceThread – A flexible tool that encourages conversations around media
Trello – co-working space, flexible tool but strong in project management across online teams. Create an account here. This link will give you an overview of the application.
Slack – Remote Team Management, Social engagement, chat and file sharing for groups.
Microsoft Teams – Remote Team Management, shared files, chat and lots of app options.
Share
- Share a short story of a collaboration that you have participated in via the comments below.
- Write a blog post (see Thing 3 to get you started on blogging) about a collaborative experience that did not turn out how you expected it to. Share the link to the blog post in the comments below or Register your blog through Thing 3.
Reminder: Keep track of your Professional Development using this form Record of evidence form
Comments are closed.
References
Barnes, N., & Netolicky, D. M. (2019). Cutting apart together: a diffracted spatial history of an online scholarly relationship. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32(4), 380-393. doi:10.1080/09518398.2018.1548038
Photo by Larisa Birta on Unsplash
Thing 7 was written by Wendy Taleo
There are some useful tools which can be used in learning and teaching purposes.However, lecturers seems busy with their work and it is very productive if we can provide an simple instruction in lieu of following the instruction from the third parties.
Slack is a tool that I commonly use – In fact, in Thing 5, when I tweeted about PLNs I discovered a network called “Academic Learning Spaces Australia/NZ. I’ve joined their Slack channel (which has 30 members) and am interested to discover how we can collaborate across institutions.
Hi Marie, I use Slack for a number of volunteering that covers both national and global based groups. Most recently, one group has moved from using Slack to using Teams. That is an interesting transition. We’ll talk more about these applications in Thing 9.
There are many useful collaboration tools such as flowdock, GotoMeeting, Webex, Slack,…supporting for our learing, teaching and working as well. In studying and working, I’ve ever used Zoom and Skype for group meeting, however, skype is often utilized for online work chatting. Currently, during the Covid 19, I was introduced to use HandoutMeet and ZoomMeet. I found these apps very helpful but for Vietnamese children, including my daughter, they recently used Zoom for online studying and they sometimes forgot to un-mute caused many noises…