I find it interesting to think about what I've read and reflect about how collaboration had transformed into online collaboration over the past few years. As an undergrad student, I can remember doing a lot of collaborative work. How things have changed in just a few short years! I love that I can now work collaboratively with my fellow students using applications like voicethead or even virtual meeting environments like Wimba. It's great that distance is no longer a barrier for other students as well.
From the AUM perspective, it's a great way to increase our revenue too!Distance students, from what I hear typically get charged the out of state fee, as well as additional tech fees. For a school that's currently suffering from a shrinking budget, distance courses could become our savior!
One of the things that concerns me most about online classes is the lack of communication between students. Many times I see NO communication outside of required assignments and while that communication isn't really required, I've always liked the ideas of bouncing concepts back and forth between people. Using some of the tools we've learned about, this suddenly seems a lot easier.
But I digress.
The article also mentions some tools that I wouldn't have thought of as collaborative. Tools such as Google Docs. I have used Google docs for at least 2 years now, but I never thought of it as a tool that I could use in the classroom.
I've also know about wiki's for many years now, but until recently I was stuck in the "reading the wiki" mode of thought. I hadn't ever thought about using a wiki as a collaborative tool, but clearly, from what I've learned in this class, wiki usage in k-12 education is really taking off!
It's an exciting time that we live in. I can't even imagine the tools that we'll be using in 4 or 5 years to communicate with our fellow students and teachers.
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