Deirdre Bonnycastle

I agree even though my time is really minimal, I try to read something from SCoPE once a day.

This reminds me of the Progress vs Process debate that is always an issue when working with small groups. I tend to be product/progress focused, so I'm interested in the best tools to get things done but I am very aware that needs to be balanced by "Process" people. Whenever I setup online groups, part of the discussion I suggest they have is around "group roles". If they see different roles as contributors to the overall project, it helps overcome issues of "so and so brings my marks down" so I have to do everything.

So here is a story; when my daughter returned to high school from being home schooled, people complained about her being on their projects because she was obviously severely dyslexic. The team that was "forced" to take her, discovered that she had phenomenal research skills from her years of home schooling and their team marks went up even if she couldn't write the final essay.

So maybe part of learning to collaborate is learning how to discover, trust and utilize the strengths of individuals. The energizer person who brings the "virtual coffee" to an all-nighter is as valuable as the person who brings the research.

I just came across a new tool called Type with Me which is supposed to be for collaborative writing. Interesting concept!

"andragogical rather than pedagogical" I once had the great pleasure to attend a 1 week seminar with Malcolm Knowles in the 1970's which began my reexamination of teaching as a profession.

Nine Tools for Collaboratively Creating Mind Maps