Collaboration tools

Well, found rather a lot on collaboration tools! A very comprehensive sample from Robin Good plus some recommended ones for project management  and free web based collaboration tools.The CED team will really need to knuckle down and work out the main objective of using a collaboration tool in order to try to work out the best option available.

CPIT IT will be moving to a totally Microsoft environment next year. First adjustment will be transition from Novell’s Groupwise to Microsoft’s Outlook. Microsoft Sharepoint will be available from later in 2011. A review from the enterprise 2.0 viewpoint reveals both good and bad points depending on whether you are a user or IT adminstrator. So not sure if starting CED staff on collaboration tools will be a good move at this point in time. However, use of Sharepoint might not eventuate until well into 2012!


There has been an increase in interest in using Google Docs as a teaching / learning platform through two presentations / workshops attended recently. Firstly, the CAME project around automotive courses at Unitec and then demonstration of using Google docs by Aaron Steele with computing students’ projects at UCOL. Having a change to play with Google Docs last week with Aaron, was a good chance to try out the latest features on Google Docs.

So to begin, it might be good to start people on using google docs and just setting up one document into which we could archive various links etc. under various categories. This may still be the easiest approach as some Wiki tools can be intimidating to newcomers as per this article on the dos and don'ts of setting up collaborative sites and why people don't like using wikis.  Using Google Docs will help everyone come to grips with the possibilities of using collaborative cloud computing based platforms and building capability for more complex initiatives.

However, the extent of the various collaboration tools, does raise greater possibilities for project planning. Other options are basecamp (well-known but costs), wiggio (recommended by another team at NMIT and on trying out, seems to be user friendly and free) and dropbox (essentially a file sharing system).

Adult and Community Education conference 2009

On Saturday, Nick Ford, Robin Graham and I presented at the annual ACE conference, held at the Wharenui at CPIT. Nick presented on the 21st century learner, I did a short spiel on cloud computing, web 2.0 & mobile learning and Robin completed the loop with a session on design for learning.

Our session was well attended and there was lots of interest shown along with lots of questions generated. I experimented this time by using a Word document with logos of web 2.0 sites and other hyperlinks as a base to the presentation. As the session was so short, the hyperlinks could then be useful to participants for future self directed exploration of the various sites and links.