Collaboration without administration

As I ponder over many of the new collaborative tools being touted for use to promote learning, I just wonder how many of these tools would really make it to the mainstream of lecturers' teaching practice.

To me, most of the people whom I have met would consider monitoring and assessing, (which they must do), student activities online as something of an extra to their current workload which they would rather not participate in if given a choice or if there are no overt recognition financially and socially.

Add to the fact that the goal of education has switch its focus on the masses rather than the elite few, it is incomprehensible how any of them would be able to promote collaborative learning and yet at the same time, manage the overwhelming task to assess the work generated and its quality.

Methods and emerging practice

I use this image to help me to understand how my methods in collecting data are actually helping me to document and describe the emerging practices of my collaboration with the academic staff.

Some Wishes for My Tools

• I would love to see my Google Bookmarks being shared just like Google Reader.
• I would love to see my PowerPoint being able to create interactive animations and exported to Flash files.
• I would love to see more Open Source applications for video editing.
• I love to see the web browser change to an interface similar to Adobe Lightroom.
• I would love to see all citations downloadable to Zotero.
• I would like to see a face lift for Zotero.
• I would like to see Blackboard supporting blogs and wikis.
• I would like to see history class being learned through games like Civilization.
• I would love to see Google Docs supporting presentation files like PowerPoint
• I would like to use Picasa to edit my RAW files
  

I will continue to add more to this list from time to time.

Actions, Interactions and Practice

I use this image to help me to understand that I often interpret and reflect over what has occurred during my interactions with the academic staff before deciding on an action which I would propose to the same staff. This action would then start an interaction between me and the academic staff where in the course of the interactions, we would both interpret the situation, try to understand each other, make sense of the discourse and reflect and draw on previous encounters and knowledge that we have learned as resources to make a mutual decision and perhaps set the next course of joint action. These joint decisions and actions would provide further resources for me to reflect on when I am no longer interacting with my collaborators. These interactions would also form the practice that we participate in and reify.