Collaboration, The Word of the Century # 2

After reading the first chapter of the book called Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful web tools for classrooms by W. Richardson and a few chapters of Wikonomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, I came to the realization that collaboration was the key word of the century, at least, that is what I perceive. I have always known the definition of collaboration, or so I thought. As I investigated the concept a little more and linked it with technology, I found an excellent example of collaboration in which wikis and blogs are used, I thought, Perfect!

The name of the article is Online Collaboration: Curriculum Unbound by John K. Waters. In this article the author explained how the Amarillo Independent School District used digital tools to move their curricular documents online. In this way, educators are able to collaborate on the creation of the curriculum. The idea came from the fact that most educators did not attend face to face meetings to help with the creation of the curriculum, leaving just a few of them who did most of the work. Moreover, the final product was a binder filled with hundreds of pages that were placed on a “shelf and never look at again” (Waters, 2007).

The amazing thing about this article is that the use of digital tools such as wikis and blogs in the Blackboard system permitted the curriculum committee to communicate in ways that they never had before. It allowed for an easier way of editing, modifying, and distributing of the curriculum. The committee was able to collaborate to create the curriculum, which was monitored by the district’s curriculum specialists. The work was discussed in their individual blogs, how cool! Like the author says, "Someone adds their ideas, and then someone else adds theirs, then they blog about it, and then go back to the wiki to make more changes.…” They were able to interact and work on their own time. Furthermore, the same process is currently being used to share lesson plans and ideas online.

More importantly is the fact that the use of collaboration to create the curriculum, lesson plans, and ideas among others, will benefit the students tremendously. Teachers are in direct contact with students and they know their needs. The use of technology allows them to add, share, and modify the instruction based on their own experience and the experience of other teachers, which in turn helps students achieve. Also, if teachers have input in the creation of the curriculum, most likely they will use it. This is a big improvement in the educational field toward the implementation of technology.

I think that Blogs and Wikis are two amazing tools, perfect for collaboration.

References

Waters, John K. (2007). Online Collaboration: Curriculum Unbound. T.H.E. Journal, v34 n3 p40-48 Mar 2007. (EJ762486) Retreive July 10.