Consensus Building and Collaboration for Students and for Faculty Using GoogleDocs and Blogs

Abstract

Consensus, collaboration, and multiple authorship are often problematic for students. Some frequent problems include finding a common time to meet face-to-face, circulating and editing multiple versions of a document, upload & download, and document formatting, to name just a few. Googledocs provides one format, one place for a document that can be edited and co-authored by people from their own office or home at their convenience. Student team work is facilitated during and after class sessions by having one document that can be asynchronously created, developed, and editedââ¬Â¦ eliminating multiple drafts. In Googledocs a ââ¬Ërevision historyââ¬â¢ is maintained, so nothing from previous versions of the document is lost. This session should appeal to GMU faculty who have class assignments that call for team problem solving, consensus building, or collaboration. I will present the results of using Googledocs as a consensus building & collaborative tool for students in classes. Coming from the College of Education, I will identify what worked and what didn't for students in my classes who are classroom teachers, then provide some guidance and lessons learned. Models and exemplars will be shared, and faculty will have an opportunity to ââ¬Ëtry outââ¬â¢ the collaboration tool in the workshop. Googledocs can also assist faculty with work outside of classes. Faculty committee and department work is facilitated during and after meetings by having a place for documents that can be asynchronously created, developed, and editedââ¬Â¦ eliminating multiple drafts. A discussion of this additional application of the technology should appeal to GMU faculty for their department meetings and committee work ââ¬â anytime working documents are involved. The session closes with peer-to-peer discussion and Q&A regarding potential applications of the technology.