Collaborating+Online


 * VALENTINA'S SUMMARY: **


 * "COLLABORATING ONLINE: DIGITAL STRATEGIES FOR GROUP WORK" **

The ability to work in a team is involved in our everyday life, both at school and at work. This skill requires efficiency, organization and the contribution of all the group members. In order to make this happen, Anthony T. Atkins guides the readers in a step-by-step article ("Collaborating Online: Digital Strategies for Group Work"), in which he explains how technologies can help them in this task.

The first step makes clear how to "assess the project". This means have an initial face-to-face meeting in order to get to know all the group members, assigne tasks and responsibilities to each one, determine what kind of technologies will be used and, finally, set the deadlines. Thus, all the useful information of how to proceed will be provided to the group. The second step is about how to "use tecnhologies to organize the project". Project management tools (as Google Docs) and wikies (as Wikispaces or Wikipedia) allow users to create and share documents in an electronical space accessible to everyone. Hence, the group members have access to the whole material (including links and images), they can share ideas, give feedback and edit documents at any time. The third and last step explains the importance of choosing the right technological tools to present the final project. That means the tool that is more coherent with the presentation that the group is asked to provide (for example: the Google Docs Presentation tool is perfect for an oral presentation).

In conclusion, according to Anthony T. Atkins, technologies help group members (both at school or at work) to organize their work in a more efficient way, increasing the chances of a great final result.

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 * Larissa's Summary **

The text “Collaborating Online: Digital Strategies for Group Work” by Anthony T. Atkin presents productive technological alternatives to face-to-face collaboration on projects when working in groups. The author outlines three main steps in this process: assessing the project or task; using technology to organize the project; and using technology to present the project.

The first step, assessing the project or task, presents two collaborative work projects: A and B. Both project A and B provide examples of ways that group work may be assigned to a class. Atkin suggests that having at least one face-to-face meeting is necessary to improve the efficiency of certain project tasks such as: getting to know the group members, deciding a person’s responsibility in the group, determining which technologies the group will need to facilitate the project collaboratively, and setting deadlines.

The second step, using technology to organize the project, presents tools on the Internet such as Wikipedia, Google Docs, blogs, and Facebook, which can help a person to organize projects collaboratively. These tools are useful because they can make group work more productive, alleviate problems with group members who are absent (or who do not participate), and cost nothing to use.

The last step, using technology for presentations, shows the various forms that presentations can take. It is important to mention that the kind of presentation a person creates is largely determined by the nature of the project itself.

Although working in a collaborative environment can be difficult or complicated, it is a good opportunity to improve the quality of the project itself.

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**Ágatha's Summary**

The article "Collaborating Online: Digital Strategies for Group Work" by Atkins, says how collaborative work can be employed in everyday life and not only in academic life. When working in groups there are three steps to follow: "assessing the project or tasks, using technology to organize the project and using technology to present the project". In the first step, students need to decide what each member of the group will do and determine a deadline to avoid delays. The author states that collaborative technologies can help a group organize and present work when members cannot meet face-to-face. Subsequently the group may organize the tasks and decide what kind of technology they will use to organize and create their project. If a group creates a page, using an internet tool such as Google Docs, Google Talk, blogs or Wikispaces, groups can discuss, edit and revise the work simultaneously. In the last step, the group may choose a technology for their presentation, based on the nature of the project. And if the group project has statistics and many number, the group might consider creating graphs to display in an honest and visually appealing format (pag. 243, 244). Even though collaborative work can be hard and complex, it "improves the quality of group work" (pag. 246).