exotribe

Merriam-Webster OnLine defines collaboration as:

1 : to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor

Let me tell you about how my middle-school aged children are using IM, email, Google Docs, and Windows Live SkyDrive to collaborate on their Colorado History Day projects. Colorado History Day is part of the National History Day contest:

Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide participate in the NHD contest. Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students present their work in original papers, exhibits, performances and documentaries. These products are entered into competitions in the spring at local, state and national levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators. The program culminates in a national competition each June held at the University of Maryland at College Park.

My daughter is working with two other girls building a group documentary about Women's Rights.  When working together at school, they usually spend their time huddled around a single computer "pair writing" - researching their topic, writing the process paper, building their video.  Working after school is more of a challenge.  We live in a rural part of Colorado, and the girls live as much as 30 miles apart - getting together to work is difficult.  However, the girls have learned to extend their "pair writing" with IM, email and Google Docs. Instead of constantly chatting in person, sharing ideas, they chat constantly on IM.  They store their documents on Google Docs, and using the sharing features so that each of them can work on updates.

My son is working with another boy building a group documentary about the Cuban Missile Crisis.  He and his partner don't care for the editing features of Google Docs, so they have taken a different tact.   Instead, they post their documents to a shared Windows Live SkyDrive folder.  The download their document, work on it in Microsoft Word and/or Open Office Writer, and re-upload the document. The boys are not quite so high-tech as the girls, in that they don't really "pair write", or communicate with IM, but instead talk after school about the work each will do at home that evening.  (Girls talk and chat more than boys, who would've guessed?)

As a proud father, I must brag just a bit.  Both groups recently competed in the Colorado Springs Regional (hosted at Colorado College) placing 1st and 2nd in the Junior Group Documentary division, and will be competing in the state contest.

One last note: keeping their documents on Google Docs saved my daughter's project.  An hour before they were scheduled to present, they realized they had left all of their print outs at school (55 miles away).  My wife drove them to a local FedEx Kinkos, where they logged on, downloaded, printed and copied their project papers.

[Update: May 5 2008] My son's project placed 2nd at the State History Competition, and we will be traveling to Washington D.C. in June to compete at the National History Day competition.

Published February 27, 2008