Blog Post 14-Final Reflection

Final Project16

Collaboration Report (Project 13)

I am in the group F-JAM which stands for, Fred, Jami, Ashley, and Melissa. For our Smartborad instruction project #1 we used the basic tools to communicate with each other. We mostly communicated via text messaging, email, Google chat, and telecommunications. The communication for this particular project went well as it really did not entail an excessive amount of communication. At the end of our first group project we discussed other communication tools we wanted to use. I thought that this was a great idea as it gave everyone in the group time to get the tools setup and to familiarize themselves with it. Once everyone was on the same page it was rather easy to jump in and get going.

On Project 15 part 2, we continued to use text messaging, email and telecommunications. We decided to expand our collaborative meetings by adding three new tools to communicate. We use Google Docs on a regular bases as we continue to plan. We opened a separate document for each project. In Google Docs we discussed ideas and scheduled a date for us to complete the project. I really enjoyed this form of communication because I was able to see instant comments from my group members. The second new tool that we used was video chat through our gmail accounts. I thought that it was fun being able to see my group members. Chatting straight from our Gmail accounts only allowed us to talk one on one. We felt like it would be very beneficial if we all could see each other at the same time to share information. This lead us to using Google Hangout. We setup a Google+ Hangout circle. Hangout allowed use to communicate with each other all at once. It was fairly easy to use and everything we needed was provided through the hangout. We were able to collaborative at the same time by video and chat. We were even able to see each others desktop using this application. All these tools and applications have been working very well for my group. In addition, they could also see my desktop as we chatted on our video session. I was able to navigate on my computer and my group members where able to have a visual of what I was talking about as apposed to trying to explain what I was talking about without any visuals. I feel that everyone in the group enjoyed this type of communication the most.

Although Google provided most of the collaboration tools we needed for our projects I would have loved to experiment with the Vyew. The Vyew allows you to meet and share content anytime. In researching the Vyew, I found a few things that were interesting. This program provided things very similar to what we used in Google+. What made this program different was the drawing/annotation feature, which is great for teaching and especially tutoring. Another interesting tool it feature was how you are able to upload files from your commupter to share in addition you could attach sticky notes to your document. The best part about it is that it has a free version that is free forever, however it does have supported ads on the free version. I look forward to experimenting with the Vyew. I hope to experiment with this program in the future for my professional career as well as use it in community groups that I am in.