New collaborative writing tool...

[jason]

I've been asked to design a tool that will allow people to collaboratively write real time over the internet. Two or more people can edit the same document in real time. Simultaneously! What do you think that the requirements/abilities should be? How could it be used by ECE students?

Comments

idea

[a26chan.livejournal.com]

My idea would be to incorporate a side panel with a chat function. While working in groups on a text document, a lot of times there may be points that needs to be discussed before writing it all down. By having a chat module available, discussions can be made first, followed by text into the document. A side panel is also helpful when entering document text, while being able to fully scroll through the chat text to find points you want to enter.

[carolyn-c.livejournal.com]

Hahah jason silly Question but what is real time?

[complicittheory.livejournal.com]

Not silly. There are two ways of doing things online: asynchronous and syncrhonous.

Synchronous == real time... chatting, video conferencing, audio over the internet are all synchronous. Synchronous requires two people to be at the same place at the same time.

Asynchronous == not-real time... email, web pages, watching a movie.

make sense?

ECE use?

[jaguarxkr.livejournal.com]

Jason,
I like the idea of using editing over the Internet, especially for educators. This tool would have been helpful in first year when we had so many group projects to do, and everyone in our group lived all across the GTA. Doing something like a presentation along with a using a phone (because I still think that's an important feature) would work really well for major assignments. Everyone would be able to comply a report together, go through it as a group- all without going into a "physical space". My concern as mentioned before, is other people "pinching" work that isn't their's. How would you be able to maintain security with a tool such as this?? And how about someone who would want to write over your work? Would it work much like live-journals where you have to login on as a user?

battle for the letter

[nikkw.livejournal.com]

Jason,

I am not sure that I like the idea of two people editing the same document at the same time, it just seems too confusing. Maybe my visual is wrong but, in my head, I am invisioning two group members editting their group assignments from the luxury of their homes. I like the word "however" whereas my partner prefers "on ther other hand", and the two of us battle to erase the others word. I don't know, that's just the mental picture that I got in my head.


Q: Would you be able to see every letter that the other person is typing?

I agree with Arron

[jennifersmith.livejournal.com]

I think to have some sort of side panel for chat would be great. Right now we are working on so many partner assignments for various classes. Some sort of controled web site where you could see your work and chat with your partner at the same time would be a great tool.