e-Learning Ecologies MOOC’s Updates
Update #1: Ubiquitous Learning
Collaborative Workspace Definition
According to jotform.com, a collaborative workspace can be defined as “an environment designed to encourage sharing and development.” While this used to just refer to the physical workspace of a building, it now refers to collaborating virtually as well. A successful collaborative workspace will result in more efficiency and productivity in the workplace. There are so many tools available for teams to share ideas online. This can be in the form of video conferencing, shared documents, organizing files, online projects with assigned tasks to certain members, visual boards, and the list goes on.
Concept in Practice
When I was an elementary teacher, we used Google workspace to collaborate amongst grade level teams and other committees. That is where we could share resources and store them in a shared folder. We could all collaborate and take notes in the same document. We could create slideshows and divide the bigger goal into smaller tasks for each team member. We often would type our unit plans on Google Docs, so all team members could add their ideas in the same place and know what was to be taught weekly.
Here is a 7 minute video from jotform about how to create a collaborative workspace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c095ehTlijQ
As a teacher myself, I was so thankful to have a team that used google workspace similar to how you described. When I first started teaching every type of sharing our team did was a physical copy of a lesson or worksheet, which started filling up folders upon folders of things to save. The virtual aspect of the collaborative workspace was helpful in decluttering the room. But it was also great because everyone seemed even more open to sharing when it was a simple click away. By the time I left my current team we had bundles and bundles of shared lesson templates, notes, sub plans, presentations etc. that I would have never bothered to keep had it been a paper copy.