Dennis+Lui+-+Reflections


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Reflection on Shared Writing ** Working in Etherpad and Google Docs was a great learning experience which gave a sense of the possibilities of the collaborative creative process. I would definitely agree that there are a lot of advantages to being able to share ideas with others in written form, and go from a brainstorming type of stage all the way to a finished product while exchanging thoughts and views back and forth to come up with something more than what one person could come up with on their own. I have had some personal experience in my high school days of writing fictional stories online with people I had never met but who shared a passion for writing, and always looked at it as a worthwhile exercise to improve my own skills. However, a possible drawback can be clash of opinions and inconsistency of styles resulting in disjointed writing. But I feel this does not take away significantly from the benefits of just going through the process of working with others to come up with something new and of value. I also believe dialogue is a critical force for coming up with some of our best viewpoints and for increasing understanding and potential as a society. That computers can help as a tool to facilitate and promote this more I think is an example of the positive uses of technology. The kind of features that have been developed including the ability to save a history of the online work which can restore past revisions, the capability of having a high number of participants and yet still keeping a coherent system, and even the simple idea of color coding different contributors were new to me but make a lot of sense in their practicality. The fact that some of these features had not even existed five or ten years ago, and that new and useful features are continually being developed can definitely help encourage people to try out these tools and explore what you can do with them. I'm interested in learning more about what type of work has resulted and will be produced by students through shared writing activities. Type in the content of your page here.