AUSSIE

Blog entry posted June 23rd, 2008 by Chris Galer

When we first began the task of working on our new website, our team consisted of in-house AUSSIE staff, consultants, and outside programmers, and we knew that it was going to be difficult to get everyone around the table for our regular progress meetings, especially with everyone being on different schedules. Further complicating the matter was the fact that our team members were spread out across the US, and mid-project, I moved back to my hometown of Vancouver.

Overcoming these obstacles proved not too difficult with the use of several online, collaborative tools that allowed our team members to work collectively, yet according to our individual schedules. Online collaboration skills have been identified as critical 21st century skills for students according to the ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). A basic, easy-to-use online tool that proved invaluable to our project was the use of mindmaps. The site we used was Mindmeister. The site offers a basic free version of the software (as well as pay versions with greater functionality and tools) that served all of our needs.

I really like the visual aspect of the mind map - and it works really well for both simple and complicated concepts and processes. Our team used the mindmaps to lay out the informational hierarchy for our new webiste, but a group of students could easily use it to lay out the workflow of a group science project. Everyone contributes and everyone sees how the various aspects of the project are related. A nice feature for group use is the history feature - if a team member makes changes that the group doesn't like, you can easily revert back to an earlier version of the map.

Overall, the mindmap is a great collaborative tool. Check out the video above for a quick tutorial, and try it for your next group project.