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Collaborative Editing
by
Renato Ventura
Before we start discussing Collaborative Editing (CE), it could be useful to provide a definition of CE. It seems appropriate to use Wikipedia, which itself is an example of collaborative editing. Here is the definition from the online encyclopedia: "Collaborative editing is the practice of groups producing works together through individual contributions. Most usually it is applied to textual documents or programmatic source code. Such asynchronous (non-simultaneous) contributions are very efficient in time, as group members need not assemble in order to work together. Generally, managing such work requires software; the most common tools for editing documents are Wikis, and those for programming, version control systems. Most word processors are also capable of recording changes; this allows many editors to work on the same document while automatically clearly labeling who contributed what changes."
If someone feels more comfortable with visual description of CE, the painting above (Courtesy of Teroan 'Ntuvera) represents graphically the concept beyond CE. Because all the contributors work at the same project (it could be an article or any kind of document) there is not a one to one relationship (in fact there is no hierarchy as in the classical tree) or a diachronic procedure (first draft, revision, second draft, revision, etc.), but instead the procedure is synchronic: all the editors operate simultaneously and each one can see in "real time" what is happening. In a (language) classroom, websites such as wetpaint or googledocs could be used for collaborative editing. Another application of CE could be posting on-line a series of VERY badly written essays in Italian (or other foreign languages) and have the students - singularly or in groups - make corrections to the essays with their evaluation for the exercise based on (a) how many of the errors they were able to discern and (b) how they corrected the errors they did find.
The picture and the concept of CE reminds me of the rhizome, used in literary criticism and proposed for the first time by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. [fr. 1980] Trans. B. Mazzuni. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1987). According to Deleuze and Guattari, "the rhizome itself assumes very diverse forms, from ramified surface extension in all directions to concretion into bulbs and tubers." As a consequence, the rhizome perfectly symbolizes the concept of student-centered (rather than teacher-centered) classroom we all (as instructors) strive to achieve.
The pedagogical applications of CE are intuitive and are, for example, explained in the article "Pedagogical Potential" by Renee Fountain. One of the most common applications of CE is writing an article where the main focus is the connections between the authors. In a classroom, such a tool can be used for common projects or group presentations. Thus, students are able to exchange opinions, engage in discussions, as well as communicate. In addition, students are able to demonstrate their ability to use the course contents beyond the classroom.
Here is a web site (written by Brian Benzinger) where is possible to find many CE applications,
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, Dec 15 2008, 12:16 PM EST
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