7. Coordination ICT tools

Dear Friend,

Teamwork is always an art of the careful harmonisation of different phases. You can perhaps recall a situation where a lack of this harmonisation had a negative impact on setting up a project. In this unit, we ask you to familiarise with the most popular online tools that can facilitate coordination of work while saving you time or energy.

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:

  • Provide a definition of coordination tools;
  • Categorise the different coordination tools;
  • Understand the pedagogical use of these tools.

You will need approximately 40 minutes to master this unit.

Activity 1. Your coordination practices

Before getting to the heart of the topic, we would like you to take a few moments to reflect on your own practices as they relate to coordination. Try to recall the tools you have used to complete a project as a team. For example, what is your process when you have set up a meeting with your colleagues? Do you tend to use computer tools and, if so, which ones?

Done

1. Description of coordination tools

By definition, coordination tools enable management and monitoring of a project, to control and speed up interactions between participants.

Their main functions are:

Some of these tools can also provide other functions (communication or cooperation) which have been included in the appropriate units, we only discuss those that facilitate file storage and sharing, event planning and on-line surveys.

2. File storage and sharing tools

As their name indicates, these tools enable users to store and share files with other people, beyond geographical borders. Dropbox is a very good example of the earliest developments. Dropbox has been one of the most widely used tools in the last years.

Dropbox

This cloud computing service can be accessed from any web browser, but for the full use, there is a client to be installed on our workstation. We can create folders and lists in our Dropbox as well as download and share files with whomever we want. In case we have our Dropbox client, it ensures synchronisation of files stored on different computers (no manual download needed). It functions transparently (saving and synchronisation is automatic) and provides applications that can be used on tablets and smart phones.

Activity 2. Dropbox

To learn more about this tool, watch this simple and attractive tutorial: https://www.dropbox.com/tour. We hope that it will inspire you to create your own Dropbox. Do not be afraid of experimenting with this well-run service. You probably have things to share with your colleagues, learners.

Done

3. Planning and surveying tools

Do you have trouble finding a time slot for a meeting that suits everyone? You do not know how to carry out a survey of a large audience?

The tools in question considerably ease event planning and time management compared to older methods such as telephone calls and emails.

Activity 3. Doodle

To discover the most popular planning tool, we suggest that watch the following tutorial:

support.doodle.com/customer/portal/articles/761313-what-is-doodle-and-how-does-it-work-an-introduction. It offers you a detailed introduction to the application's different functionalities, such as event planning or surveys.

If you have been inspired or even convinced to try it yourself, connect to it, create an agenda for the next meeting and invite your colleagues or learners.

Done

Doodle is known for meeting planning tool with a bit of surveying functions. If you are more interested in surveying, we advise to use:

Basic surveys, quick result, small target:

More advanced surveying tools, server background maybe needed:

4. Collaborative work spaces

As well as the tools that were introduced in previous units, there is software that combines the qualities of each. It enables everyone working on a project to collaborate effectively using a combination of several functionalities.

Agora (www.agora-project.net/index.php?trad=english) offers a wide range of services:

Two other examples of collaborative work space are:

5. Pedagogical application and use of collaborative work spaces

On a pedagogical level, there are two large fields of application for collaborative work spaces, namely the organisation and management of Distance On- line Learning (DOL). These tools enable staff from different institutions to stay in continuous contact, establish and work out a project plan together, develop and assess wokrpackages, as well as to remotely monitor the project.

Collaborative work spaces can be beneficial in work based learning situations where learners must complete the tasks by collaboration.

Using this software, the teacher or trainer will be in a position to organise and monitor learners' work by taking the following steps:

  1. the teacher sets up (or moderate) groups of learners (tools to apply: the forum, messaging, e-bulletins, agenda);
  2. the learners from each group get in contact to discuss and distribute tasks to be performed;
  3. the learners submit their work to the teacher who assesses it;
  4. the participants organise vitual meetings to review the intermediate results achieved and to agree on the overall project result;
  5. at the end of the project, participants present the final product of their collaboration through a video conference.

Activity 4. Collaborative work spaces in your professional practice

Are you already familiar with using collaborative work spaces? If so, what advantages have they provided to your professional practice?

If you still have to discover them, do you think that you could use them? To be able to better answer this question, we suggest that you design a specific task in which use of such a collaborative space would be essential. (For example the planning of a mobility project described in the previous module.)

Done

Congratulations!

You have finished the unit. You can now move on to the next unit, the last in this module about learning platforms.