Week 13 Online applications and tools or Better late than never!

In my rush to finally get the last two weeks of the course finished I completely forgot to blog about my experiences with online applications. Throughout the year I have completed several group assignments as part of my uni studies and each time I have been surprised by the reluctance of my classmates to use online tools to help with communicating and collaborating. Despite having access to already well developed tools through UTS online most students only make use of emailing and Facebook (which I have come to decide although it is great for organising events amongst friends it is inappropriate for most collaborative work). I was really disappointed. I expected all the tech savvy Gen Yers to show me how easy it was to use online applications to get group work done. Now I've done this course I have accepted that in most cases I'm going to have to lead the way.

Earlier in the year I came across this demonstration of Google Wave and I was very excited- this was unlike my reaction to Facebook. It just seems to make so much sense. It was USEFUL. I'm not suggesting that social networking sites aren't useful but I guess I'm much more willing to change my working habits than I am to change the way I relate to my friends and family. Watching the demo I was relatively unaware of the collaborative tools that are already available online but now armed with more knowledge I'm even more excited about what Google Wave will make possible http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ.