Blog two: reflections on working collaboratively using Google Docs.

Through doing my project, I haven’t had access to a computer/laptop whenever I required it. Not having the luxury of the access to my documents wherever and whenever I need them usually means I’m rather stressed about finishing work, as well as losing sleep trying to get work done and to a decent standard. Now like anyone in a similar situation who has found and been using Google Docs, I am very happy to report back it has been a god-send for me!

Google Docs has allowed me to access my documents from any computer easily and with organisation and clarity. As well as this, it means I can just forward my documents to another person, and get feedback straight from them in the document rather than in a new file. I haven’t used the services to its full potential and allowed people to view my work as really anything saved using Google docs is unfinished when I save it, and there for me when I next need to pick-up the work where I left it. If I got to the stage of viewing other peoples work on it and allowing my work up on it, I can see how this would be very beneficial to help each other out with tips on improving others work, as well as receiving ideas from class-mates as to how to progress your work.

Networking and sharing ideas and tip’s on work is a part of Google Docs service which I am yet to really properly experience, but I definitely will keep it in mind for future potential opportunities and projects worked on in and around a group environment.

blog one: commentary on sharing resorces using resorces using delicious.

“Delicious” is a bookmarking web services, which you can share with friends and work colleagues, like a social networking site for sharing websites you have tagged that are of useful to your work or interests.
Having used delicious only briefly during my project, I mostly used the service to merely collect useful websites for my own project towards the appendices. I found the service very useful, as I could save the bookmark and write notes on the content as briefly or detailed as I wanted. Then when going back to my bookmarks, I could view who else uses the same bookmark and see if they had saved any bookmarks/sites of a similar nature which I could find of interest to my project.
In previous projects, creating an appendices has meant copying and pasting every site mentioned in my work which can be quite time consuming, and equally has taken up the same amount of effort, stress, and time as writing the work due to having to back-track through every saved website without the helpful notes you can make with delicious.

Delicious has also allowed the class to view what each student is working on, and to the extent the individual has been researching for their project. As the class are all working on completely different projects we have a variation of websites, which can over-lap when two or more students have a similar area of study. With this in mind, it means we have been able to help each other out with sourcing certain aspects of our examinations and studies. At the best of times, it is hard to find the ideal website for exactly what you want to say with your reasons, in the past it has taken me days to find a site that links immediately with my work and the point I want to make, or to find the précised knowledge I need to acquire to gain an understanding of a particular aspect of my work. This allows us to find them and share them with each other, and also search to see if any have found what were looking for.

In general, I found using delicious made the collecting of research easier to obtain and maintain for my work, as well as making the implementing of an appendices additionally far more organised then in previous projects.
I will definitely keep it in mind for any future projects I have as it makes the aspects of retaining information from the web plain and simple.