When investing in expensive technology it makes sense to collaborate. This was the thinking behind the Bloomsbury Learning Environment (BLE), a joint effort by Birkbeck, the Institute of Education, the School of Oriental and African Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, The Royal Veterinary College and the London School of Pharmacy.
A new project, Apt stairs (Appropriate Practical Technology for Students, Teachers, Administrators and Researchers), funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), aims to investigate ways of helping students, teachers and administrators to work online together.
Sarah Sherman, BLE's service manager, says the scheme will try to answer the need for students to develop more collaborative skills, and for the average academic to develop technological expertise beyond PowerPoint.
The project's key tool is Google Docs, a shared online word file application that can be used by several people simultaneously - a bit like a wiki. Birkbeck is using the application in practical biology sessions to enable postgraduate students to post their lab experiments on the VLE, comment on each other's work and get immediate feedback from the tutor. "With Google Docs the tutor can see what's happening straight away, " says Sherman.
