Collaborative Environments
International Present and Future

Collaborative environments are evolving to reflect the changing marketplace demands.  In two key papers, we have provided a comprehensive, contemporary perspective of collaborative environments, exploring their current usage, and potential future uses. In an effort to reflect the integration of international markets we have included a report on present and future collaborative environments from a European and a Dutch source.  As Education Venture Analysts we would like you to develop your awareness of emerging markets in this field.  With this interest in mind, we ask you to experiment with existing collaborative environments (such as wikis, gliffy and/or google docs), noting their strengths and weaknesses as they are applied to meet current challenges in collaborative environments. As well, we encourage you to consider markets for improved collaborative software, thinking locally and internationally.

What defines a collaborative environment? Click here for the wikipedia definition

As David Vogt has noted, "Within education the respective challenge is twofold: 1) learning itself is more complex and therefore requires collaborative solutions; and 2) learning processes need to increasingly model the collaborative behaviours and skillsets that learners can take with them into the other productive dimensions of their lives. The emerging market for collaboration environments is therefore dynamic and important."

As EVA's we welcome your insight into the comprehensive collaborative environment marketplace which exists, perhaps as yet in it's infancy, and we can't wait to hear your suggestions on how the future marketplace will broaden its functionality without losing it's usability. We think you have a lot to contribute.

Have fun

Learning some collaborative tools

Not sure how to use one of our collaborative tools? Use the navigation Learn about on the left to learn about gliffy, wikis and google docs.

Our Forum for discussions

We have created a forum for discussions about the collaborative environments used in this module.

Please feel free to post any questions and/or concerns you have about virtual collaboration.