Texas History Mystery “Behind the Scenes”
April 24, 2008
As Janine live-blogged several sessions from the USDLA conference, this comment in her Mash-up or Crash-up post caught my eye.
Interestingly, he asked the audience if they have tried GoogleDocs. 15 people raised their hands. Then he asked, who is using it still? Only 3 raised their hands. I wonder how many people actually seriously collaborate for their work on documents with other people. And of those, how many stayed with GoogleDocs?
I would like to add to Janine’s wondering. How many really have to collaborate? Most times, it seems that many in a team just sit back and let one or two do all the work…or they just pass that email attachment around and try to figure out the latest version!
As Angela, Paige and I work on Texas History Mystery, we have used many different tools to complete this task collaboratively. The tools have been essential (especially Google Docs for registration and managing technical information), but so are the members of the team. Many people ask how we manage large-scale projects and here is a peak behind the scenes.
Texas History Mystery Workflow
- During our first quick Skype meeting, we assigned tasks and quickly built the wiki and Google Docs that we would use.
- Paige created a Google customized “Texas History Mystery” search that we can continue to build and add to each year.
- Angela took the lead on registration and scheduling the classes into the date/time slots.
- Paige worked on getting all of the “mysteries” entered into the Google Doc so that we did not have duplicates in any sessions.
- I am in the process of collecting and managing all the technical information, also in the Google Doc.
- During the connections, Angela and Shane will manage connections. Angela, Paige and I will share facilitation of the sessions.
- This year we will have about 60 classes participating in five days.
As I continue to work with others on various projects, two key factors seem to determine successful collaboration through distance: selecting the appropriate technology for the task and working with others who know how to collaborate. Selecting the tech tool is the easy part; developing the skill set to effectively collaborate seem to be much harder.
Do you work and play well with others? 
What collaborative technologies do you use? What works? What doesn’t?
Posted in Tx History Mystery
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Hmmm!! Great post Roxanne! It leaves me wondering - what are the skills necessary to effectively collaborate? I’m thinking of Jazz, these types of mass scale projects, etc.
I think one skill is the ability to see what needs to be done and willingness to jump in and help get it done.
Another skill is follow-up - responsibility and following through on your end of the bargain.
Another one is the ability to see that there are multiple ways of accomplishing a task, and if someone does it a bit differently than you would, you’re ok with it. Flexibility, I guess you’d call that!
Anyone else? What other skills are necessary for collaboration?
Hey, Rox. I just posted a podcast about Texas History Mystery! I know, I haven’t made a podcast since September, but while I was waiting in my bridge meeting room for participants to show up, I had to entertain myself. Its in iTunes called iVC@HISD or you can go to http://www.humbleisd.net/ivcpod to hear Episode 7!