1) Read the article: “In Defense of Cheating” by Don Norman; accessible via: http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/InDefenseOfCheating.html and comment on the following issue:

do you agree or disagree with Norman’s position? Why?

I absolutely agree with Norman's position, especially on the working in groups and utilizing technologies such as the internet. I've never really been aloud to collaborate with other people before and the absence of this skill has left me high and dry in my senior projects class. My group had a lot of troubles at the beginning working together and it's taken us a couple of months to get into the swing of things. Norman's idea is a great one but I do believe that in order to "change" the schooling system it is going to take an unreasonable amount of time to do. I wouldn't start it in the lower grades but in colleges and universities.

how does his view relate to your own experience in your school, university, and working life (in case you have worked somewhere sometimes)?

As I said all of Norman's ideas I havn't really had experience in before this class. The collaboration is starting to kick in because I'm about to graduate and enter the job world as a computer scientist which requires a lot of group work and so I wish I had more experience in working with other people.

2) Visit one of the following websites and explore it as a medium for collaboration

http://www.experts-exchange.com/

http://www.mamamedia.com

3) Briefly discuss for your chosen website:

what did you find interesting about it?

I chose mamamedia.com and it was very interactive! It let the users of the site be very creative and actually USE the site instead of just viewing it. I played on it for a while just because it was really fun, the botblox was my favorite because as it says it lets you create and control your own world.

in which way is it related to “collaboration”?

It involved collaboration because it let you "chat" with other people if you wanted who were signed in and share your creations whether it be cards or stamps with other people. I'm sure if you wanted you could create the beginning of something then share it with a friend and let them finish it. A very good idea for little kids to start working together at a young age by doing something fun.

how does it compare with the Swiki used for our class?

I don't know if it compares very well with the swiki. While this site does let you talk to others who are signed on, it doesn't give you the control to actually be part of the site and modify the site as the swiki does. The swiki lets users of it be part of the site and edit it in many different ways. I think it may be a good idea that mamamedia isn't that powerful because little kids get a little out of hand if they had that much power.

4) which is your favorite website / system in support of collaboration (briefly justify your opinion)!

Email is an extremely powerful tool and it makes collaboration with team mates / peers a magnitude easier and powerful. Not only does it give communication between peers but it lets you send files and links to eachother as well. In my opinion this is the most powerful system in support of collaboration that I've had the pleasure of using.

5) have you ever read a book(s) / article(s) (or books) about collaboration? if yes:

I've never heard anything really about collaboration until this class but "Design Patterns" by Gamma, Helm, Johnson and Vlissides talks about how important making software managable and contained is because of the fact that sooner or later you will have to collaborate with others.

choose the most important one

provide title and one paragraph what you found interesting about it!