I just had a most amazing collaborative experience.  @Mrs_Banjer tweeted on Twitter that she was in an etherpad opened by @mbarrow and would anyone like to come and try it out.  I’ve played with etherpad briefly, but not like we did tonight.

Each contributor is allocated a particular colour to help identify their additions and edits (there are eight colours).  We realised that only eight people could work on a document together at any one time when someone had to leave and was denied re-entry.  EtherPad isn’t perfect, but it is very impressive to watch up to eight live edits appearing on screen simultaneously.

After brief introductions and locations were informally exchanged we went to work, asking and answering questions, experimenting to test etherpad’s limitations and getting a feel for how it worked.  We shared links about software, tips about Twitter, but eventually settled to thinking about how students could use it.  About an hour after we first logged on (it didn’t seem like that long) we had co-created a list of ways that etherpad could be used in the classroom by students and teachers. Thanks to @mbarrow  for starting the etherpad and to @mrs_banjer  @scratchie @mwclarkson @juecov and others who popped in and out to contribute during the session.  Here’s the list we came up with.

This was a real collaborative effort and great fun too! Give it a go with some friends at http://etherpad.com/