CommonSpace Review ...

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Testing Approach

As a newbie to Commonspace, I began as I assume most people would when trying out a new program: I installed the software, read the documentation, and plunged in, beginning with the tutorial before I dared check out all the bells and whistles.

In testing this software, I asked two questions:
  1. How could I use it in my professional writing?
  2. How could I use it to teach?

I tried everything that I could do on a real text. I used linked and unlinked columns, both written and sound annotations, collapsing and expanding annotations, column comparison, spell checking, moving, deleting, resizing columns, adding question sets. I shanghaied my undergrad writing tutors and watched them negotiate the columns and respond to each others' work. I was not able to test the online conferencing capabilities due to limitations of our network situation, but other than that, I think  I did everything.