Extending learning

Hi,
Yesterday was a long busy day.
A senior colleague was talking about his new research group of six postgraduate students all to be working on the same or similar projects but they are distributed over a wide area working in different parts of the country.

I'll set up a networked blog for him, as I explained yesterday.
It should circumvent email overload, yet keep email open for individual tutoring and guidance. The six students all specialist medical-doctors can read, edit, comment and collaborate while signing each posting individually to maintain moderate integrity.

I know if they each have their own blog, and my friend has an rss aggregator, then this would technologically replace my networked-blog concept. However, the problem in his context was to develop unity and cohesion among dispersed researchers. A common blog acts as a prompt too, and rss feeds can be left-margined for academic readings, upcoming conferences, individual websites, and so on.

Yesterday I wrote of my idea for my own students within the same room working seated beside each other, and here I extend this concept to dispersed students who need close supervision (to get their doctorate) while allowing any place any time studying.

Thanks again to WestGeorgia -
Paul