An Ad-Hoc Collaborative Exercise between US and Australian Students Using ThinkTank: E-Graffiti or Meaningful Exchange?

This paper outlines an ad-hoc collaborative exercise arranged between a group of undergraduate students studying an introductory MIS course in the USA and a group of Australian masters students studying a Collaborative Information Systems (CIS) course. As part of a visit to the US the first author, who normally taught the Australian CIS course, taught the introductory MIS course and the timing of the evening course coincidently crossed over with the Australian morning session. The availability of a collaborative tool (ThinkTank) at the US hosting institution suggested the possibility of a collaborative exercise within the Web 2.0 space that would support the content, to varying degrees, of the two courses. Although the focus of the meeting was defined the outcome more closely resembled e-graffiti than an organized discussion. The rather hastily arranged exercise met with mixed responses from both sets of students and this paper considers the benefits and problems of arranging such ad-hoc exercises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]