Notes from the memory banks

It is almost 4am in the morning, and I am awake because... you guessed it, beer in my stomach bubbling away. It also doesn't help the fact that I get the munchies just before I get knocked out by the combination of fatty food and beer urgh, why do we do things that make us regret....and keep on doing them...aren't we supposed to learn?

Anyway, before I forget to write this down..an important but crucial point in collaboration was mentioned to me by a an impressive man from Portland school of Arts over lunch at the Mens A (school cafeteria).

To be able to allow an environment within the dynamics of group collaboration, for the possibility of good honest feedback amongst students of each others work - there has to be an element of trust.
The way he goes about this is to assign work that will not stretch the skills of the students too far, and allow them to constructively state the strengths and weakness of each others work, without the need to defend something that they have put their heart and soul into. Gradually this builds the students trust in each other evaluations, thus allowing free flowing dialogue and strengthening the bond between the group.
This is possible over the time period of about 4 weeks, and reflects the real world scenario where the sum of the efforts is greater than the individual efforts.