Session 29: Digital Collaboration & Teamwork
At a glance: pupils work as a Nnoboa team in one shared cloud document, choosing safe permissions, taking clear roles, giving kind comments and using version history as a safety net. · Time: 90 minutes (adjust the timings if your period is shorter) · Workbook pages: 6
Learning outcomes
By the end of the session, pupils can:
- Explain cloud storage, shared files, version history and comments, and why collaboration is "Nnoboa using technology".
- Choose the right permission (Viewer, Commenter or Editor) and explain why Editor never goes to the public.
- Give and resolve feedback using the three sentence frames, and find version history in a shared document.
Before the session
- Decide how pupils will sign in. The lab tells pupils to use the school or club account you give them, or one shared demo account per team. Prepare those accounts in advance and never use pupils' personal accounts. With one shared account per team, teammates work on one PC or sign in to the same account, so the Editor step is skipped; still add yourself as Commenter.
- Test sharing and File → Version History on the school network beforehand.
- Plan teams of 3 or 4. In a team of 3, one person takes two roles (for example Writer and Researcher), as the workbook says.
- Test the Internet Town lab on the projector PC; keep the offline pack on USB.
Running order
| Time | Activity | Workbook | What the mentor does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–10 min | Typing warm-up | – | Pupils open the typing trainer (Typing in the menu, or the warm-up banner on the session page) and do the 10-minute warm-up. Walk round checking posture and home-row fingers. |
| 10–20 min | Nnoboa and cloud files | Page 1 | Ask who has seen communal farm work. Compare passing a USB drive with one live cloud file. |
| 20–30 min | Permission tiers and the sharing law | Page 2 | Act out Viewer, Commenter and Editor with a paper notice. Pupils do Check Your Knowledge. |
| 30–38 min | 3D lab | – | Demonstrate the shared-document missions. |
| 38–48 min | Team roles and version history | Page 3 | Teams fill in names for each role. Walk through the 10:15–10:45 restore example. |
| 48–56 min | Comments, frames and resolving | Page 4 | Model a rude comment, then rewrite it with a frame. Read the panic button aloud. |
| 56–77 min | Guided lab: the Demo Day notice | Page 5 | Help one pupil per team create and share the file. Check permissions before anyone types. |
| 77–85 min | Feedback rewrite and review questions | Page 6 | Pupils work alone, then share rewrites. |
| 85–90 min | Self-assessment and sign-off | Page 6 | Sign off using the evidence below. |
Key ideas and how to explain them
- Nnoboa: neighbours each take a job and finish a field in an afternoon. A shared cloud file lets teammates work on one document at once, without passing a USB drive around.
- Permission tiers: Viewer can only read; Commenter can read and leave notes; Editor has full control to type, delete, reformat and invite others. "Match the permission to how much you trust the person."
- The sharing law: never share as Editor to the public. Editor goes only to named team members.
- Roles: Researcher/Fact-Checker, Writer/Scribe, Designer/Formatter, Quality Controller.
- Version history: an electronic time machine; restore an earlier version in one click.
- Comments: polite sticky notes in the margin instead of deleting someone's work. Use "I understood…", "One question I have is…", "One helpful suggestion is…". Resolve (✓) once the fix is made.
The 3D lab
Use Internet Town. On the projector, demonstrate Make an edit to the shared document and then Let Yaw (a Commenter) try to edit. Ask: "What happened to Yaw's change, and why?" In pairs, pupils repeat both missions. This links directly to the permission tiers on Page 2.
Common mistakes and quick fixes
| Pupils often… | Try this |
|---|---|
| Share with "Anyone with the link" as Editor | Change it to Restricted and add named teammates only. |
| Forget to add the mentor as Commenter | Open Share again and add you as Commenter. |
| All type at once and overwrite each other | Follow the role order: Writer drafts, Quality Controller comments, Designer formats. |
| Delete a teammate's line instead of commenting | Use Ctrl + Z or version history, then leave a comment instead. |
| Leave comments like "Wrong" | Ask them to rewrite it using one of the three frames. |
| Cannot find version history | Google Docs: File → Version history. Word online: File → Info → Version history. |
When things go wrong
- No internet: do the 3D lab from the offline pack, then run the lab on paper: one sheet passed round the team, with comments written on sticky notes in the margin and "resolved" with a tick. Teams can type the notice in an offline word processor afterwards.
- Not enough PCs: one PC per team is fine. Rotate the keyboard by role, with the others reading out comments and checking the Visual Target.
- A PC freezes or the power goes: cloud documents save automatically, so when the power returns, reopen the document and check version history together. That is a perfect live demonstration.
Answer key
Check Your Knowledge (Page 2): Viewer. The headteacher only needs to read the finished plan, with no changes and no notes, and Viewer lets them read without being able to change anything. Commenter gives more access than needed, and Editor is wrong.
Feedback Rewrite Challenge (Page 6): open task. Look for: one of the three frames, no insults, and a specific fix. For example, "One helpful suggestion is to add bullets to make it clean and easy to read" and "One question I have is: what day and time is the event? Could you add the full date?"
Written Review Questions
- A Commenter can read the file and leave notes but cannot change the main text. An Editor can type, delete, reformat and invite others.
- Version history automatically keeps a time-stamped record of every change and who made it, so the team can restore an earlier version from before the paragraph was deleted.
Support and stretch
- Needs more support: give them the Writer role with the exact text from the workbook, or the Quality Controller role with the comment already written on a card.
- Finished early: add a fourth comment using "I understood…" to praise a teammate, then restore an earlier version and undo it again.
Evidence for sign-off
The team shows a shared notice whose permissions are correct (named teammates as Editor, the mentor as Commenter, no public Editor link), with an 18 pt bold title, the three activities (Scratch games, clean water data tables, digital presentations) in a bulleted list and at least two resolved comments. Each pupil can open version history and point to their own edits (a team on one shared account points to the team's edits instead, as all edits show under one name), and can explain the difference between Viewer, Commenter and Editor.
Safety and wellbeing
Use only school or club accounts you control; don't ask pupils for personal email addresses or passwords. Never share any file publicly. Pupils must ask the team before deleting anything, and come to you if a disagreement turns into an edit war. Watch for unkind comments and deal with them quietly. Comments are permanent in version history, so this is a preview of T.H.I.N.K., which you will meet in Session 33.