Our use of computers to support collaboration is in its early stages. To enforce meeting in a computer room in order to use the technology asks them to forego eating and drinking, meeting in the middle of the night, and other student traditions. It further asks them to meet in an area where they need to be relatively quiet and neat. Our computers cannot follow them around, and the property attitudes in universities are such that students would not probably be given portable computers even if they were inexpensive. Hence, Lucy cannot take a computer with her to the coffee shop for a meeting.
Students often plan their work by drawing, sometimes tacking up comparative sketches.
This means an important phase of collaboration is not done with computer support and is also done uncomfortably in a computer classroom. Perhaps electronic sketchpads could help with this, as they might provide pen input and larger screens. But it seems unlikely that a college would put more than one in a classroom, making the timesharing needs a problem. Perhaps a combined word processing and drawing program, where each is on equal footing could make free form work possible. New teachers may not have as much experience with computers as students do and often have trouble adjusting to a new type of classroom atmosphere and new types of technology.