2008/11/26 Nathan nawrich@gmail.com:
If our response to coordinated student editing is dismissive or punitive, and it often is, then we should not be encouraging educators to assign it to their students.
It depends on the quality of the assignment they give. I liked this one because it was "You have to make an actual good addition, no foolin'." We've had other student editing projects that have resulted in fantastically good new material. YMMV, but I certainly wouldn't regard it as an intrinsically bad idea.
- d.