As particularidades e os fatores de sucesso na colaboração a distância entre professores no âmbito do projeto Cégep em Rede

This article sets out part of the results obtained from an action research project focusing on remote collaboration (telecollaboration) between teachers from distant colleges, and aimed at fostering the professional development of teachers and stimulating education programs offered to small groups. More specifically, this article explains the factors that contributed to the success of the remote collaboration between participating teachers. The project, named Cégeps en Réseau ("Networked colleges") and managed by the Cefrio - Centre francophone d'information des organisations ("Frenchspeaking organizations¿ information center"), consisted in twining classes from different colleges sharing the same small group programs. The twining was made to allow collaboration between teachers and between students from these programs. One of the success factors of the teacher' collaboration - which differentiates it from the students' remote collaboration - seems to be frequent and continuous communication through a range of technological means, as well as occasional in person meetings. Regarding research, the development of a unified theoretical model applicable both to teachers' collaboration and students' collaboration, and both to remote collaboration and in person collaboration, would be a great advance