Etherpad - can it be so easy?

I had a good e-learning experience today!
Everybody always asks one - how does e-Learning make one's life easier?
Well Etherpad (www.etherpad.com) did the trick today.

A lecturer (1st year Chemisty) asked me on e-mail what technology I would suggest for getting students to work collaboratively in groups, planning a research project on Sterling water. At first my usual reactions came out: do it on a forum. But then I remembered a little programme I explored a year or so ago - Etherpad.
I suggested a plan to the lecturer, who subsequently invited me to his class later in the day to share my "big plan" with his students. A few words on working collaboratively in groups, how Etherpad can help, and a short demonstration, even I was amazed at the potential of this technology. The recipe I suggested was as follows:

1. After dividing into groups, one group member goes to www.etherpad.com and creates a public pad.
2. Then goes to Webstudies (the LMS) and in a pre-setup discussion forum - he/she published the webaddress of the public pad.
3. All the group members find the address there and make their way to the Pad.
4. They can then write and collaborate in "really" real time and work on their proposal.
5. When finished, they can export the document to Word or PDF and use it for their presentation.

I also told them about Google docs (http://docs.google.com) that can do the same, but with a little more effort (and not such immediate immediacy) than Etherpad. Images are better dealt with in Googledocs - but for now I want Etherpad to bask in its glory.

The best way it to test it out. Go to www.etherpad.com, create your own public pad and invite someone to write with you (literally).