Skill To Focus and Summarize

Yesterday during the workshop they introduced various games to play and cooperative learning activities to conduct with the students. In one of the activities we were given 7 questions regarding globalization. Next we were divided into 7 groups. Each group was to become an expert on a question. After 20 minutes we were asked to mingle and find experts to answer each of these questions. It was an interesting experiment and I may use this technique with some topics to get my classes moving. After one teacher asked "what is the objective of this exercise?'
Our facilitator Dr. Chiara Gratton Lavoie an economist replied to this question with "They get the skill to focus and summarize".
She did not talk about the economics of the exercise but about students needing the skill to focus and summarize. She complained about students who write 2 or 3 pages of nothing and expecting a good grade.
She likes short precise answers. Later talking to her at lunch I learned that her speciality is in Microeconomics.
This is something that I knew instinctively but had not verbalized it. This is an important skill for our students.