Collaboration Tools
Change the nature of your classroom by introducing a new process for sharing information and assessing student work.
About Personal Learning Networks (PLNs)
Have students collaborate on a Wiki or Online Doc such as a Google Doc. Students can easily work on the same project, or contribute to a large classroom assignment. Use Wikispaces or Google Docs for collaboration.
For more information on Personal Learning Networks, check out the Resources page in the What's Hot in Education section.
Classroom Blogs
Create a course blog to make students aware of important articles and news stories. Encourage your students to comment on the blog, or have them write articles you can post, or have them create their own blogs. Create a blog easily at edublog or Blogger.
- edublogs -- This community contains blogs written by educators. Create your own edublog for use in the classroom, or just search for interesting blogs to follow.
- Posterous for easy blogging -- Easily create a classroom blog through Posterous. Create an account with Posterous to create a special email address. Simply write up a blog post in email, then send it to this address to create your blog. Easy!
- List of the Top 100 Best Education Blogs -- This is a great list of the top education blogs to help your search for what blogs to follow. It is put out by the Online Education Database.
Microblogging / Instant Messaging / Texting
Microblog sites such as Twitter are perfect for virtually instantaneous collaboration with others. Create a network, such as Twitter to create a "backchannel" for your classroom discussions. Turn classroom discussions into lasting conversations. Create more private networks using sites like TodaysMeet or edmodo.
As mobile technologies become more and more ubiquitous, educators are arguing that more learning could be accomplished by using these devices. In particular, many are arguing for text-based solutions. A variety of sites are beginning to appear that offer study-guides and SMS-based notifications. Check out Studyboost for an example of a text-based study site.
Wikis / Collaborative Documents
Have students collaborate on a Wiki or Online Doc such as a Google Doc. Students can easily work on the same project, or contribute to a large classroom assignment. Use Wikispaces or Google Docs for collaboration.
Social Bookmarking Sites
Create a platform to share important websites and resources with your students. With social bookmarking tools, it is easy for students to share sites as a class, and with the teacher.
- Delicious -- This social networking site contains a collection of bookmarks from a variety of users. Search "tags" to find results of websites that users have bookmarked.
- Diigo - Many teachers swear by this tool. With Diigo, you can create an account and then collect and then annotate important sources on the web. This is a great researching tool.
Social Networks
While many are quick to focus on the negative aspects of Social Networks, many teachers are looking towards social networks as areas to augment instruction.
Consider creating a private social network for your students. Sites like Ning are ideal for creating your own unique social networking sites. These kinds of sites are perfect for monitoring interaction between your students. You could also collaborate on a Ning with a partner school from another country, creating a safe space for collaboration.
For more information on ideal social networks for teachers, go to the Online Educational Resources section.
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