Blog Assignment #13

What grade-level appropriate tools are there to help your students work collaboratively in-class and online?

1. Go to the source 102 Free (or Free-to-Try) Online Collaborative Learning Tools for Teachers and Educators.
2. Click on the grade level that you will be teaching in the table of contents.
3. Find 3 tools to explore and review in the form of a blog post that answers the question above.
4. Find 2 different tools not mentioned on the website above and review those. Cite your sources.



Crocodoc
   The first resource I looked at was Crocodoc. It is a file sharing application that can be used to collaborate on projects using document annotations, commenting, and correcting. This is also referred to as a box filing system. It allows you to share pictures, bookmarks, Google docs and sheets, powerpoints, excel sheets, and word documents. You can access this via mobile phone as well. Students can work together on projects that have multiple files in it all at one time, and be able to access them in one place.

Prezi for Education
   The second resource I reviewed was Prezi. This is a slideshow presentation maker that brings boring powerpoint presentation to life in an innovative way. It allows you to integrate pictures, words, graphs, and much more into a presentation. The best part of this presentation program is that up to ten students can use a presentation as a personal white board. This means that they can access the presentation notes and media at home, and have everything talked about in class in front of them outside of the classroom. These presentations can be created to be interactive, which is always engaging as well. This is a very beneficial tool for the classroom. Teachers can also collaborate with other teachers on presentations. It is also a great tool for networking with other teachers.

Wunderlist
   The third resource I looked at was Wunderlist. It is a mobile and web-based to do list for students, teachers, and parents to use to keep up with assignments. It also allows students to collaborate on assignments that they are working on together by giving each other things to do and allowing them to mark off the things they have done in the program where everyone else can see. This is a really cool program to use for project-based learning!

Twiddla
   The fourth source I looked at was Twiddla. Twiddla is an interactive white board program that can be used for classroom collaboration between students. It is a web-based program that they refer to as a "playground". The program has options for chatting, video conferencing, writing, drawing, and sharing documents. To start using this program, all you have to do is type in the email addresses of the people you want to interact with and hit GO.

Cacoo
   The last resource I reviewed was Cacoo. Cacoo is a site where you can create diagrams and flow charts online. The site allows students to collaborate with one another on their work as well. First, you pick a template for your chart or diagram. Then you customize it. You can chat with other group members while working on the assignment at hand. You collaborate by sharing the file with other group members via email. This is another great program.

There are many different programs online available for free for teachers and students to use to work collaboratively. The best part is that they are easy to use, and are interesting enough to keep students' attention and keep them engaged in working.