CollaborativeTools

media type="custom" key="111620" toc =Collaborative Tools Overview=

Collaborative tools include the wide range of web-based applications that allow you to work collaboratively with others to create pieces of writing, concept maps, drawings, spreadsheets and much more. You can even participate in web conferencing with video and audio and have the option to create presentations collaboratively. The best part is that most of these tools are //**freely**// available and require only a web browser to use.

**Uses of Collaborative Tools in Education**
As educators these collaborative tools can be very handy when teachers are working on various writing projects such as curriculum guidelines, school procedures and other types of documents. Using an online writing tool makes it possible for everyone to contribute to the same document without having to send copies around through e-mail. Likewise, students can use the writing and presentation tools to work collaboratively on a piece of writing or many other types of assignments with other students within a class, school, district, state, country...planet.

As alluded to above, these collaborative tools facilitate the interaction between students from outside of a single classroom and allow for the integration of ideas into a shared document or artifact. This can promote the development of a collective understanding of a concept and help students see how their classmates, and learners from outside their classroom, are thinking about different topics. It is also a great way for teachers to share notes and outlines with the class and for the entire class to be able to contribute to those notes.

Specific Ideas for using Collaborative Tools in a k-12 Setting
Click here to add or view a lesson plan or idea for using this technology in the classroom.

**Relevant Online Tools**

 * Writing Tools: Each of the following allow you to create a new document online or upload an existing document that you can make public and share with other authors of your choice. When you share the document you can decide if other authors can view and edit or just view the document.
 * [|Zoho Writer]
 * [|Google Docs & Spreadsheets]
 * [|TalkAndWrite]
 * Concept/Mind Mapping and Brainstorming Tools: These tools allow you to collaboratively create and edit different graphic organizers.
 * [|mindomo]
 * [|Gliffy]
 * [|Bubble.us]
 * [|Draw Anywhere]
 * [|IdeaTree]
 * [|LooseStitch]
 * [|Mindmeister]
 * [|Thinkature]
 * [|Project Draw]
 * [|Wise Mapping]
 * [|WriteMaps]
 * Organizational Tools: These tools are designed to help you stay organized and collaborate with others to find common meeting times and schedule events.
 * [|Google Calendar]: an online calendar tool that can be shared and made public
 * [|Sched.org]: for scheduling events across several people attending a conference or other public event
 * [|Meeting Wizard]: for scheduling a specific meeting or finding a meeting time that works best for all participants
 * [|Timebridge]: another online scheduling tool
 * [|Doodle]: a very basic but effective scheduling tool
 * Web Conferencing: These tools allow for free web conferencing with a simple web camera. They have different features that include chat, file sharing, screen sharing, remote access and more.
 * [|Vyew]
 * [|Yugma]
 * Wiggio
 * Mikogo
 * Tokbox
 * Collaborative Tools for Research: Most of these tools are more suited for adults doing research but it might be helpful to see the different ways that technology can be used to facilitate collaborative research projects. Many of these tools cost money to use.
 * 2collab: You can connect with other researchers, share files, ideas and engage in discussions with colleagues.
 * MyNetResearch: This is another collaborative environment that helps bring researchers together regardless of geographic proximity. You can share files, communicate via an internal e-mail system, set tasks and deadlines and much more.
 * Other Collaborative Tools
 * [|VoiceThread]allows you to post an image or entire slideshow and annotate it with text or recorded voice messages. You can invite other users to annotate images as well. The interface allows the recording of spoken messages directly through the browser.
 * [|ImaginationCubed]is a collaborative drawing tool from General Electric (GE). It is mostly for fun and very simplistic.
 * [|trailfire]allows you to create web trails by leaving post-it type notes on different webpages that can be linked together in a series to make a "trail". This makes it possible to annotate pages and put them in a particular order for students to view. It even has a discussion function so that you can pose questions and have students respond with comments.
 * [|skrbl] is a collaborative whiteboard tool that allows you to collaboratively annotate documents, websites, images and more.
 * [|InputDraw] is similar to [|skrbl] in that it allows you to do collaborative drawing either on a blank surface or over an image.
 * drop.io is a file sharing tool that allows you to easily create a dropbox that can be shared with others.

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