Collaboration

Collaborative Resources

1. Chat
   1. Use Etherpad, Chatzy.com, or **TodaysMeet.com** to create a backchannel in class for questions or side conversations.
   2. Use chat or Twitter with students in a foreign country
      1. maybe ask the students to corrert the chat log for homework
2. Google Docs
   1. Have a class edit the same document and create a story.
      1. The story can also be written in a foreign language
   2. Use a document to collect group information. There is a built-in chat to let students communicate before typing information.
   3. Students can work on a presentation together. An example is doing basic research ahead of the next history unit or prior to a field trip.
   4. Use the forms feature of a spreadsheet to collect data from students for analysis. The data could be results of an experiment or personal data to make the analysis more meaningful.
   5. Students can peer-edit documents or presentations.
   6. Create a virtual field trip about an area or museum when students are not physically going to visit it.
   7. Spreadsheets can be used for basic project management and tracking. Consider keeping student milestones for a larger project or research paper. Both teacher and student have an easy way to check their progress.
3. Blog
   1. Students can use a blog to reflect on a range of topics including: current events, history, science labs, math concepts, etc..
      1. Students review other students' reflections and compare and contrast
         1. can also leave comments on other students' blogs
   2. Here is another list of blog ideas (list)
4. Wiki
   1. Have students leave wiki (or blog) comments for a school in another state or country
   2. Class works together to create a class wiki of daily class notes
   3. ### students can review
   4. Plan a project by collaboratively building and editing project information in a centralized location
   5. Track progress of project details in one place
   6. Schedule a project using a Wiki as a shared calendar
   7. Brainstorming a project
      1. or use a wiki to collect research
   8. Draft a rough draft model for the class to learn about writing
      1. have students contribute and peer edit (wikis have built-in versioning)
5. Podcasting
   1. Have your foreign language students create a blog with writtern descriptions of life at your school and in your town.
      1. After the written assignment, students should create a podcast speaking what they wrote
         1. Consider having the students find relevant picutures to make the blog more interesting
         2. Add the podcast to the blog
   2. Sample lesson plan idea (link)
   3. List of resources (link) (link) (link)
      1. List of resources from Apple (link)
   4. iPod products and articles (link) - not necessarily education-oriented
   5. iPods in the classroom wiki (link) - when you want to use them for more than just podcasting
6. Concept Map & Timleine
   1. xTimeline.com or TimeGlider.com
      1. Engage students by having them research the history of technology (link)
      2. Students work together to create an online timeline.
         1. Sections of the same class can compete to make the most indepth timeline
   2. Students collaborate on the structure and detail of a concept map.
      1. excellent way to preview a unit that is particularly complicated or dense
      2. can be added to over the school year or in different grades
7. Twitter
   1. you can distribute assignments and class updates if your class changes daily
      1. calendar is more convenient for classes that don't change daily
   2. students can use Twitter to ask homework questions
      1. they must review prior questions to ensure that they do not ask a question that has already been answered
   3. see my resouces for a teacher list and dozens of related products (link)
8. Social Networking
   1. Use a Ning to setup a virtual classroom for a subject (including foreign language)
      1. Create a virtual assistance program where students in lower grades ask questions to students in upper grades. The students get points based on how often they repond to younger students' questions and the correctness of the answer. This would work great for vocabulary and grammatical questions.
   2. Use Facebook (the F-word) where students can only type in their foreign langauge
9. Wordle.Net
   1. Wordle creates word "clouds" which summarize text such as speeches, stories and website tags.
   2. See sample ideas (link)
10. Collaborative Ranking
    1. Intel (link) has an excellent tool that allows students to rank items and then compare their results to others groups.
       1. This is a great tool for ranking subjective types of information like characteristics, innovations, leaders, laws, etc.
       2. The teacher gets a window into student thinking if there is consensus or significant differences in the ranking.
          1. side note: This is similar to a PD activity we had in June 2009 where we ranked the most important items to bring to another planet.
       3. The group comparison tool allows each group to defend their picks.