Collaborative+Tools

Collaborative tools are important for not only teacher collaboration, but also for student to teacher and teacher to student collaboration. One of the collaborative tools I really like is the Wiki. Research states "Wiki is derived from the Hawaiian word for fast and refers to software that supports an open editing environment. This means that anyone can go to a wiki website and edit the text. A wiki is a quick way to collaboratively edit documents, and serves as a perpetual collective work of many authors" (Bean et. al, 2011, p. 26). One of the ways I really want to begin incorporating more technology into my classroom is through the use of a classroom wiki. I currently have a wiki that has documents for student reference and also a wiki that was created as a web 2.0 tool. I feel that wiki's can also be used as a collaborative tool for all students and teachers to demonstrate what students have learned and as a online discussion tool.

Another web 2.0 collaborative tool that is very useful to teachers and to students is Google Docs. Google Docs are basically documents created through a Google email account. Through Google Docs users can create a document, presentation, spreadsheet, form, and drawing. Basically document is like a word document. A presentation is very similar to PowerPoint. In Google Docs a spreadsheet is to Microsoft excel and drawing is similar to Microsoft paint. All these tools can be created through a users gmail and then shared with others.The purpose of the share ability is to provide for collaboration. Google docs takes away the documents being sent over and over. Instead there is simply one document that is emailed to the enclosed people and then changed and shared again. This is a very simple tool that can be used in many ways in the educational setting. Teachers can use Google Docs to share lesson plans. Students can send papers to teachers to be looked over before submitting a final draft. Tapscott (2009) states that today’s students “are natural collaborators, who enjoy a conversation, not a lecture” (as cited in Bean et al., 2011, p. 9). Allowing students to use Google Docs and collaborate both with their peers and their teachers is current best practice.

= Click HERE for my Google Doc Presentation Sample =

Click HERE for another Wiki Sample

Here are some other Web 2.0 Collaborative Tools to try. Simply click the picture to view the website.