QUESTION: I do a lot of group activities and projects in my class. Although I am very happy with what I do in the classroom, I would like to see what is available online. Can you recommend any tools I can use for collaboration?
ANSWER:
According to studies on the characteristics of the millennials, the current generation is collaborative in nature and good at working with others in groups. You can observe this characteristic from how they get things done from creating groups in Facebook to texting all of their friends to get an answer to a question. And of course, this generation is good at social networking tools, so why not take advantage of their strengths? There are a variety of social networking tools on the Internet. Some of these tools are well-suited for college teaching while others have little application in educational settings. Here are several tools that I would recommend for instructional purposes.
A wiki is a Web page that can be edited by multiple people. A prime example of a wiki is Wikipedia, where millions of people have been collaborating and compiling an online encyclopedia. A wiki can also be a private Web site that only your students can access. Once you set up a wiki, editing is almost as easy as using a word processing program. It is also easy to incorporate hyperlinks, video, and audio in your wiki. To use a wiki for a group activity, you could assign groups of students to different topics and have them compile encyclopedia, dictionary, book chapters, etc.
Delicious is a bookmarking tool that allows people to share their bookmarks. One of the biggest advantages of Delicious is that you can find links from other people who have interests similar to yours. To use Delicious for a group activity, you would assign students to different topics and have them find Web resources for the topic and then post those resources to Delicious, where their classmates can access them.
Google docs include word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools. They are similar to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but the biggest differences are that they stay online so you can access them from anywhere, and they can be shared by multiple people. Google docs make it easier for students to write a paper or create a presentation together by providing an online collaborative space.
Those are nice tools that many educators are currently interested in. However, please keep in mind that these are tools that help you and your students achieve learning objectives in your class. When you are planning an activity using these tools, think about the purpose of the activity and the assessment methods in relation to the learning objectives.
