Collaboration in the Classroom

From a professional standpoint, I’ve used Twitter for the last several years to develop a strong PLN (Professional Learning Network).  Twitter utilizes the nature of social media, with it’s far reaching abilities, and blends with the professional needs of an educator.  I’ve followed and gathered useful tools from administrators, teachers in my subject, teachers within my grade level, technology resources, and many more, all in developing a well-rounded PLN where I can go at any time to gather information on a multitude of topics.  At any time I can post directly to another educator for advice or questions, or post a comment or question to a variety of groups (or hashtags) I follow, such as #edtech, #flipclass, and #sschat, to name a few.  Great resources are found in the members I follow such as Cybraryman, FreeTech4Teachers, and Edutopia.  Check these out!

When directly talking about the class, there were a couple of collaborating tools which come to mind.  First, Edmodo is the LMS (Learning Management System) I use in my class, and it’s likeness to Facebook allows students to post comments tot he wall of the class.  This enables a tremendous amount of collaboration within the confines of my supervision, and creates a safe environment which is password protected.  Students can collaborate at any time of the day, using mobile apps on their phones and tablets, as well as any computer.  The service is free and incredibly user-friendly.  The second service is Google Drive, the very popular service provided free from Google.  The ability to share a document with other users and modify the document in real time whenever any student is logged on allows collaboration at it’s highest point.  These both create easy, user-friendly methods for students to collaborate with each other.