Empowering Online Teaching and Learning
SIX ONLINE
COLLABORATIVE
TOOLS TO ENGAGE STUDENTS
IN TEAMWORK
By: Benjun M. Casinas Principal Vinschool The Harmony
6
Empowering Online Teaching and Learning
Online Collaborative Tools to Engage Students in Teamwork
N
othing is more frustrating to a teacher than lack of attention from students. You have spent several weeks or even months working on some project that you thought would be a breakthrough, but nothing happens. Situations like this are very common in modern learning because a lack of interest to engage in teamwork is widespread.
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Technology has been effective in eliminating this issue because it has redesigned the idea of collaboration and provided interactive learning opportunities.�
In this article, I will introduce you to 7 online collaborative tools that can help you to solve the issue of lack of interest for good. When I talk about online collaborative tools, I refer to webbased tools that enable teachers and students to perform a wide range of tasks, such as interactive discussions, online collaboration activities, sharing and accessing electronic learning resources, and many more others. Here is the collection of great online collaborative tools that I have gathered for you, enjoy!
SIX Online Collaborative Tools to Engage Students in Teamwork
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Padlet
he first tool on my list is a great one for sharing digital content and improving the engagement of the students. It has two versions (for school and for business), and provides a controlled learning environment that helps the teacher to enhance the writing process. Here are some of the functions you can perform with Padlet: Teachers can create special brainstorm sessions where they invite students to discuss some topics, all with excellent opportunities provided by Padlet, such as sharing Internet findings, ideas, and visual aids.
Book review sessions are another great lesson idea. Create a session dedicated to a book and invite the students to share their reviews and comment on the ideas of others.
Students can use Padlet as a portfolio for showcasing their best school projects on their profile.
It has a feedback tool to provide an assessment of students’ work.
Links to various multimedia resources are provided.
Empowering Online Teaching and Learning
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TodaysMeet
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his is a toolbox for teachers that takes classroom management to another level. With TodaysMeet, this task becomes so much easier because of a wide variety of available functions. They include:
Discussion forums Empowerment of students by letting them have some teaching responsibilities Possibility to include unlimited number of students to the class Meetings Presentations Online seminars Movies and silent activities Review of work by classmates
SIX Online Collaborative Tools to Engage Students in Teamwork
3
Socrative
V
irtualizing student content has never been easier! Socrative is an innovative platform for teachers and students that is essentially an application for effective classroom management. The developers of this great app have put a special emphasis on having fun and on interactive activities, which are perfect for increasing the engagement of students. The features of Socrative are below.
Activities that engage students Quizzes featuring the most interesting topics from the lesson Reporting to enhance the students’ understanding of the class on an individual level Chat and discussion rooms to promote online collaboration “Space Race� feature that encourages friendly competition among students with intergalactic quiz bowl Feedback to improve the experience of the students throughout the course
Empowering Online Teaching and Learning
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Twiddla
O
ne of the most popular online collaborative tools for teachers is this “web-based meeting playground.” It allows the class to perform Internet research collaboratively and share their findings with each other and the teacher. This is a great tool for those teachers who want to prepare K-12 students for writing college papers because it involves a lot of writing assignments. Here are the tool’s features:
Online meetings Online discussions Sharing of images, email, and documents
Voice chat Screen capture Unlimited storage Total moderator control
SIX Online Collaborative Tools to Engage Students in Teamwork
5
Collaborize Classroom
T
his is a topic library where teachers can find, create, share, and download inquiry-based discussions on any educational topic. As a result, the teacher receives a unique URL which can be sent to the students to begin the lesson. The teachers are free to:
Select hundreds of pre-written lessons
Create their own lessons
Receive and give feedback
Start discussion with students
Empowering Online Teaching and Learning
6
Scribblar
T
his is another popular tool that received a lot of great reviews from teachers (you can read them on the website). It is an online collaboration platform that is perfect for students because it provides many incentives for teamwork as well as great technology to engage in creative work. It also allows for adding more classes to one discussion, and you can save the chat transcript. The main features of Scribblar are:
Online chat Upload of images and documents Activities for individual students
Discussions Separate projects
SIX Online Collaborative Tools to Engage Students in Teamwork
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Using proper online collaborative tools is
an important condition
for increasing the interest of your students in teamwork. While all tools listed in this article are suitable for this task, have a look at each of them to find out which one will work best for your class. As a result, you will be able to reap all the educational benefits and reach more students than ever before. Enjoy the world of online education and have fun!�
ADAPTED FROM: 6 Online Collaborative Tools to Engage Students in Teamwork By Diana Clark
Empowering Online Teaching and Learning
Empowering Online Teaching and Learning
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