Online Collaboration

Problem, how do you provide an online place for your students to privately collaborate or participate in discussions any time of the day or night? This is a question I and my colleagues have been asking a lot lately.

I have actually found some great sites for this. However, they come in different packages. One that is great for polls and hosting discussions is CollaborizeClassroom.com. This site allows you to set up a free account and then students can request access by going to a unique link to your "classroom." Check out the "Cool" for Collaborize Classroom below.

The other two sites that I found are a little less like structured conversations, but still would be useful for online collaborating. The first is Stixy.com; Stixy generates a cork board and virtual sticky notes that can be used for notes, literature circles and other endless class activities. A site similar to Stixy is Corkboard.me/simple which also generates a cork board and sticky notes as well.

The Cool:

CollaborizeClassroom

• Free, but requires an account set up with a working email address
  
• Set up and moderate discussion threads in a private environment.
• Generate Polls
• Vote on your favorite comment or post

Stixy

• Free, but requires an account set up with a working email address
• Share a cork board space with virtual sticky notes
• Upload and share photos, documents and create "To Do" lists

Coarkboard.me/Simple

• Free
• Share a cork board space with virtual sticky notes
• Upload and share photos, documents and create "To Do" lists

Mediocre


CollaborizeClassroom

• Students will need a working email address to access it and log in.

Stixy

• Students will need a working email address to access it and log in.
• Students would need to share a link to their cork board or the teacher would need to start it and share the link with students so that the teacher could moderate.
  

Coarkboard.me/Simple

• Students will need a working email address to access it and log in.
• Students would need to share a link to their cork board or the teacher would need to start it and share the link with students so that the teacher could moderate.
• Sometimes takes a while to load.