Online Collaboration Tools in Elementary Education

Online Collaboration tools references the large number of available tools which are now readily accessible for students, of all ages, and their teachers. The use of tools to support online collaboration in elementary classrooms is increasing. This section highlights several of these tools and provide suggestions for their to support online group collaboration of students in the primary and intermediate grades of Elementary school.

Why use these tools?

Collaborative learning is the idea of bringing together learners to work and learn in a collaborative manner. Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL),or Web 2.0, tools do this for all groups.

In a collaborative learning environment, group mates discuss ideas, create and modify products, and become actively engaged with each other and the instructional content. Collaborative learning is said to promote higher level cognitive skills, critical thinking, metacognitive strategies, and problem-solving.

"The students are responsible for one another's learning as well as their own. Thus, the success of one student helps other students to be successful." (Gokhale, 1995)

Online collaborative tools provide a central locale for these types of interactions. The servers on which they stand act as saving folders, so that work is never lost. Tracking work is easier. Editing is more efficient. Work does not have to be recopied due to editing marks, poor handwriting, etc. Time does not have to be devoted to physical time together as the work can be done either asynchronously or synchronously. The online format offers a shield for introverted students to work behind while becoming more active in the learning. The largest benefit comes from the inherently motivating features new technology has to offer students. Because they are excited about the new medium, they are more engaged and committed to task at hand.

Some additional, specific benefits of the utilization of web-based applications for collaborative learning include:

*Saves time. Students can work either together or independently, either way contributing to the success of their group overall.
*Develops oral and written communication and social interaction skills.
*Allows for interactions with students outside their class, school, city, state and even country.
*Prepares young students for upper grades and the technology tools they will be encountering there.
*Allows for students who are unable to attend school to keep up with their peers.
*Share ideas.
*Increases student motivation.
*Encourages different perspectives views.
*Aids in metacognitive and evaluative thinking skill development.
*Develops higher level, critical-thinking skills thanks to use of problem-solving approaches.
*Encourages student responsibility for learning.
*Establishes a sense of learning community.
*Creates a more positive attitude about learning.
*Promotes innovation in teaching and classroom techniques.
*Enhances self management skills.
*Develops skill building and practice. Common skills which often require a great deal of practice can be developed through these tools, and made less tedious through these collaborative learning activities in and out of class.
*Develops social skills.

What tools are available?

§Wikis--A type of website. Students can easily add, remove, or edit the content.

Examples:

*PBwiki @ http://pbwiki.com/ (free)
*Wikispaces @ http://www.wikispaces.com/ (free)
*Wetpaint @ http://www.wetpaint.com/ (free)
*Educational Wikis @ http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com / (free)
*MediaWiki @ http://www.mediawiki.com/ (free)

Application in education: Teachers can engage students by using wikis to create a space for collaborative essays. Students can posts their reflections and share information. Students working collaboratively on research projects can use wiki spaces as a depot for note taking. Teachers can also create a compendium of concepts for the course to use as a study guide. Wikis can serve as teacher or classroom webpages, with the added benefit that students themselves can edit the content. For example, students can change the page that displays the weeks' spelling words.

§Blogs--are interactive, online journals.

Examples:

*Blogger @ http://www.Blogger.com (free)
*WordPress @ http://wordpress.org/ (limited free features)
*TypePad @ http://www.typepad.com

Application in education: Teachers may write a blog for students in their classrooms with links to Internet sites which aide in learning and/or research tasks. Teachers may have students use blogs as learning reflections, story writing, etc. Viewers can leave comments which aide the writer in his/her writing development.

§Learning management system (LMS) or course management systems (CMS) -- an online package to help educators create effective online learning communities.

Examples:

*Moodle @ http://moodle.org (free)
*OLAT @ http://www.olat.org/website/en/html/index.html (free)
*Scholar360 @ http://www.scholar360.com/
*Blackboard @ http://www.blackboard.com/us/index.bbb

Application in education: Teachers can post discussion topics, questions, homework or resources in the forums, and answer questions or send messages online. Or they can set quizzes for test review. It can provide a secure place for email exchange. A CMS helps to establish a learning community online. For home-bound children, a CMS can provide the learning experience and collaborative opportunities missed in the classroom.

§Survey systems--These tools allow the creation and administration of surveys completely online.

Examples:

*SurveyMonkey @ http://www.surveymonkey.com (free)
*LimeSurvey @ http://www.limesurvey.org (free)
*Doodle @ http://www.doodle.ch/main.html (free) Limited, but great for simple votes and RSVPing to invitations.
*KeySurvey @ http://www.keysurvey.com

Applications in Education: These tools are great for both teachers and students. Surveys can easily be turned into quizzes with multiple choice answering, and open-ended questioning. The survey can render your results for you, and even synthesize and analyze the results into a variety of formats including charts and graphs.

§Online Image/Video Sharing--These tools allow for the sharing of image and video files specifically and often allows commentary, dialogue and/or exchanges.

Examples:

*ATT Yahoo's Flickr @ www.flickr.com . An image and video hosting website and online community platform. It was one of the earliest Web 2.0 applications. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository. Flickr works in conjunction with Picnik to allow editing of photos within the Flickr environment.
*VoiceThread @ http://voicethread.com
*Google's Picasa @ http://picasa.google.com/

Application in education: Teachers and students can use these tools to discuss and analyze photos, videos, etc. They can upload pictures or video from their computer, camera, or from cell phone. It's a great place to store and organize photos and videos, however it is not entirely secure. The students can then actively engage with the image and think about and discuss specific aspects. Specifically in applications such as Flickr, students can organize pictures by tags. As a collaboration project, teachers can encourage students to upload pictures about a topic, for example a world heritage site, and invites users to contribute tags to the images. In applications, such as VoiceThread, students can add voice and written commentary to the overall video, picture or document. The comments are sequenced, so that late-comers can follow the dialogue.

§Video-conferencing/chat/file sharing applications--Various applications which allow students from around the world to engage in synchronous conferencing through live video feeds, video replays, chatting, and/or voice.

Examples:

*iChat (a free application as a part of the iLife suite in MacOS)
*Elluminate, at http://www.elluminate.com , a free application for up to three participants (prices for additional participants vary by number.) Also acts as a electronic whiteboard.
*Vyew, at http://www.vyew.com, a completely free desktop sharing application.

Applications in Education: Teachers can create online working spaces for student groups within their classrooms, across classrooms, grade levels, school, states, the nation, and even the world. Students can work collaboratively on group assignments, and keep active communications ongoing with e-pals.

§Online Collaborative Work spaces--Various web-based applications which allow groups of students to work together on common documents in various formats either synchronously or asynchronously. Many applications include to-do lists, calendars, and ample storage space. These spaces are not always secure, however. Some applications include blogs and wikis for group work, as well.

Examples:

*Google Documents. This applications does require google email accounts.
*We +, at http://www.yooplus.it/homepage.php?IDCategoria=1. A simple interface provides tabs for home, calendar, tasks, files, wikis, blogs, messages and people. The service is free, and is available in English, Spanish, French & Italian.

Application in Education: You can upload various types of documents or spreadsheets, even PowerPoint presentations in many applications and have students work entirely online asynchronously on a product. Partners and groups can be inside the same classroom, or across the country or world from one another.

§Online Whiteboards--Various web-based applications which allow students to chat, while writing, drawing, demonstrating, etc. in/on an electronic whiteboard. Often these applications let you save what has been written on the whiteboard as a picture file, and/or print them.

Examples:

*Sciblink--Your online Whiteboard, at http://www.scriblink.com/ . Also supports VOIP and phone chatting.
*JotSpace--a new (so new it isn't quite up and running yet) online Whiteboard, at http://www.jotspace.com .
*Skrbl, at http://www.skrbl.com/
*GE's Imagination Cubed, at http://www.imaginationcubed.com/. Although this site doesn't seem to support chatting functions, it does allow you to record the screen movements, and send the file as a video to others via email.

Application in Education: In these types of Web 2.0 tools, students can brainstorm, create graphics together, and engage in peer-to-peer tutoring in skills and concepts such as multiplication or division. These can often be video-taped to show process, and/or saved as an image file and printed for review.

§Virtual worlds--are areas online where students can interact with each other with avatars.

Examples:

*Whyville @ http://www.whyville.net . This virtual world is specifically designed for educational purposes, establishing educational goals rather than engaging only in open-ended use like Second Life. Students can visit beaches, build businesses, sell cars, etc.
*Hangout @ http://www.hangout.net . Allows voice and chatting, allows you to watch youtube videos within, and offers simply a cool place to hangout and talk!

Application in Education: Virtual Worlds, such as Whyville, have much potential in Education by providing fun, highly motivating, places for collaboration. In these virtual worlds new snippets are constantly being added that provide additional functionality to the system. This environment provides ample opportunity for social skills development and writing/reading skill development through a fun, non-intimidating manner.

§Mind maps--are diagrams used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items.

Examples:

*Freemind @ http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page (Free)
*Webspiration @ http://www.mywebspiration.com (Free) By the makers of Inspiration and Kidspiration software.
*Gliffy @ http://www.gliffy.com (free up to three @ http://www.gliffy.com/gliffy/)
*bubbl.us @ http://bubbl.us/edit.php (free)
*Personal Brain @ http://www.thebrain.com/gclid=CNHGhYarq5YCFQSwFQod0W-Yzw#-47

Application in education: Teachers can utilize brainstorming approaches that can generate ideas without regard for a more formal, hierarchical organization system. Notetaking, organizing, connecting, summarizing, revising, and general clarifying of thoughts can be accomplished with this tool.

What is the teacher's role in facilitating online collaboration?

Instructors play a vital role in facilitating online collaborative learning. Researchers indicate that strong instructor support, frequent instructor-student interaction, and superior organizational skills are critical elements of successful online collaborative learning (Ku, Lohr, & Cheng, 2004). According to the Shank study, competencies of online instructors and those planning the use of online collaboration tools in the traditional classroom setting, are as follows:

*Administrative--The primary goal is to assure smooth operations and reduce instructor and learner overload.

*Design--The primary goal is to assure successful learning outcomes.

*Facilitation--The primary goal is to provide social benefits and enhanced learning.

*Evaluation--The primary goal is to assure that learners know how they will be evaluated and help learners meet objectives.

*Technical--The primary goal is to assure that barriers due to technical components are overcome.

References

Berry, M.G. (2006). An investigation of the effectiveness of virtual learning environment implementation in primary education. Retrieved October 16, 2008 from: http://www.altonconvent.org.uk/mgb/MGBerry - MBA dissertation.pdf

Ellis, A (2001). Student-centred collaborative learning via face-to-fce and asynchronous online communication: What's the difference?. In G.Kennedy, M. Keppell, C. McNaught, Petrovic T. (Ed.), Meeting at the Crossroads (pp. 169-177). Melbourne: Biomedical Multimedia Unit, The University of Melbourne.

Gokhale, A. (1995). Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking.Journal of Technology Education, 7 (1) , Retrieved October 15, 2008, from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/jte-v7n1/gokhale.jte-v7n1.html

Goodsell, A., Maher, M., Tinto, V., Smith, B., MacGregor, J. (Eds.). (1992). Collaborative learning: A sourcebook for Higher Education. University Park: National Center on PostSecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment at Pennsylvania State University.

Hsiao, J (1996). CSCL Theories. Retrieved October 15, 2008, from CSCL Theories Web site: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/csclstudent/dhsiao/theories.html

Jakes, David (2008). JakesOnline!. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from JakesOnline! Web site: http://www.jakesonline.org/

Kaczor, B. (2007, September 7). Online classes catch on in elementary, high schools. Associated Press.

Ku, H., Lohr, L, and Cheng Y. (2004) Collaborative Learning Experiences in Online Instructional Design Courses.Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 27th, Chicago, IL.

MacGregor, J. “Collaborative Learning: Shared Inquiry as a Process of Reform.” In M. Svinicki, (Ed.) The Changing Face of College Teaching. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 42, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990.

Ng, E. M.W. (2002). An innovative model to foster web-based collaborative learning. Informing Science + IT Education Conference Proceedings (pp. 1165-1171). Santa Rosa: Informing Science Institute.

Sackville, A., Sherratt, C., Martin, L., Schofield, M., Davey J., & Kruger, S. (2006). Designing for difference: An exploration of the cultural differences between face-to-face and online learning.Expanding our Boundaries Dunedin, New Zealand: Improving University Teaching.

Shank, P (2008). Competencies for online instructors. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from Learning Peaks Web site: http://www.learningpeaks.com/instrcomp.pdf

Srinivas, H (2008) Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from The Global Development Research Center: Knowledge Management Web site: http://www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/c-learn/

Summerford, S. (2008). Web 2.0 for the classroom. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from An Internet hotlist on Web 2.0 Web site: http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listweb20s.html

(2008). Online elementary and secondary schools. Retrieved October 16, 2008, from Learn-Source Web site: http://www.learn-source.com/schools/online_elementary_secondary.html

Computer-supported collaborative learning. (2008, October 6). In , The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 04:49, October 16, 2008, from http://en. .org/w/index.php?titleComputer-supported_collaborative_learning&oldid243415618

Web 2.0 in online Learning (2006). Retrieved Octoer 16, 2008, from The Office of Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of Illinois at Springfield Website: http://otel.uis.edu/Portal/presentations/web2.ppt

Web 2.0. (2008, October 15). In , The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 04:38, October 16, 2008, from http://en. .org/w/index.php?

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