4 Collaboration Software Tools for Educators: How to Choose the Right Fit

Web 2.0, without doubt, has dramatically revolutionized the education profession and brought the community closer.

With the rise of modern web-based technologies, there arrived a good range of educational tools that educators can use with their students in and outside the classrooms. One example would be the rise of collaboration software tools for educators. Using such simple collaboration tools, educators can now hold real-time and online discussions with students, assist them in their assignments and projects, mentor their learning process, do backchanneling if needed, synchronously facilitate and moderate conversations and discussion threads, among others. If you work on nonprofit education there are even more collaborative options for you.

Students nowadays are collaborating online with other students all over the world, creating content as well as displaying the best work they have to a world that is now globally linked. Web 2.0 has allowed professional collaboration, critical thinking, networking, innovation, collaboration, global understanding creativity, and multicultural learning using free or cheap software tools. Various collaboration software tools for educators allow collaborative writing and editing of documents, private communication, mobile conferencing, and cloud-hosted file sharing, enabling educators to work and interact with their students even beyond school hours; thus, maximize the use of top technologies available.

Choosing the right and necessary tools for small-group discussion and collaboration is, therefore, crucial to handle communication between educators and students more easily.

Collaboration software tools for educators: what to consider

There are many software tools that allow educators to collaborate with students on assignments and projects. Check out the following considerations before buying collaboration software::

• How your students interact with their fellow classmates
• Methods that provide constructive criticism
• Monitoring spent time in a collaborative setting
• How students deliver or present the results of their collaborative efforts
• Popular social media networks among the students and similar group collaboration tools that will encourage the students their use
• What technology or tools students prefer to use
• Collaboration tools that are based on features or functionality, cost, scalability, and flexibility.
• The more intuitive a collaboration software tool is for students, the better

Here are collaboration software tools based on general categories.

Research and search

Educators and students can create, save, comment on, edit, organize, as well as share research resources. These include:

• Bookmarking
• Photo sharing
• File sharing
• Source citation

Collaborative writing

Educators and students can write, edit, share as well as collaboratively create content online.These may include the following tools:

• Blogs
• Collaborative documents (such as word processing, spreadsheets, databases, charts, graphs, presentations, among others)
• Wikis

Communication and messaging

Educators and students communicate and discuss with each other, as well as with other classrooms or students, community members, as well as experts. These include tools such as:

• Instant messaging
• Microblogging
• Video and web conferencing
• Screensharing and whiteboarding

Visual creation and drawing

Educators and students design, discuss, share, as well as collaboratively create visual content online. These include tools such as:

• Graphics creation and image editing
• Vodcasting/video editing
• Mind mapping/graphic organizers

Audio creation

Educators and students design, discuss, share, as well as collaboratively create audio content online. These include tools such as:

• Audio creation and editing
• Podcasting
• Voiceovers

Project management

Educatorsassign students into teams to lead, manage, and organize projects or tasks. These include tools such as:

• Calendars
• Task and milestone tracking
• To-do lists and task management

Data collection

Educators and students gather and look at data from a variety of sources. These include tools such as:

• Social geographical mapping
• Forms, polls, and surveys

Teacher productivity

Educator-specific resources for better classroom organization and management. These include tools such as:

• Assessment resources
• Lesson plan builders
• Calendar
• Notetaking/Assignments

4 collaboration tools for educators

So are you now ready to use collaboration software tools into the classrooms? Here are five good (and free) collaboration software apps and tools that educators can use to help the students get working and collaborating together during or beyond class hours. Some of these tools’ fuller features may be only available in the “premium” versions but all of these are free to utilize at the basic level.

Flowboard. Flowboardisagood touch-publishing app that allows your students to create, post, and share work and ideas using their iPads.  It is free. Users can select and use a template (the app offers a number of free ones, or students can also customize their own template) to create classroom presentations, photo journals, and other content that is publishable.

Google Drive (formerly known as Google Docs). The Internet giant’s free document creation and editing app is wildly popular among educators who want to discuss and collaborate with students, colleagues, and other people online “real time”. Users that have editing as well as review privileges can see all changes and add their own edits to the files.

Google+ Hangouts. This online and free app can let users be connected with students, friends, professors, as well as others who prefer to “hang out” online. It has group chat and video chat features, which can be used on a laptop or iPhone (using a mobile app).

Join Me. Join Me is a screen sharing tool (free) that allows educators to share computer desktop with students as well as colleagues. The app’s free version can accommodate even as many as 10 meeting participants. It also includes Internet calling, screen sharing, and chat, among other features. It is especially helpful if there is a student who is struggling with an assignment or an educator needs to collaborate with another colleague on a task or project.

If you have coding skills, you may want to consider an open source collaborative software for its advantages.

For more free collaboration software tools that are good for education, here are 50 free collaboration tools, as listed by AccreditedOnlineColleges.com. For more education technology trends next year, here are 30 trends predicted by te@chthought.

If you want to learn more about Web 2.0 and how today’s technologies and tools help businesses and group, visit our“What is Cloud 2.0 CRM” guide.

By Jenny Chang

Jenny Chang is a senior writer specializing in SaaS and B2B software solutions. Her decision to focus on these two industries was spurred by their explosive growth in the last decade, much of it she attributes to the emergence of disruptive technologies and the quick adoption by businesses that were quick to recognize their values to their organizations. She has covered all the major developments in SaaS and B2B software solutions, from the introduction of massive ERPs to small business platforms to help startups on their way to success.