Collaborative+Tools

Collaboration is important in the classroom today for many reasons. Many people are not even aware of what collaborative tools really are. The "top ten" that are most used are: E-Mail, Listservs, Newsgroups, Web-Conferencing, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Muds/Moos, IPhone and Internet Radio, Desktop Video Conferencing, VRML Chat Systems. All of these can be benefocial to the classroom. For example, e-mail is used to communicate for teachers to parents concerning the student, grades, and school functions. Listservs, one-to-many publications, cna be used as mailing lists, such as generating an e-mail and mailing it to all of the parents of your students, concerning a school function or volunteer program. Please visit [|The Top Ten Internet Collaborative Tools]

http://clp.cqu.edu.au/software_tools.htm This website contains information on a variety of different collaborative tools that teachers can use in the classroom. There are additional links that teachers can visit which include online journals, books, and organizations that can help with ideas on how to use collaborative tools in the classroom and information on the different technologies available. Overall, it is a good website for general information on collaborative tools.

It is in increasingly progressive problem protecting students from Internet sites. The Duval County Public Schools has created a three-part system to fix this problem. The way that their system works is it first filters the material then monitors it and lastly it reports its findings. The protective system which they use is fair and justified to keep a safe environment for the students. For a more thorough display visit http://schoolcio.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604550 to understand how it works. The TI-Navigator is a system which connects each students TI-calculator with the teacher and eachother. It allows teachers to check each students progress, poll the class and show results, and have students interact with one another. An overhead screen can be combined with this system in order to show results on a screen. This website shows what a classroom can look like with the TI-navigator. http://underwooddistributing.com/ti/navigator.html

The TI-Navigator is making elementary/secondary classrooms to a more sophisticated level in that it becomes similar to clickers used in college classes to poll the class for answers to questions. It also allows students to explain different graphs or results they find on their calculator with the class and the teacher on the screen projected in front of the class, which allows the lesson to flow more and teachers do not need to stop and go over to a student and fix their graph personally, but the student can project her graph and the teacher can address the student and the whole class. http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_ti_navigator.html

This website is one that i found extremely helpful for teachers. It is filled with different lesson plans, games, activities, and other tips for teachers in the classroom. It seperates the different subjects into tabs to make things more helpful and to show what games and activities are geared to help teach children each academic subject. http://www.lessonplanz.com/

For example, one game that can help educators teach math is called Ring Toss Math. First you must divide your class into two teams. The teacher creates flashcards with an addition or subtraction fact. The first player gives the answer to the flashcard problem. If they get it correct, they score one point. The student then tosses a ring towards a post. If they get the ring on the post, it counts for two points. This is a great and fun way to review subtraction and addition facts with your students. Another helpful game is called Math Bell Game. Once again you must divide the class in half. One child from each side comes up to the room and stands in front of the bell on their side. The teacher calls out a math problem, and the first person to ring the bell calls out an answer. These games and many more can be found at the lessonplanz website. This demonstrates educational technology because this is a website where teachers can go right onto their computers and come up with a lesson plan. They can do this right in the comfort of their own home.

This website explains the benefits of blogs. it explains how blogs can be seen as a multifaceted resource which gives multiple views and perspective on the subject at hand. It can always be updated and is always "free flowing" where people are able to access the material at their leisure. In real time blogging one does not need to wait and see for a response there is the ability for it to occur now. one does not need to watch the news or call someone on the phone but rather they can out right post it as a blog and get an automatic response in the appropriate settings. For more information on the benefits and implications of blogs and wikis visithttp://ferret.bemidjistate.edu/~morgan/cgi-bin/blogsandwiki.pl?UsesOfBlogs

Graphic Organizers can be seen as a way to truly assist students and further their learning. the way that the graphic organizers work is it targets the subject matter at hand and provides a clear and concise way to view it. For more information visit http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-organizers/printable/6293.htmland for an example of a graphic organizer visit http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

Another collaborative tool found that has been extremely helpful for students learning is the Interwrite PRS. The Interwrite PRS is a radio-frequency clicker that can be used to poll students and record their answers to questions. It has been mainly used for college level students, but due to recent research about its effectiveness, elementary schools are beginning to integrate it. A teacher can pose a question and the students will give their response by choosing the number/letter they believe to be correct. This Interwrite PRS not only works for multiple choice questions, but true/false and even short answer. It also allows students to record their homework. Teachers can use this to record grades of students because each clicker has an individual ID that can be linked to each student. To find out more information about the Interwrite PRS and their other technology tools visit: http://www.interwritelearning.com/

One collaborative tool is using graphic organizers to develope a nice clear chart. this is important in science classes because many things act in a process and through a web type of chart the branches can help the children understand that everything is under an umbrella stylyzation of information. to see pictures and examples on this or just for further information visit http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html

The site http://www.leasttern.com/workshops/cooltools/ has many free, cool collaborative tools and activities that teachers can use in the classroom in order to help teach the students about technological processes such as bookmarking, making images, and interactive communication on the web. This site will come in handy for teachers who want to engage their students in technology/computers in the classroom.

Google has a very good Collaborate tool that is free to join and use, which can be very useful in elementary and secondary lessons. Google Docs and Spreadsheets contain tools to create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets similar to Microsoft Office. One thing that is different is that similar to wikis and blogs students and teachers can be collaborators to each others projects or documents. Which promotes collaborative learning and the use of technology in the classroom.

Virtual classrooms are very beneficial tools for discussion, and offer much more than your typical chat room. They allow students to share thoughts and information by making different web pages and content information available to the whole group. This is done with the use of whiteboards which features the use of drawing tools. This technology allows for lesson to be discussed at the same time when the teacher and students are online. It can be used for all subjects including math because it has the ability to display and work with equations. Here is a website that explains some features of a virtual classroom: http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~set42/How/howbbfeatures.htm
 * Virtual Classroom Chat**

The following website is very beneficial and an additional tool to educators who may be running out of ideas, or looking for supplement information, worksheets, lesson plans, ideas, etc. Memberships are also a good benefit of this website. There are distinct rubrics, technology tutorials, printable worksheets and articles that talk about the latest information. Teachers can also sign up for a free weekly email newsletter that informs the teachers of all the technical and positive benefits. On one of the links, the website talks about the new 'hype' about using Excel in the Classroom. For more information, visit the following URL; http://www.teach-nology.com/

As we learned in class today, there is a collaborative tool name as 'skype.' Skype is a software program and was founded in 2003 in Luxembourg by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. This collaborative tool is effective as it serves the purpose of communicating with other people on the computer. Unlike instant messaging or e-mail, you can actually hear the person you are talking to as well as see them if you have the appropriate equipment. The skype is a great way for students to participate in communicating with others, even if they are doing research with someone from another part of the state/country/world. http://about.skype.com/

**Virtual Field Trip**
Although it is very important to take real field trips and have students really experience some things outside of the classroom but for those trips that inaccessable the [|Virtual Field Trip] is perfect. Students can explore things that they would most likely not have the resources to visit, Whether that be time, money or even permission. This website even incorporates a trip for special education classrooms.

The internet now offers virtual field trips which allow students to "visit" certain places without actually leaving the classroom. These can include things such as aquariums and museums. The following website gives links to all the various kinds of virtual field trips that are available. http://www.internet4classrooms.com/vft.htm This additional webpage gives a big list of links to virtual field trips. It not only shows typical field trips like museums, it has unusual field trips such as parks, the planet and the White House. http://campus.fortunecity.com/newton/40/field.html