Mar 02 2008
The Best Online Tools For Real-Time Collaboration
I’ve been experimenting with a variety of online tools for collaborating in “real-time.” I really don’t have much use for them in the classroom, since the different time zones of our various sister classes don’t make it logistically feasible. I’m more interested in exploring their use for possibly coordinating work with teachers of those sister classes if that project continues to expand, and for use in some collaborative writing I might be doing in the future.
Even though I’m thinking about these tools for my own professional reasons, since I’m still not particularly technically proficient, and because others might be able to think of other classroom purposes, I’ve used criteria similar to my other “The Best…” lists in deciding which ones to include here. They include:
* No software download is required.
* It’s free.
* No equipment is required other than, in some cases, a microphone. A webcam needs to be optional.
* Multiple users can collaborate at the same time.
* English Language Learners can use the tools easily.
* I can think of it having an education use.
Unlike my previous lists, I haven’t tried-out all of these applications extensively. Therefore, I don’t feel I can rank them the way I usually do. However, I have had a pretty decent, though limited, experience with all of them.
Also, in this list, unlike my others, instead of including links to the actual application, I’ve mainly included links to my original posts about the sites (that is, I’ve done that for sites I’ve already written about). I thought people might find the additional information they can find there useful.
There are quite a few other online collaborative tools, but I didn’t include them because they just seemed too complicated.
The ones I’ve found that meet my criteria include:
Chatmaker and Chatzy are easy ways to create private online chatrooms.
Yaplet also lets you create private chatrooms, but with a twist — you can do so on any website you want.
I’ve found three online word-processing applications that allow multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously. They are Zoho Writer, Solodox, and my favorite — Just 2 Easy.
Scriblink is an online whiteboard that can be used by up to five people at one time.
Skrbl is another online whiteboard. Skrbl lets you copy and paste text and documents — Scriblink does not.
Zoho Show and Google Presentations let you work with others on PowerPoint-like presentations in real-time.
MeBeam and Tokbox are two online video conferencing sites. They both allow you to just use microphones for audio if you don’t have a webcam. MeBeam lets up to eighteen people participate, while Tokbox lets up to six.
Mind42 is a “mindmapping” tool that has tremendous collaborative features. I’m still having a hard time, though, figuring out more than one or two minor educational projects that students could create with it.
Browzmi is a browser that allows you to look at different websites simultaneously and chat about it with others. I could see it used to collaborate doing research.
Thinkature is another online whiteboard. It has the option of both audio and text chat, which seems to make it different from the other whiteboard sites I listed earlier.
(Note: I’m adding The Broth to this list)
I’ve used the Authorstream web application to post several slideshows on my website. It’s quite easy to use. Now they’ve added a new feature called Present Live. You can quickly upload a PowerPoint presentation and then show it in real-time over the web. A chatboard is connected to it so you can communicate instantly. You can read more of an explanation on how it works over at Mashable. Authorstream itself also has a nice screencast about it.
Let me know if you are aware of other collaborative applications that would meet my criteria. Links to these sites, along with 8,000 others, can be found on my website.
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10 responses so far
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How about Yahoo Messenger??? Why don’t you mention this in your list. I’m interested in your idea as I’m going to use Yahoo for the real time collaboration.
Thanks.
Long
Long,
Can you tell me more how you’re planning to use Yahoo Messenger?
Larry
How???
This is a big question, though. Anyway, I’m looking at the chat discussion via Yahoo Messenger by analyzing the transcripts to measure the equalized participation, the collaborative interaction in comparison to F2F counterparts. The students will be given a problem-based task, they have to discuss through Y! to come to the final discussion point.
Or, Do you mean to know how Y! Messenger work? If you are willing to register the Y! account, we can make a pilot experiment.
Best,
Long
Mebeam also records the rooms , so you can play them back,
which is really useful for remoe education and
going back to listen to parts of a meeting.
Hi Larry,
I appreciate all of your excellent postings of online tools. I am a graduate student at Columbia University Teachers College in New York. I will be completing my Masters in Computing and Education in May. I have used Gliffy.com which is a mind mapping flowcharting tool as a collaborative online application during my internship at two Middle Schools in the New York City Public School system. I used Gliffy to have the students creat their own version of a constellation by clicking a dragging the star form onto the virtual graph paper. Then, I used the line tool to have the students connect the stars to form a constellation. This was part of an overall Astronomy unit which I set up on wikispaces.com The Astronomy unit was based on the STAR Legacy design model, originally created at Vanderbilt University. Here is the link to our collaborative wiki:
http://share.wikispaces.com/Legacy
I am currently writing my thesis on the changes needed to effectively implement technology in the classroom. I enjoy reading your postings!
All the best,
Sharon Mistretta
Have you tried Wrike? If not, than I recommend you do so and visit their site at http://www.wrike.com/. I like Wrike, as it is integraed with my inbox and it’s now easier to deal with the mess my inbox tends to be. Wrike lets unlimited number of users collaborate at the same time on a whole structure of tasks. It resembles a wiki in a way, only its more structured.
Sharon and Frank,
Thanks for the excellent suggestions!
Larry
In Japan, even with university students who are six or more years into learning English as an additional language, it is terribly important that the tools we choose be easy for them to use (starred item five in your list of criteria for selection, 2008.03.02). That is, if they are to use them in English at all. Given a choice between students’ vernacular and English, in available tools, they often choose to use the vernacular.
WiZiQ, for example, might meet the free and no-downloads criteria, and serves for not only graphic or textual exchanges, but also provides audio and video interfaces. It doesn’t seem to be available in languages other than English at this time. I’m not so sure about ease of use, because I haven’t tried it with students yet.
Another criteria I use in the appraisal of online tools is whether they require separate registration and login. Though readers here may have login procedures automated with keychains on dedicated home or office computers (or both), so registration login may seem like a no-brainer; even after successfully completing registration procedures, which is often a hassle, students firing up a machine in a school or university laboratory or library, or in an Internet café may need to punch IDs and passwords in by hand every time they log in.
For instance, if students already have a Gmail account and a Blogger blog, with integrated Google logins, Google Docs could be a more attractive option than ZohoWriter. On the other hand, if students were already logged into ZohoWiki, ZohoWriter might be the document sharing tool of choice.
One other point I’d like to add before I go is a pointer to a nugget from TidBITs that I dug up yesterday that may be of interest to Mac users who already use OS X 10.5.2 (not me, at least not yet). I quick posted it here:
iChat: quick and satisfying collaborative editing (2008.03.05)
http://pabspotpourri.blogspot.com/2008/03/ichat-quick-and-satisfying.html
Cheers, Paul
Thanks for your list. This will help us literacy coaches in LAUSD the next time we have a virtual meeting.
Thanks Larry,
If its any help we work with online collaborative tools specifically designed for e-learning and web collaboration.
In your criteria you mentioned free, this it is not however, for a nominal fee you get full time support and on-going training as well as a full back end support system that ensures quality and allows for recording and archiving of sessions.
Tell me what you think. Here is the url: http://www.batipi.com
Thanks,