'Friday Mornings . Tuttle at Centre for Creative Collaboration' photo (c) 2010, Tony Hall - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

Also explore The Best Online Virtual “Corkboards” (or “Bulletin Boards”)

Also: THE BEST ONLINE TOOLS STUDENTS CAN USE COLLABORATIVELY TO CREATE PROJECTS – PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ADD YOUR FAVORITES!

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:

Stinto and Chatzy are easy ways to create private online chatrooms. Wire Club Chat Room is a similar site,

Of course, Google Docs and Google Slides let you work on a document collaboratively.

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.

Scribblar allows you to create a virtual “room” in seconds — without having to register — where you can collaborate for writing or drawing, with the ability to have a text chatboard or audio/webcam communication. It couldn’t be easier to use. If, and when, we can ever coordinate time zones, it would be a neat tool to use for collaborating with others in the International Sister Classes Project.

Twiddla is basically a whiteboard that allows text and audio chat for real-time collaboration. You can review websites within the application, and no registration is required.

I posted about Corkboard Me in January. It’s very similar to Wallwisher, but even simpler to use — and with fewer features (you can’t embed videos, nor password protect your content). You can, however, easily post images by just pasting its url on one of the virtual post-it notes. Corkboard Me recently announced some additional features, including real-time collaboration and a chat room for the people collaborating. I’ve certainly noticed a lot of quirkiness lately with Wallwisher, and I know quite a few others have experienced the same problem. So, I’m going to start having my classes use Corkboard Me.

NOTE: New Development: Wallwisher, the great virtual “corkboard-creator” tool, has just announced some nice improvements. They include making it even easier to create a corkboard and having immediate real-time collaborative abilities by seeing what people you invite are doing on it as they do it. They say there is more to come in the next few days. I’ve tried out both of those improvements, and they work very well. Wallwisher went through a period when it was very buggy, but they’ve come on strong over the past year to become a top-notch tool.  It’s also now called Padlet.

Concept Board is very easy to use screensharing tool. After registration, you can create up to twenty-five Concept Boards for free. You click on “new Concept Board” and you have one — you can upload presentations, make comments, draw on it, etc. All you have to do is its url address to others so they can gain access to it, too.

Join.me lets you your screen with up to 250 people and provides text chat (they seem to be having some technical troubles — at least during the last update I’ve made to this list).

Screenleap “allows as many people as you like to see your computer screens at once without needing to set up an account.”

Three Ways To Watch Videos and Discuss Them In Real Time is a useful post from Richard Byrne.

RealtimeBoard is a new online whiteboard that seems like a decent tool for real-time collaboration. It’s easy to use, and lets you upload images from your computer or by its url address.

MashMe TV lets you create a free video conference with up to ten people. In addition, you can all watch a video and/or draw together.

Face Flow lets you create a video chatroom for up to four people. It’s free to use, and registration is fast.

Talky seems like a very easy video chat site where you can create private rooms.

This list includes quite a few tools that let you create documents with others, including some that allow instant text chat.

There are lots of sites out there that let you create virtual “corkboards” and you can see them at The Best Online Virtual “Corkboards” (or “Bulletin Boards”). Padlet (formerly known as Wallwisher) is probably the most well-known tool of this kind.

And Skype just announced that they are making their up-to-ten person video-conferencing feature free now. Here’s a video about it:

Firefox Releases Free Video Calling System Built Into Browser

Meeting Words is online tool for creating documents collaboratively. You can read more about it at Richard Byrne’s blog.

Skype Opens Up Web Version To Everyone

FreeConferenceCall.com comes highly recommended by Richard Byrne.

Anyone Now Can Join A Skype Web Video Conversation – Even If You Don’t Register

You can find many free tools for online individual and group video calls on this list, and another one recently came online. It’s called Sylaps, and it’s pretty easy to use. You go to the site, type in your name, and are immediately given a link you can share to others you want on the call. They say up to eight can participate without a reduction in quality.

Skype Announces Multi-Person Video Calls To Mobile Devices

NoteBookCast is a simple online virtual whiteboard that can be used by many people at the same time. You can read a post at Richard Byrne’s blog to see a “how-to-use-it” video.

Sean Parker relaunches Airtime, a video chat room for watching – together is a TechCrunch post about a new app that lets users create a virtual room.

Ormiboard lets up to four people collaborate on an online whiteboard and is free, at least for now.

Hstry is a new online tool for creating timelines that’s on The Best Tools For Making Online Timelines list. They’ve recently added the feature of being able to have multiple people collaborate on the same timeline.

Limnu is a free online collaborative whiteboard that looks pretty good.

Web Whiteboard is a nice online collaborative..whiteboard.

Sketchboard is an online whiteboard where users can draw collaboratively.

Dotstorming is an online collaborative tool that allows groups to work together and vote on preferences. It’s like a bunch of other similar tools, though this one stands out because it lets you easily search for and post images.

Mozilla sponsors its own free, online collaborative whiteboard space.

JQBX lets users listen to the same Spotify music and chat about it. I’m not sure how useful it can be in the classroom, but there are some possibilities.

Queeky is a free online drawing tool. I particularly like their MultiDraw feature, which lets you create private virtual rooms where users can collaborate in drawing.

WebRoom lets you create free onine video and audio online meetings for up to eight people at a time. You can learn more about it at Richard Byrne’s blog.

You can easily create and embed a chatbox with Minnit.

Draw.chat looks like a nice new collaborative drawing too. And it’s free.

Here’s how they describe it:

Draw.Chat is anonymous, online drawing board. You can create your paint chat in one click – without any registration. Every whiteboard has a unique, randomly generated URL which you can send to other people to start a real-time collaboration.

Get your personal chat room with the whiteboard where you can drop and paste Screenshots, Images and PDF’s. Use your camera to start a secure P2P video conference. You can also drag and drop images from your camera directly to the canvas. Use the bell for offline notification – when someone else open or write in the chat room. Draw.Chat delivers tools for annotating PDF’s, Maps, and Screenshots.

Scratchwork is an online collaborative whiteboard that seems to be designed with using it for math in mind.

Vynchronize lets you easily create a private “virtual room” where you can watch videos with others and shared comments on a chatboard.

Uber Conference is a video-conferencing tool.

“Unhangout” Lets You Create Multiple Simultaneous Online Chat Rooms

WhatsApp now lets you do a video and/or conference call with up to four people – for free.

Group Face Time Isn’t Arriving In September is a TechCrunch post about an upcoming new feature on the iPhone – up to 32 people will be able to be on a video conference! It’s not coming in September, but should be coming soon.

Collabify is a free web tool that lets you video call, screenshare, text and talk with one person without free sign-up and up to four with free registration.

Proficonf is a new video conferencing tool.

Ryeboard is an online whiteboard where you can draw, write and collaborate.

Taskade lets you do a video chat and share documents and write text.

Go Brunch lets you create virtual meetings or webinars for free.

Tico Chat lets you create video conference calls with multiple people.

Groupboard is a collaborative online whiteboard.

The Blog de Cristina shared an incredibly easy video conferencing tool called 8 X 8. Read her post about it. If you don’t need Zoom’s breakout rooms, 8 X 8 is the way to go.

Bitpaper looks like a very nice online collaborative whiteboard.

THIS IS INTERESTING – SKYPE UNVEILS NEW EASY VIDEO CONFERENCE CALL FEATURE

Miro is a collaborative whiteboard

9 Free Alternatives to Zoom for Getting your Classroom Online is from The OxfordTEFL blog

Google has just announced that it’s making Google Meet, its video conferencing platform, free for everybody (see Google Meet premium video conferencing—free for everyone).

Online conferences should be different is a really interesting blog post about different video conferencing tools.

Ziteboard is an online whiteboard for collaboration.

Witeboard is a free online collaborative whiteboard I learned about from Richard Byrne.

Whiteboard.fi is a very cool site where, without registering, teachers can create virtual classrooms where students can write their answers to questions on “whiteboards.”  If they ever add an audio feature to the site, I would say it could be one of the most useful ones around.  Read more about it at Blog de Cristina.

Pixel Paper is a nice online whiteboard.

Zoom, of course.  And Canva.  See THE BEST ONLINE TOOLS STUDENTS CAN USE COLLABORATIVELY TO CREATE PROJECTS – PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ADD YOUR FAVORITES!

FrescoPad is an online collaborative whiteboard tool.

Bubbles looks like Zoom, but with some interesting additions. You can read more about it at TechCrunch.

Additor is a free tool to create collaborate on documents and also video conference.

The Traw whiteboard seems to have a reasonable free option.

Vucac is an online whiteboard.

Talo is a nice-looking free online whiteboard.

Sariska Co-Browing SDK lets you browse any webpage with anyone else.

Vucac is an online whiteboard.

MyView Whiteboard is yet another online whiteboard.

Tixio is yet another online whiteboard tool.

Tldraw is another online collaborative whiteboard. Excalidraw is another one.

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You can also see 660 other “The Best…” lists here.