Also explore The Best Online Virtual “Corkboards” (or “Bulletin Boards”)
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.
If you’ve found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.
You can also see 660 other “The Best…” lists here.
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,
Hi Larry an interesting post indeedl, there is one tool i’ve been using lately to manage my projects online – http://www.comindwork.com. But actually i don’t use as a project management tool, i use to share and manage my team’s knowledge, i can see how easily and with a great value this tool could be used for educational purposes.
Larry, it’s great to see you included Dimdim in your list of best online tools for real-time collaboration! Thanks!!!
-k
Kevin Micalizzi, Dimdim Community Manager
e: kevin (at) dimdim (dot) com
Please take a look at LearningFront.com. It’s a free learning community that combines social media with professional development tools to improve teaching and learning.
http://www.learningfront.com
It’s been used successfully in urban schools to increase student achievement on classroom authentic and state assessments, to deliver school and organization professional development and graduate courses, and to share lessons and assessments as wikitasks.
Thanks. Nick
Thanks so much for all the info you frequently provide. Has anyone tried mywebspiration for collaboration? Free at the moment but may go to subscription soon. It requires registration.
Hi Larry,
I am in an I.T committee and was wondering if you could give me some websites that would help me edit photos and make slide shows.
Thanks Lexi
Thanks for your tips
Hi Larry,
I have been running in circles here and I am hoping you can help me. I want to upload a podcast I created onto my wordpress page. But it seems that I might be missing a step. Would you have any suggestions? Your site is very helpful to me with lots of tips.
Thank you
barbara
Larry,
Thanks for the list.
Have you tried http://Enterthegroup.com? It’s rather new but it enables groups to communicate and get organized online.
It has a bunch of tools all in one place and it’s free.
Best rgds,
Sal
Thanks Larry for sharing all of this valuable information about online collaboration tools.
I have myself since the Fall of 2008 started to collect and organize all of the best online collaborations tool inside a technology map that keeps them easily accessible inside a set of application groups.
There are now over 300 collaboration tools listed here:
https://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show/12213323
Thank you! I have found a great tool!
I use Dooster as my online tool for all my business collaboration requirements http://www.dooster.net
I recommend http://linoit.com/. Seems even better than Corkboard Me and Wallwisher. It’s just like Wallwisher in that you can post videos, pictures and even upload documents. Also, you can have it open so that students can post without signing up or entering an e-mail address etc.. I am trying it out now on my site to see how it goes. Getting tired of Wallwisher problems and how Corkboard Me does not allow for video sharing.
Larry,
How about Scribblar? Wonderful, simple free virtual room.
Have you tried RHUB 6-in-1 appliance? It not only allows you to do webinar but gives functions of web/video/audio conferencing and remote support/access. Try their completely free demo: http://www.turbomeet.com
Quick update on Skype: Skype 5 supports screen-sharing, free for one-to one calls, or with groups on Mac if you have premium service (http://www.skype.com/intl/en/features/allfeatures/screen-sharing/). It also supports group video calls involving 3-10 people, though 5 sounds like a practical limit (http://www.skype.com/intl/en/features/allfeatures/video-call/).
You should also check out wiggio.com. Wiggio is a free online toolkit that makes it easy to work in groups. With Wiggio, you can upload files, create events on a shared calendar, host virtual meetings, poll group members in real-time, and more. Wiggio is extremely simple to use and completely free. You can find out more by visiting http://wiggio.com.
That’s a lot of research you have provided for us readers. But it was in 2008. Interesting either way because the coments infor is current. I use Dooster because that’s what my elders and betters chose for me. I did have some say though. We’re very happy with Dooster and I enjoy using it. It’s a good communication tool. We have much fewer slip up nowadays.
Jack,
I regularly update all “The Best…” lists. The original posting date can be ignored.
Larry
Hey Larry,
thanks for the list. So many interesting applications in there! I really enjoyed reading through them and discovering plenty of new ones. Also, I’d like to suggest another app that I use almost daily. Like some others in your list, it’s focussed on meeting efficiency. What I like most about it is the slick design and the intuitive usability which makes it very easy to implement it in teams. The name of the tool is Agreedo and you may check it out at http://www.agreedo.com
Oh and it’s completely free to use!
big list. I probably tried all of them at one point or another. http://www.tinychat.com, http://www.popchat.com, iwebcam.com, http://www.stargazervideochat.com, what am I forgetting? Basically, all of them are free, lots of them have very shady people, but if you can navigate around the craziness of free video chatting and video chat rooms, you’re gonna have some fun.
Thanks for the super long list. That was very detailed. Here is a new video chat website I found out that could be a great skype alternative, tinychat alternative or even a chatroulette. It’s called Reflap and it allows you to receive calls and make easy video calls to friends and family. try it out http://www.reflap.com
You mention Google Slides (their new name for Presenter) but not Google Documents. When Google purchased Etherpad they put their programmers to work to add those features to Google Documents. The only drawback to this is that you have to have a Google account (but it still meets your free requirement), but many schools have their own Google domain (GAEE) so students and teachers have accounts.
Great list by the way.
Have you tried the collaborative text editor WriteURL? http://www.writeurl.com.
Docs9.com is a much better alternative, and best of all it’s the easiest, simplest to use in my experience so far. It offers a much better, lightweight alternative to Office 365.
https://www.docs9.com/
I could have a live presentation ready to share in a matter of seconds. The coolest part was everything from Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel to OpenOffice Writer, Impress, Calc even Google Docs is handled in the exact same way. Because this works purely in a browser, most of my participants enjoyed watching my presentation on their iPhones, Androids, even iPads. Few yet were impressed they could use their old browsers, and for first time had nothing to setup or configure at all!
Upload, and Share.
Some corporate organizations might want to take a look at support for Visio, and Microsoft Project as well. It was a relief not having to ask my participants if they have Visio, or Project installed.
It seems to have grown quite popular amongst young entrepreneurs who collaborate ideas, some self-employed individuals such as teachers, but some corporate organizations seem to favor Docs9 coupled with Skype for most of their online meetings. It has been a huge time saver for many.
Hey Larry,
Thank you for taking the time and pain of personally trying these tools first, and then enlightening us all regarding them. I was surprised to read about some here, which I have never heard of before. Would surely read more them now, and probably sign up for their Free Trial.
However, another tool about which I have read through comments and write ups is proofhub. I would suggest you to give it a try. As, it is helps teams increase their productivity and has a free trial as well.
Thanks!
Larry: I use your site extensively in my technology pre-service teachers class at Kansas State, so first of all, THANK YOU for all the wonderful resources.
Here is a new collaborative app/website. Ignite Teaching. It is a new company and they are working extremely hard to make this a tool teachers want to use. Their tagline is take the guesswork out of group work. The analytics from a group project are awesome!! Works on the web & iPad. Although the iPad app is better than the web version at the moment. http://igniteteaching.com.
I encourage you to give it a try!! It is free at the moment!
There are many online collaboration tools such as EZTalks, Webex, GoToMeeting etc
EZTalks is one of the online collaboration tools which offers rich features such as HD video, file sharing, screen sharing, whiteboard, annotation and drawing tools, meeting recording, text exchange etc
For more, please visit http://www.eztalks.com
Have you yet looked at Wiggio? I created an account and it looks like a powerful tool for collaboration. It enables users to create a feed and embed polls, messages, calendar items and requests. We tested out the video conference tool which allows users to collaborate and chat via a whiteboard. It’s pretty powerful, so I’m not sure how it can possibly be free.
Hi there!
Thanks for your review!
Actually, I think the hype of real-time collaboration is an online whiteboard with a wide range of features. Today we can find a lot of these apps, like Mural, Conceptboard, etc. But I use https://realtimeboard.com for my remote meetings. Maybe you’ll find it interesting too
Great post. I’d like to suggest ProofHub for collaboration. The user friendly interface and almost zero learning curve makes it a perfect fit for teams that are looking to get straight to work without investing too much time on training and how to use the tool. https://www.proofhub.com/
Hi Larry, hi world!
Kallu’s captain speaking here!
Thank you so much for having us listed here Larry, it’s a privilege.
I wanted to bring some clarification on what makes really Kallu special.
We designed the service around usage simplicity and efficiency. Therefore you have:
– One simple 4 Digits Code to access your conference / easy to remember and yours forever
– One list of +50 numbers to access your conference room / which won’t change
– One simple web URL with all this information so it’s easy to share your conference call details to your attendees via email or message
– One email summarizing all your conference call details so you always have those within reach
Our (secret but not so secret) goal is to make Kallu the last Conference call service you will register for because it is so easy to use!
No complex interfaces or long 6 digits access code or complex onboarding process or artificial restrictions…
But why not simply give it a try and let us know about your experience!
We are really looking forward to seeing how you will use Kallu 🙂
Have a great day,
Eric and your friends from Kallu
Have a look at Clariti. It is one of the trending collaboration tools out there: https://clariti.app/