Tools for Global Communication

There are many tools available on the Internet that allow students to communicate globally. Social media tools such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are the most frequently used ways to communicate globally, but may not be appropriate for all schools.  But there are many other tools that are being used in schools to foster global communication and collaboration.

Communication tools:

The usual tools, Google Drive, Wikis, blogs are great vehicles for collaborating and connecting. Quadblogging  is a program that combines 4 classes who rotate weekly to comment on one class blog out of the four.  Here is a video that explains Quadblogging by the creator of the program.

Collaboration tools:

Educlipper allows users to share webclips, documents, and photos to a board environment, similar to Pinterest.

Titanpad is a text based collaboration tool that allows synchronous editing of the typing pad to create a joint document. It color codes each user's input. 

Whiteboard app  allows users to share a view of a whiteboard.

Padlet, and Lino-it  and RealtimeBoard are brainstorming and organizational tools that use sticky notes to share ideas and create bulletin boards. RealTime board can also be used to present ideas one note at a time (similar to a Prezi presentation).  Also, Google Keep, which I just read about!

Writeabout.com  allows users to create a post from a suggested idea or from scratch and publish posts and get comments publicly, privately or within specific groups including audio comments.

Video Communication tools:

Google Hangouts is a free Google app that allows multiple users to establish a video conference call with multiple contacts.

Skype for education is free for teachers. Sign up for a Skype account and connect to other classrooms for a video conference.  There are many educational projects on the site, including Mystery Skype in which 2 classrooms try to guess where the other is from using a question and answer format while simultaneously conferring with atlases and online map tools. 

Ustream  Free with ads which may not be school friendly (Mazza, 2012).  It costs $99/mo to $999/mo for ad free subscription.

My live district  offers secure streaming for education events & flipped videos with no ads.  Subscription cost is $149/month and you will also need a Streaming Device It can be purchase or rented for $50/mo.

Podcasting is another option for sharing communications. Audioboom is one Web 2.0 app that accomplishes this, but there are several.  

Messaging:

Edmodo  is a safe environment that allows the teacher to post discussion topics, conduct polls, and collaborate with other teachers/classes and it is free.

Twitter is a free social microblogging site that limits posts to 140 characters

• Group Tweet – Is an app that works with Twitter calling students to post to a group Twitter account and follow the conversation without searching for hashtags or following every student. It includes a teacher dashboard to control posts and users allowed to access account. Free for up to 3 users, $15/mo for a class of 30.

Remind, previously Remind101, is a free app that allows the teacher to set up a class account and give out a class code which users can use to connect to the class account anonymously on any device.

Wall.fm looks like an interesting site, but it is not free. It allows teachers to create a secure website with membership only walled garden environment that includes a message forum and more.

Other tools for sharing messages and conversations:

• Google Groups
• Yahoo groups
• Google Plus

Chats:

Teachers can create a chat using a blog post and students respond in the comments.

Google Docs comments can be real time or asynchronous.

TitanPad has a realtime chat area.

Voice Thread allows both real time and asynchronous chats, using text or voice recordings. Can be based around a single slide or a presentation, comments can be left on each page.

Social bookmarking is another way to share information for collaborating with global peers.  Here are some social bookmarking sites that allow sharing of web pages, notes, documents, photos, etc.

• Learnist - another Pinterest like site 
• Educlipper which was discussed above 
• Evernote a bookmarking site that also saves documents or notes and is synced across all devices
• Diigo another bookmarking site 

Virtual Worlds and Communities: Second Life, Minecraft, Scratch

Students can brainstorm solutions to challenges as well as test them within a virtual world. High technical requirements for computer systems and to learn to control avatars exist for virtual worlds. (Harris and Rae, 2009). They can also learn to share, remix and give credit to sources while learning from each other using Scratch, a program that teaches programming lingo and computational thinking.

Other tools that may be necessary:

• Java allows access to Java based sites
• High speed Broadband, especially for video and audio streaming
• Wifi if using tablets or Chromebooks

Sources cited:

Harris, A. and Rea, A.  (2009). Web 2.0 and virtual world technologies: A Growing Impact on IS Education.  http://www.unf.edu/uploadedfiles/aa/acadaffairs/provost/virtualworld_technologies.pdf

Mazza, J. (2014). Live Stream School Events to Boost Community Outreach. Edutopia.  [Web log comment]. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/live-streaming-schools-joe-mazza

Wilhelmus, T. (2013). Web Tools for teachers: Communication  From: http://evscicats.com/blog/web-tools-for-teachers-communication/

Why Web 2.0?

There are so many ways and reasons to use Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.

1. Web 2.0 tools allow students to interact and collaborate with other classrooms in their school and across the globe. Students could participate in discussions or debates with other classes using Twitter, Edmodo or a blog.  Students can collaborate on a project using a Wiki or Google Drive, even asynchronously. 

2. Classrooms could use Web 2.0 tools for distance learning. Google groups, Hangouts and Skype are some of the tools that classrooms can use to interact with other classes or experts to learn about and see things they may not have access to in their local area, like this virtual field trip via Google Glass.  

3. Web 2.0 gives students alternative ways to obtain information. In addition to getting information from books, students can also interact with electronic books, videos, websites, images and blogs to find information and get alternative viewpoints, not just one perspective. Using Web 2.0 helps the teacher to differentiate learning. Students may prefer to listen to a podcast or video rather than reading for information. There are also assistive tools like Read & Write for Google or other text to speech tools that can assist struggling readers. 



4. Using Web 2.0 also allows for alternative ways to participate.  Some students do not like to answer questions in a large group or there may be students with communication or other disabilities who are not able to participate in a fast paced discussion. Using Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, Edmodo or VoiceThread, students can enter their answers to teacher's questions or participate in a discussion, even from home. During a class discussion, the teacher could have students use a class hashtag to respond to questions and have the feed posted on the projection screen or whiteboard. That way everyone can have their opinions heard and the teacher does not have to force quiet students to participate. 

5. Alternate methods to show learning.  As with #3 and 4 above, students can have a choice in how to demonstrate what they know. Students can choose to do a presentation using Prezi or Emaze, or a video using Go Animate, or they may prefer to create a cartoon using StoryBoard That or an infographic using Pictochart.



6. Flipped learning. Rather than lecture to the class, the teacher can create a video on YouTube or Vimeo and give the link to the class to watch for homework, provided they have a way to access the Internet. The next day the students can use the class time to collaborate on a project related to the video rather than listen to the teacher lecture. 


Web 2.0 provides the teacher with multiple methods to diversify her teaching and assessment. It also gives students alternative modes of participating and expressing their knowledge. It is a great way to incorporate UDL into the classroom.  It has also been said that students work harder at their writing and projects when they know they will be shared with the world rather than just with the teacher. So using Web 2.0 is one good way to integrate technology into the classroom.