Overview Collaborative environments are online spaces that focus on being able to work together in groups, regardless of where the participants might be In other words, people around the world are able to communicate and work together!

There are websites that are helpful for everyone, from the technologically advanced to beginners Students can use sites to create multimedia projects Sites include Moodle, Ning, PageFlakes, wikis, and Google Docs.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or Creative Expression High value placed on collaboration in the workplace Teachers finding online tools are helpful for collaboration For both colleagues and students

Systems built for K-12 use include: Scheduling Grading Communication Social networking (a handful) Other classroom tasks Class and group projects can easily be assembled and completed through online collaboration.

Collaborative Environments in Practice

Backchannel with Etherpad This is an online chat system that allows a document to be opened on the left side of the screen and a chat on the right side. Each person has their own color so you can distinguish who is who. One benefit of the Etherpad is the ‘time slider’. This allows one to go back and forward and see the progress and changes made to the document over time as it is edited. backchannel-with-etherpad-experiences/

Cross-Cultural Collaboration Carnegie Hall Cultural Exchange program Students in New York learn about their own music culture as it relates to their city as well as the music of other countries from their partner schools. Not only do the students learn about other cultures’ music, they also learn about their day-to-day lives. Cultural-Collaboration-Students-Bridge- Cultureswith- Videoconferencing-from-Carnegie-Hall.aspx

eLanguages This is a system that allows teachers around the world to work together to create curriculum relevant activities. This also encourages development in communication and language skills as well as international and cultural awareness.

Examples of k-12 Class Nings Ning is a social network. On this site the topics of the social pages are organized by topic and location. Sites like this allow people to browse and comment on other student’s and class’s pages. This can be done internationally or within the same state. 7/14/examples-of-class-nings/

Flat Classroom Project This is a project started by countries teaming up to work with research and the production of meaningful multimedia. Provides templates, tools and advice from other schools on joint projects.

Kites Around the World Students around the world learn about themselves and others as they share kite traditions. They share designs, tips, experiences, ideas etc. dealing with kites.

Solar Navigations Wiki Objective is to have a pair of students from one class collaborate with a few other students somewhere else to create a webpage describing a solar system body. They are only able to make changes on their website and create a discussion board on their changes. They must work as a group to produce the final project. Then they will be judged.

Further Reading Here are some more resources if you haven’t learned enough about collaborative environments

This website shares information on a survey about a new type of learner. “Free Agent Learner” A “Free Agent Learner” takes the responsibility of education in their own hands and uses technology tools to create their own personal learning experience collaboration-a-must-for-students/

This is a paper that gives an overview about the importance of collaborative environments. It also states their value in the K-12 education system. Whitepaper.pdf

Howard Rheinldgold discuses the emerging world of collaboration. on.html

This is a report that discusses how collaboration environment can be implemented in schools. Also covers the impacts they can have when integrated into the already existing systems. economic/docs/Metiri_Classroom_Collaboration_Research.pdf

project/research-clearinghouse-individual/research-reports/jazz-as- an-extended-metaphor-for-social-computing This is an unusual study that looks at social computing and jazz. It finds some surprising similarities between the two of them.

This link will bring you to a site for additional information.