Our Favorite Tools
Here's a list of some of our favorite global collaborative tools and how we use them.
Meeting Organization
Timebridge
Cross Function Time Zone Coordination and Meetings and full integration with our Google Calendars.
www.timebridge.com
Cost: We use the free version; however, web conferencing and voice conferencing are available for a fee.
Calendar of Projects and Events
We keep our calendars for projects on Google calendar and let teachers put their class times on the calendar to see if there are synchronous opportunities during the project. Project coordinators keep Google calendars personally as well (some sync with their handhelds) These are embedded on wikis for live updates of calendars as appointments are scheduled.
Google Calendar
http://calendar.google.com
Free
Networked Learning Community
This site allows blogging, tagging, customized networks, flagging of content, and robust video sharing features. It also allows students in some countries to post to their pages from their cell phones.
Ning
http://www.ning.com
Ning introduced a user-pays system in July 2010. Full functionality to upload multimedia and receive online support is not cheap.
Connected Community
This site is used for elementary level projects rather than the Ning (students under 13 years of age). It provides a private collaborative environment for sharing discussion and files. Can create groups as well.
Edmodo
http:/edmodo.com
Free
Collaborative Authoring and Content Sharing
Our preferred wiki tool that allows sharing, notifications, etc. We use the private label service, which gives us our own domain and complete control over all user profiles and administration of the site and site templates.
Wikispaces
http://www.wikispaces.com
K12[Editor1] wikis are ad free upon request.
Private label starts at $1000 a year as of the writing of this book.
Virtual Meetings and Presentations
Our projects have weekly teacher meetings and student summits and awards shows at the conclusion of most of them. This tool allows us to have meetings and record and convert the meetings to video or audio for those who cannot attend.
Blackboard Collaborate
http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Collaborate/Overview.aspx
Cost—rooms of 3 people are free, and many free webinars are given at Learn Central (just sign up for a room) Talk to Elluminate for pricing.
Social Bookmarking and Shared Research
We create Diigo groups for student projects, which allow the creation of “profile-less” profiles for students under 13, a partitioned way to share bookmarks, and tag dictionaries. to help suggest the standard tags to students and keep things organized.
Diigo
www.diigo.com
Teacher and classroom accounts are free from Diigo.
Website Creation
We create our websites on this easy-to-use tool to give a professional look that can be edited by our organizers around the world.
Weebly
www.weebly.com
$39.95 for 10 websites per year
Microblogging and PLN
Blog post announcements on our websites automatically post and invitations are given to judges and educators when opportunities for participation are available. Lists are used to help teachers find one another.
Twitter
www.twitter.com
Free
Microblogging Organizer
A tool to schedule tweets and interact with Twitter that allows all of our organizers to work together and coordinate announcements that are released via Twitter. Several use the Hootsuite app on their mobile devices.
Hootsuite
www.hootsuite.com
Free
Collaborative Authoring, Content Sharing, and Information Gathering
Teachers sign students up to groups, startup guides are created, and press releases are generated and automatically published. Forms are used to receive project sign-up applications by teachers and provide an autoresponse. Spreadsheets are used to tally award results for the Eracism Project.
Google Docs
http://docs.google.com
Free
Surveys
This robust survey tool is our primary research tool and aggregator for awards results, which are often exported into Microsoft Excel or Access. It provides tracking required to allow valid research results.
Surveyshare
http://www.surveyshare.com/
See website for pricing.
RSS Reader
Google’s RSS reader is used by many organizers to help their students build their individual PLN’s.
iGoogle
http://www.igoogle.com
Free
RSS Reader
This RSS reader is used to create the CMPs (classroom monitoring portals) for many projects that can be published so all teachers may track and monitor the public spaces.
NetVibes
http://www.netvibes.com
Free
Microblogging Organizer
This website is used to post information from the appropriate blog to the project’s Twitter account automatically.
TwitterFeed
http://www.twitterfeed.com
Free
File Sharing
This website allows us to share files when we create videos or audio to share between project organizers.
Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/
Free
Professional Networking
A network of professionals that harnesses the power of social media for working in your chosen field.
Linked In
http://www.linkedin.com
Basic sign-up is free; if you wish to find and hire applicants or post more information for hire, there can be a fee.
Online Presentations
A website that allows posting and sharing of slideshows and other media that are easy to embed on wiki pages or blogs.
Slideshare
http://www.slideshare.net
Free for basic services.
Audio Editing
Free, open-source audio editing software that allows the editing of audio that can be posted on various websites.
Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Free
Browser
A web browser that is often used in projects for video sharing and bookmarking because of the various free plug ins that allow the use of powerful tools for connecting. We often gravitate to tools and websites that have plug ins (like Diigo.)
Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com
Free
Chatroom
A simple chatroom that we can create and remove the ads. This is used at conferences to allow all participants to chat about the proceeds and organizers to archive and catalog discussions.
Chatzy
http://www.chatzy.com
$9 a year for ad-free per chat room
Voice Over Internet Protocol
Skype
http://skype.com
Free for computer to computer
Video Sharing
YouTube
http://youtube.com
Free
Live Video Sharing
uStream
http://ustream.com
Free
Live Video Sharing
Live Stream
http://www.livestream.com/
Free
Time Zone Display
Clock Link
http://clocklink.com
Free
Time Zone Conversion
Time and Date
http://timeanddate.com
Free
Video Creation
Animoto
http://animoto.com
Free for 30 sec clips
File Conversion
Zamzar
http://zamzar.com
Free
Blogging
Edublogs
http://edublog.org
Via subscription
Trello
https://trello.com/
Workflow software for organizing groups, companies, or projects.free
1. Full disclosure: Wikispaces, Blackboard Collaborate, and Surveyshare are sponsors of our projects and provide administrative support and tools. We were, however, using these tools prior to their sponsorship and they are part of the backbone of what we do.
Meeting Organization
Timebridge
Cross Function Time Zone Coordination and Meetings and full integration with our Google Calendars.
www.timebridge.com
Cost: We use the free version; however, web conferencing and voice conferencing are available for a fee.
Calendar of Projects and Events
We keep our calendars for projects on Google calendar and let teachers put their class times on the calendar to see if there are synchronous opportunities during the project. Project coordinators keep Google calendars personally as well (some sync with their handhelds) These are embedded on wikis for live updates of calendars as appointments are scheduled.
Google Calendar
http://calendar.google.com
Free
Networked Learning Community
This site allows blogging, tagging, customized networks, flagging of content, and robust video sharing features. It also allows students in some countries to post to their pages from their cell phones.
Ning
http://www.ning.com
Ning introduced a user-pays system in July 2010. Full functionality to upload multimedia and receive online support is not cheap.
Connected Community
This site is used for elementary level projects rather than the Ning (students under 13 years of age). It provides a private collaborative environment for sharing discussion and files. Can create groups as well.
Edmodo
http:/edmodo.com
Free
Collaborative Authoring and Content Sharing
Our preferred wiki tool that allows sharing, notifications, etc. We use the private label service, which gives us our own domain and complete control over all user profiles and administration of the site and site templates.
Wikispaces
http://www.wikispaces.com
K12[Editor1] wikis are ad free upon request.
Private label starts at $1000 a year as of the writing of this book.
Virtual Meetings and Presentations
Our projects have weekly teacher meetings and student summits and awards shows at the conclusion of most of them. This tool allows us to have meetings and record and convert the meetings to video or audio for those who cannot attend.
Blackboard Collaborate
http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Collaborate/Overview.aspx
Cost—rooms of 3 people are free, and many free webinars are given at Learn Central (just sign up for a room) Talk to Elluminate for pricing.
Social Bookmarking and Shared Research
We create Diigo groups for student projects, which allow the creation of “profile-less” profiles for students under 13, a partitioned way to share bookmarks, and tag dictionaries. to help suggest the standard tags to students and keep things organized.
Diigo
www.diigo.com
Teacher and classroom accounts are free from Diigo.
Website Creation
We create our websites on this easy-to-use tool to give a professional look that can be edited by our organizers around the world.
Weebly
www.weebly.com
$39.95 for 10 websites per year
Microblogging and PLN
Blog post announcements on our websites automatically post and invitations are given to judges and educators when opportunities for participation are available. Lists are used to help teachers find one another.
www.twitter.com
Free
Microblogging Organizer
A tool to schedule tweets and interact with Twitter that allows all of our organizers to work together and coordinate announcements that are released via Twitter. Several use the Hootsuite app on their mobile devices.
Hootsuite
www.hootsuite.com
Free
Collaborative Authoring, Content Sharing, and Information Gathering
Teachers sign students up to groups, startup guides are created, and press releases are generated and automatically published. Forms are used to receive project sign-up applications by teachers and provide an autoresponse. Spreadsheets are used to tally award results for the Eracism Project.
Google Docs
http://docs.google.com
Free
Surveys
This robust survey tool is our primary research tool and aggregator for awards results, which are often exported into Microsoft Excel or Access. It provides tracking required to allow valid research results.
Surveyshare
http://www.surveyshare.com/
See website for pricing.
RSS Reader
Google’s RSS reader is used by many organizers to help their students build their individual PLN’s.
iGoogle
http://www.igoogle.com
Free
RSS Reader
This RSS reader is used to create the CMPs (classroom monitoring portals) for many projects that can be published so all teachers may track and monitor the public spaces.
NetVibes
http://www.netvibes.com
Free
Microblogging Organizer
This website is used to post information from the appropriate blog to the project’s Twitter account automatically.
TwitterFeed
http://www.twitterfeed.com
Free
File Sharing
This website allows us to share files when we create videos or audio to share between project organizers.
Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/
Free
Professional Networking
A network of professionals that harnesses the power of social media for working in your chosen field.
Linked In
http://www.linkedin.com
Basic sign-up is free; if you wish to find and hire applicants or post more information for hire, there can be a fee.
Online Presentations
A website that allows posting and sharing of slideshows and other media that are easy to embed on wiki pages or blogs.
Slideshare
http://www.slideshare.net
Free for basic services.
Audio Editing
Free, open-source audio editing software that allows the editing of audio that can be posted on various websites.
Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Free
Browser
A web browser that is often used in projects for video sharing and bookmarking because of the various free plug ins that allow the use of powerful tools for connecting. We often gravitate to tools and websites that have plug ins (like Diigo.)
Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com
Free
Chatroom
A simple chatroom that we can create and remove the ads. This is used at conferences to allow all participants to chat about the proceeds and organizers to archive and catalog discussions.
Chatzy
http://www.chatzy.com
$9 a year for ad-free per chat room
Voice Over Internet Protocol
Skype
http://skype.com
Free for computer to computer
Video Sharing
YouTube
http://youtube.com
Free
Live Video Sharing
uStream
http://ustream.com
Free
Live Video Sharing
Live Stream
http://www.livestream.com/
Free
Time Zone Display
Clock Link
http://clocklink.com
Free
Time Zone Conversion
Time and Date
http://timeanddate.com
Free
Video Creation
Animoto
http://animoto.com
Free for 30 sec clips
File Conversion
Zamzar
http://zamzar.com
Free
Blogging
Edublogs
http://edublog.org
Via subscription
Trello
https://trello.com/
Workflow software for organizing groups, companies, or projects.free
1. Full disclosure: Wikispaces, Blackboard Collaborate, and Surveyshare are sponsors of our projects and provide administrative support and tools. We were, however, using these tools prior to their sponsorship and they are part of the backbone of what we do.
