Hello All,
In this post, I will be looking and evaluating three different collaborative web tools called Edmodo, CourseSites, and Collaborize Classroom. I will be looking at the ease of navigation, and creating in these websites, and what they are most commonly used for. I will also be looking to see if these are somethings that I can see myself using in the future in my classroom. Now let's begin!
Edmodo
Edmodo is a site that from what I can see works great with students, and parents are able to log on in real time and view some of the progress being made. It also seems like a good way for teachers, and students to communicate and a good way for students to collaborate on presentations or simply ask each other about assignments. Something else that I really liked about Edmodo was it's Facebook like appearance. I think that this is something that would really appeal to middle school aged students, who are now interested in social media. I think that this would be a great opportunity to introduce social media, and how to navigate it. Netiquette is definitely something that would need to be discussed before working in the classroom with this site, especially since some of the conversations can be open for others to comment and leave suggestions.
CourseSites
CourseSites is a website that is powered by Blackboard, which is frequently used in colleges and universities, and allows for up to five free page creations for educators. The page creator can make the page and simple or as complicated as one may like. However, I find that creating and deleting some of the pages can be quite a hassle. While I think that it may be easy for students to navigate with clear instructions, I also feel that it may be a hassle combing through all of the excessive links to narrow down the ones that you want to use. It is similar to Edmodo in that students can also communicate with the instructor and other students through discussion board and email links. However, unlike Edmodo, responses can vary and may take time because there is way of knowing who is online to collaborate with. Still with it's flaws, I can definitely see some good in CourseSites. It is a great place for students and parents to find assignments, see what their child is working on in class, and you can even create various practice quizzes to help students study. I can see myself using this in the future to keep both parents and students informed of grades, assignments, and practices coming up in the future.
Collaborize Classroom
Collaborize Classroom is a website that allows students to connect in real time and participate in teacher created topics. Through the discussions, the students not only learn from the teacher but from other students through discussion. This is something that makes Collaborize Classroom completely different from CourseSites, but similar to Edmodo. However, like CourseSites, you can create more of a simpler discussion by uploading polls or mini quizzes in the form of multiple choice answers. Also similar to CourseSites, students also have to be invited because the discussions are small group and are not open to the public, which makes it safe. I thought that the ease of navigation through this website made it the simplest of the three to create and form discussions. And since this is a discussion based website, I think that this would be great for getting students to collaborate on issues, or topics such as social studies and language arts. I could definitely see myself using this in my Civil War section of my lessons.
Overall, as you can see there are many pros and cons to each website. I invite you to take a look at each site individually and decide which one meets your needs. They are all great websites, just for different topics in my opinion, but I'm sure can be used cross categorically. I have provided the links in the names above that take you directly to the sites. Good luck!
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