Tools for Collaboration
Research shows that educational experiences that are active, social, contextual, engaging, and student-owned lead to deeper learning. Check out some ways to boost collaboration in your classroom.
The benefits of collaborative learning:
Development of higher-level thinking, oral communication, self-management, and leadership skills.
Promotion of student-faculty interaction.
Increase in student retention, self-esteem, and responsibility.
Exposure to and an increase in understanding of diverse perspectives.
Preparation for real life social and employment situations.
Source: https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/engaging-students/collaborative-learning
Students can collaborate on any Google file at the same time. Share customized docs with small groups or with the entire class, let students collaborate on grammar corrections or essays, collaborative stories & analyze text. Allow peer editing among small groups to promote student to student interaction and expose students to perspectives beyond their own.
Create a class site for a larger project where all students contribute information, images, videos, resources, links, text, etc. Use the site to connect with other classes, with parents, or with the extended community.
Use editable Google Slides to allow students to add their own content, utilize collaborative writing prompts and virtual manipulatives. Have students add their own slide to introduce themselves. Google Slides also has a live Q&A feature that allows presenters to see questions that the audience submits.
Easily share drive docs, sheets, slides and other files with students to have them collaborate on. Post a question for students to answer and encourage students to respond to each other to created a discussion thread.
Share graphic organizers with small groups of students or create teams to design creative infographics.
Google Hangout Meet
This videoconferencing tool lets users have face-to-face discussions in real time. Students can ask questions, share ideas and collaborate more effectively and efficiently.
Padlet is an online corkboard that allows groups to collect items and ideas all in one shared space. Students can comment on other posts and use upvotes, likes or stars to rate responses. Padlet can be used in smaller groups of students to collect project resources, links and information.
Flipgrid
Some students find it easier to speak their thoughts outloud. Flipgrid allows students to record short video responses to a question or prompt made by the teacher. Other students can view the responses to gain diverse perspectives from their peers.