Collaborative Technology

Collaborative technology has a tremendous impact on instruction and teacher professional development. Being a first-year teacher, this technology benefits me greatly. My learning coach uses Google Docs and LiveBinders to share ideas and resources. LiveBinders is a great way to organize ideas and sites to share with peers or students. I've started this LiveBinder to keep track of different technology tools that I have used or am interested in learning more about. The binders are easy to share and also allow for collaboration with others. I have found many great online resources for lesson plans. Share My Lesson has many free lessons and activities for all grades and subject areas. The site has provided many great ideas that I have implemented in my classroom. Illuminations is another great resource for math lessons from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. They have great lessons that stress critical thinking and deep understanding.

LiveBinders

 






Collaboration among students is critical in today's learning environment. Google Docs is a great tool for students to use when collaborating on group projects. Students can easily share information with each other and with the instructor. As a teacher, I can also easily provide feedback to students when they share documents with me. Symbaloo is another great resource that I would like to use with my students and parents. It allows you to create a mix of website bookmarks that you can share. I could see utilizing this site with webquests or for sharing additional resources with parents. The great thing about all of the collaborative resources I have listed is the cost. Everything is free to use and makes the collaborative process simpler.

Symbaloo