Technology to support collaborative teaching and learning

Video Transcription

Welcome. I'm Trisha Fyfe, and today I'm going to be discussing with you the topic of technology to support collaborative teaching and learning throughout this video lesson. As we explore this topic, we will work towards one main learning objective. The question we will answer together is, what are the resources to support teachers in virtual collaboration?

During this lesson, I will be showing you examples of tools that are available for you on the internet, and I will also discuss what these tools are all about, how they will help you with collaborative teaching and learning in your classroom. Let's start with Google Apps.

Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms, Google Classroom, and Google Hangouts are all really essential apps for you to understand as a teacher. We'll start by looking at Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms. These are all free productivity apps by Google used to create or work on documents in real time. You can store these in your Google Drive online.

Here's a picture of Google Docs. Google Docs, you can write, edit, and collaborate. With Google Sheets, you can create and edit spreadsheet documents, as well as collaborate within these. In Google Slides, you can create presentations for free. And in Google Forms, you can collect and organize information.

Remember, these are all free apps by Google where you can create and work on documents in real time. There's also a chat feature in some of these, and you can store these in your Google Drive online. With Google Classroom, teachers can create and collect assignments without paper. You can create drive folders for each assignment and each student, therefore organizing your work much more efficiently.

Here's a look at Google Classrooms website. You do have to be an education user to create a website here, but as a teacher, this is something that you can do. Let's now look at Google Hangouts. This is where you can instant message and use video chats.

Here's a look at what Google Hangout looks like. It's a place that your students can use for group conversations. Next, we'll take a look at LMS, or learning management systems. The systems we'll be taking a look at today are SOPHIA, Edmodo, Schoolology, Blackboard, and Moodle.

Let's start with SOPHIA. Here's a look at what SOPHIA's web page looks like. SOPHIA offers online college courses as well as free educational videos. The videos are self-paced, and there are additional resources available for each video.

Now we'll take a look at Edmodo. Edmodo is an educational website that refines ideas from social networks for the classroom. Students and teachers can connect and collaborate on assignments and discover new resources.

Schoolology offers a learning management system for K-12 and higher education, as well as corporate education. Schoolology allows its users to create, manage, and share ideas.

Here's a look at Blackboard, where teachers can add resources for students to access online. Our last LMS system that we'll look at today is Moodle. With Moodle software, you're provided a secure and integrated system where you can create personalized learning environments for you and your students.

Backchannel is using networked computers to maintain real time online conversation alongside primary group activity. Today's Meet is a great example of this, where premier backchannel chat platforms are used for classroom teachers and learners. And here's a look at TodaysMeet.com.

Next we'll look at social media, which is becoming ever more popular. These websites enable users to create and share content or join in social networking. Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140 character messages called tweets.

The next social media website we'll look at is Facebook. Facebook makes it easy to connect and share with your family and friends online, and it's a great tool for teachers to use in getting students together for collaboration online.

So let's review what we learned today. We covered the following question together. What are resources to support teachers in virtual collaboration. I walked you through many tools available to use in collaborative learning environments. Of course, this is just the beginning of the list.

Now that you're more familiar with some resources to get you started with collaborative learning, let's apply these ideas by reflecting on the questions, which of these resources are you already familiar with? Which of these resources would you like to implement in your classroom?

Thanks for joining me today as we discussed the lesson technology to support collaborative teaching and learning. I hope you found value in this video lesson and are able to apply these ideas and resources to your own teaching. As you reflect on how this new information can be applied, you may want to explore the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. This is where you'll find links to resources chosen to help you deepen your learning and explore ways to apply your newly acquired skill set.