In the last few months, we’ve posted articles sharing 10 Beneficial Facebook Pages For Educators To Check Out and 7 Twitter Users to Follow If You Are Interested in Education Technology, both of which were received enthusiastically. Today we bring follow this with another set of social networking resources focused on education – Linkedin Groups for educators. We examined dozens of these groups and selected a cross section of popular groups to share with readers.

Linkedin groups are a great way to connect with like-minded professionals and participate in online discussions about topics of interest. Click through and consider joining one or more of these groups (and if you’re not on Linkedin already, your failing to leverage the premier social networking site for professionals).

Thanks to Roxanne Peterson and Laura Backes for their contributions to the creation of this article.

Note: A couple of these links seem to require you to be signed in to LinkedIn but most do not.

International Association of Academic Professionals
“The International Association of Academic Professionals is a non-profit professional organization whose mission is to passionately provide the promotion, development and support needed for academic professionals to become dynamic, mobile, flexible, and entrepreneurial anywhere in the world.”

Teacher’s Lounge
“Are you a K-12 teacher who needs to network with other teachers from all around the world? Are you an expert in general education or special education? Do you have a math, reading, science, or Admin. idea that really works at your school/campus and would like to share it with others? Share it today!”

Higher Education Management
“Networking and information sharing for (20,000+) management professionals working in the higher education industry. Members are professionals in colleges, textbook publishing, educational technology, enrollment management, administration software, marketing/ recruiting firms, and fundraising.”

Online Faculty – Adjunct, Full-Time, University Administrators, and Instructional Designers
“This group is for people who are adjunct online faculty or those who wish to become adjunct online faculty. College administrators, instructional designers, and education recruiters are welcome to join also. There is also a Job Board for posting positions for online positions in Higher Education.”

Technology Integration in Education
“A professional network of teachers, educators, and business people interested in integrating technology into the education of students. Members help develop new innovative ways to develop an educational atmosphere where technology is seamlessly incorporated into the everyday learning of students.”

Higher Education Teaching and Learning
“The International Higher Education Teaching and Learning (HETL) Association is a non-profit organization and a global community of higher education professionals who are committed to advancing the scholarship and practice of teaching and learning in higher education.”

GAIN – Global Academic Innovation Network
“The Global Academic Innovation Network (GAIN) is an international technology transfer group. The goal is to make connections for universities and businesses from around the world for collaboration, commercialization and economic development. Let’s solve a world problem through GAIN, improve existing technology, and increase world trade. Let’s make a difference. “

E-Learning 2.0
“This group is dedicated to serving the online education community with the latest news, instructional design techniques and technologies of eLearning. If you are a trainer, instructional designer and/or educator, please join us and share your thoughts and experiences.”

About the Contributors:
Roxanne Peterson a social media expert as well as an expert in internet communications and technologies. She has an all round expertise in internet services including unlimited broadband. With an intense knowledge of the latest developments in the field she likes to share them with her readers through her blogs and articles regularly.

Laura Backes enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet service providers in my area.

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
10 Beneficial Facebook Pages For Educators To Check Out
7 Twitter Users to Follow If You Are Interested in Education Technology
11 Reasons Why Every College Student Needs a LinkedIn Page

A low cost, web enabled alternative to the other diagramming applications, and it allows for collaboration across the web!

Guest post by Nishadha Silva.

Presenting subject matter in an easy to visualize way is an important part of teaching. Many teachers are looking for easy to use and cost effective diagramming tools to draw charts and diagrams. Creately is a web based diagramming tool, that supports many diagrams types including Flowcharts, Venn diagrams, story boards etc, which are commonly used in teaching. Although presenting the subject matter using diagrams is great, there are a few limitation when it comes to using diagram software. Mentioned below are some of those problems and how Creately addresses them.

Accessibility - One of the biggest problems with desktop diagramming software is that they are limited to that machine. So if you want to access some diagrams from school and home then you need to have the software installed on both computers. Also, if you start drawing a diagram from school and want to finish it at home, then you need to bring it home using a external hard drive or access it through some online storage like email or online file hosting. These things take additional time and can even result in corrupt files.

The advantage of an online diagramming tool is that all your diagrams are stored online, so you can access them anytime, anywhere as long as you have Internet access. Creately even has its own desktop software that automatically syncs with your online account, making it ideal for offline drawing as well.

One of many Creately How-To Videos from the Cinergix Channel on YouTube.

Pricing - Another common problem with diagramming software is the heavy price tag. Even though educational institutes get discounted prices, a personal license for Microsoft Visio can cost from $60 to $100 (and you need to produce your university card and go through the university administration to get the discount). Creately personal plan starts at 5$ per month, which is affordable for most people. For educational institutions that are looking for multiple licenses or a desktop version of the software, there is a discounted price scheme. Contact edu@creately.com for discounted rates. If you are a charity or an open source project, you are also eligible for discounted rates.

Easy to use tools and interface - Creately was featured in TechCrunch and MakeUseOf because of its innovative use of technology and easy to use tools. Since Creately launched, a lot of focus was given to make diagramming fun and easy. There are many templates available so you can start drawing diagrams quickly. There are many shapes and objects like business objects, people shapes, commonly used shapes loaded so you can start using them straightaway. The video above shows how connectors are designed in a user friendly way, making it very easy to adjust and connect objects.

Lots of free resources - There are many resources about diagramming available for free in the Creately website. There are mini sites for important diagram types and articles and pages for almost every diagram type. A good example of a mini site is this Flowchart Information mini site. It has templates for you to download, explanation of the diagram type, explanation of the symbols used in a diagram type, real world examples of using the diagram and other articles about that specific diagram type. It’s a great resource for beginners and expert users alike.

Team Collaboration - Team collaboration is one of the biggest issues addressed by Creately. Although it was designed for use by software teams it is a great tool to be used in the classrooms as well. Imagine two or three students working on a diagram, with it shown to the class using a projector. That’s the sort of thing you can achieve using Creately.

I hope the above facts tempt you to try Creately. It can be used to draw all sorts of things and you can contribute to the diagramming community by making the diagrams public, so others can learn from them. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments section or by contacting us through the website.

Nishadha Silva is a Software Engineer turned Internet Marketer. He loves to learn about social media, search engine optimization and traffic generation methods. While he’s not working on his blogs he loves to read, travel and try out various new delicacies. Check out his LinkedIn profile, or follow him on Twitter @rumblinglankan for tips mostly related to Internet Marketing.

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
10 Internet Technologies Educators Should Be Informed About – 2011 Update
Free Productivity Resources for Educators
8 Great Free Digital Presentation Tools For Teachers To Try …

This week’s midweek post is a guest contribution from Sal Pellettieri, who is the creative force behind “EnterTheGroup”, a great free online group project/work application.

It’s not hard to figure out that many students have a dislike for group projects. A search for “group projects” on Twitter will reveal some interesting thoughts – many quite negative. The problem is twofold; first, students are rarely given training in project management and second they don’t have the appropriate tools to get organized and communicate with their group.

Enterthegroup.com is the solution to this widespread problem which exists everywhere from junior high schools to MBA programs. The site provides students with a free platform to learn how to manage a project by following templates like a Project Outline, task management, a project checklist and a lessons learned form.  ETG lets students create private group pages where they can schedule meetings, share files, IM, upload videos and create polls. Students can get project advice by reading many of the helpful articles and a specific user guide in our Library.

There are also tools for teachers. They can use the site to create virtual classrooms, which are a great compliment to their conventional classroom. The virtual classroom enables teachers to upload assignments, put important dates on a shared calendar, upload readings & videos and create polls. The great thing about this is that helps everyone get organized since they can access class info anytime, anywhere. It also enables a new dimension of learning since students can post comments, vote on polls, chat online and ask questions. These are all things which students can’t do in a regular classroom. We’ve created a specific user guide for teachers  along with A Guide to Developing Awesome Virtual Classrooms to help teachers get started.

Since the beta version of the site was launched in February of 2011 we’ve had enormous positive feedback from educators and students. Educators from all parts of the globe and walks of life have started using the site. For example:

• There are numerous ESL teachers who use the site to upload videos, audio and test their students English skills with polls.
• There are junior and high school teachers who use the projects application to help their students with project based learning.
• There are students, at various levels, who are using the site to get their groups organized for projects.
• Teachers are using the virtual classroom to add another dimension to their classrooms, engage students and share ideas.
• Students have been using the site to create blogs, to-do lists, instant message and add comments to content in classrooms and projects. There are also students who have been using the site to create their own classroom pages as a private network for classmates.

Enterthegroup.com is a completely free site, requires no IT support and it’s easy to get started. Have a look and please let us know what you think!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
Google Docs: Why Teachers and Students Should Be Using Them For Course Work
Social Learning With Social Networking Tools Designed Just For Education
EctoLearning is a Solid Contender for Best Free Online CMS

… or at least considering it.

Guest post from writer Brian Jenkins.

Google Docs, an increasingly popular technology with teachers and students, is free! Google Docs includes an online word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation editor. Students and teachers can use these tools to collaborate on assignments, projects, newsletters, and blogs, among other things. In this way, Google Docs can promote teamwork.

Google Docs allows more than one person to work on a particular document at the same time. Students can develop and/or edit documents online, while working with others. Group members no longer have to wait for other group members to update their portion of the presentation. There is no longer the need to upload and download files multiple times or email files back and forth. Also, students don’t have to be concerned about using different software at school and at home. And, by the way, there is no software to download.

Here are some of the many ways in which students and teachers can use Google Docs to make learning easier and more efficient: 

• Teachers have the opportunity to check student progress and make sure students are following the guidelines. They can provide feedback in the document. Teachers can offer advice which may lead to higher grades.
• Teachers can use the revisions history to find out who has actually helped on the project and evaluate individual participation and content.
• Teachers can discover who is not participating and have the opportunity to correct the situation.
• Teachers can use Google Docs to inform students about upcoming assignments.
• Google Docs is popular for teams that are developing an essay or a presentation.
• A team of students can create a spreadsheet which includes assignment details and deadlines. All the team members update the spreadsheet which allows students to see who is getting their work done on time and who is falling behind.
• The revision history feature allows students and teachers to see a history of the revision process of a particular document. Sometimes previous ideas and information that were removed actually deserve to be in the document. With Google Docs, this deleted content can be restored.
• Students from all over the nation can work on the same project in real-time and get involved in brainstorming sessions.

To use Google Docs, you just need a (free) Google Account. Click here to set one up if you don’t have one already.

Guest post by Brian Jenkins, a member of the BrainTrack.com writing team. He writes about a number of education and career topics, including high school teaching careers.

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
Collaboration & Brainstorming (part 2 – collaborative document editing tools)
10 Internet Technologies that Educators Should Be Informed About
30 Posts About Free Education Technology Tools & Resources

Indaba Music is a wonderful example of how Internet based tools can raise “collaboration” to a level far exceeding what has been possible up to now.

Alexandra Stewart from Indaba Music reached out to me and introduced me to this site. I was instantly intriqued, as I am an amateur musician (here’s an example of my work - I wrote this, played the guitars and sang it, and created this silly way-low-budget video to help tell this sad tale of love gone bad!). I’ve often thought, “how cool would it be to be able collaborate with other musicians using some sort of online tool – I’m surprised I haven’t come across good apps for that”. Well I have now. Indaba enables collaboration and much more.

The folks at Indaba are also working to promote the many ways in which their tools can work in educational applications. What’s that you say? A hobby (writing, recording, and playing music) that speaks to my heart and soul, combined with a hobby (blogging about ed tech) that speaks to my intellect and professional life? Well that’s just too good to pass up!

So I started sinking my teeth into IndabaMusic.com. Indaba is a rich suite of tools for the modern musician. These tools can also have a profoundly positive effect in the classroom by augmenting engagement and providing cost-effective solutions to a range of musical services. [Note: Yes, I did borrow from some of the marketing materials sent to me by Indaba to create some of the text in this post, but only after I spent time there validating what I read!]

The Online Classroom
There are several ways to conduct class and track assignments online using the Indaba environment, including:

• Groups provide a centralized meeting place for your students where you can post announcements, have discussions, create events, and attach blog posts and songs.
• Indaba’s session platform is ideal for posting assignments, recording classes, sharing class projects, the organization and storage of audio examples, and tracking student progress. 
• In-song commenting allows for critique directly on the waveform of any song. This provides an effective way to point out specific passages that need work, or to note places where important musical events occur. 
• The robust text and video chat system allows for extra-scholastic “office hours” while students are home working on assignments. 

Teacher Resources
To help support the use of Indaba in instructional applications, they’ve put together the Teacher’s Resource Center and Teacher’s Corner. The Teacher’s Corner is basically a group, with a corresponding page where group members can communicate in a forum.  The Resource Center is a place where you can “share your lesson plans, audio examples, student performances, and anything else you’d like to share”.

Online Recording
One of the coolest things about Indaba is it’s ability to facilitate online recording and collaboration.

• Indaba’s proprietary, browser-based, online recording software Mantis allows you to record CD quality (16 bit, 44.1 KHz) audio directly onto our servers. 
• Sharing is a breeze- the session can be accessed from any computer, allowing students to edit with real time effects from home or in the classroom without needing to download additional software. 
• Mantis is ideal for Podcasting; recording lessons; band, orchestra, and choir rehearsals; and recording lectures in class. 
• Once you bounce down the audio, you can comment on the track and note what needs to be worked on or items in the recording for students to observe. 

Cost Effective Solutions
Indaba comes with three levels of membership, starting with a free option that provides some very useable functionality. Pick what works for you.

• A basic package (best for students) is free. 
• Pro membership, which offers 13 sessions, including 3 private sessions and 500MB storage per session (among other perks) is only $5 a month or $50 a year. 
• Platinum membership, which offers an unlimited amount of sessions and storage (along with access to full site functionality), is only $25 per month or $250 a year.    

Next?
I’ve become an Indaba member at the basic (free ) level. I look forward to putting the tool to use in the coming weeks and months. As always, if I think that what I learn is informative to my readers, I’ll probably be discussing it further here. I think this exciting application and collaboration environment may very well play a great role in my continued growth as a musician. I also believe it has some nice application for music education, and is something older students who are getting serious about their careers will benefits from being aware of.

In the meanwhile, I’m working on a post for next week in which I’ll discuss a trial of the Mimio Bar – a unique, low cost, portable Interactive White Board tool. I hope you’ll stop back and learn with me!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
Music Education Technology Resources
Free Creative Writing Resources

An update to last April’s post about free web-based IWBs.

Last April, I wrote a post about a few Online Interactive Whiteboards that I had checked out. That post remains one of my most popular posts, so obviously this is a topic of interest to a lot of people. 

I figured it was time for an update, to check out new tools, and to see if there have been any changes with the apps I reviewed last year. Below I have listed 6 web-based Interactive White Board applications, and provided a little info about each. This is followed by a comparative table of some desirable functions.

	Scribblar appears to have evolved a bit since my review last year. This time I was able to get it to work. This is a nice tool for collaborating. You can easily invite others to participate, and there are plenty of useful tools for drawing and editing. You can also chat or use voice to communicate with each other. You can save images (use the Snapshot icon, which will save images to the Assets pane, where they can be downloaded from). Scribblar is definitely worth trying out!
I loved Dabbleboard last year when I took it for a test run, and have continued to use it from time to time since. It’s a useful, easy to use white board tool, with some solid functionality. I recommend giving it a try if you are interested in using a free online collaborative whiteboard.
	ImaginationCubed.com, from GE, was another tool I instantly took to in my review last year. This a simple, straightforward tool. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of some of the other tools, but simple and dependable are good qualities. [Ed Note: As of July 2011, it appears that this tool has been taken off line! - KW]
I didn’t come across Scriblink last year when I reviewed sites. I really like what I see, but … try as I might I couldn’t successfully interact with another user. It was easy to invite someone to collaborate, but they did not end up on my board. I could also save and send a board, but again, there was no interaction taking place. I found no FAQ, no Help, nothing to explain how to make this work. [If anyone has successfully collaborated with Scriblink, please comment and let us know the steps you followed.]
	Writeboard is a text-only collaboration tool, not a drawing based tool. At first, I found this to be a turn-off, but after using the other tools, I realized that this is a good idea. If your goal is to collaborate with others on the development of a text document, the other tools here are really not functional for that. I gave Writeboard a quick test, and it was easy to use, but honestly I came away feeling that Google Docs does a better job of this.
Skrbl is still in beta and there’s a note right on their front page (as of this writing) stating, “skrbl is back up but some services may still be affected we’ll be testing and updating ASAP”. It looks like Skrbl is still a “try at your own risk” situation.

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Click here for a PDF version of this article,
which provides a clean, uncluttered copy 
for printing or e-mailing to friends and
colleagues!
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Comparative Grid
Here’s a table comparing some of the features and functions of these different tools.

Conclusions
Scribblar and Dabbleboard are both pretty solid tools and I recommend them both. ImaginationCubed is also a nice app, and it’s great for doing something simple and quick, but not as robust as Scribblar and Dabbleboard.      

If you’re interested in collaborating on a text document, Writeboard is worth trying, but Google Docs is probably a better way to go (although you do have to set up a Google Account, which is free, but a little more involved).      

Skrbl is just not ready for prime time, and Scriblink may not be quite there yet either (although it looks like it could be just as capable as Scribblar and Dabbleboard, if I could only figure out how to successfully collaborate with it!).      

Next?
At the end of last week’s post, I suggested that I would probably be writing about my experiences with screen capture tool Camtasia this week, but obviously I chose not to. Camtasia just recently released an upgrade to Version 7, and I was just learning Camtasia 6, so I’m working on transitioning to and learning Ver 7 and will be blogging about it soon.      

In the meanwhile, I’m heading down to Orlando this week to attend Campus Management’s CampusInsight Annual Conference (we use Campus Vue at the college where I work). Campus Management acquired Talisma last year, a major player in CRM in Higher Ed. I may take a bit of a tangent from my usual focus on instructional and classroom tech to discuss this exciting administrative/business app for Higher Ed.

Please be sure to stop back next week and see what we’re learning about!      

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
Interactive (online) Whiteboards – Part 2 of 2
Mimio’s unique approach to Interactive White Board technology
Learning about Interactive Whiteboards for the Classroom
9 insightful videos about using SMART Boards in the Classroom

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This week’s mid week post is a wrap up of the brief 2 part overview of the free offerings for Education from Microsoft and Google that I did here over the last two weeks.

I spent some time looking for notable differences between Google Apps for Education and Microsoft’s Live@edu, and while there are plenty of little differences to point out and discuss, few things jumped out at me as undeniable deal breakers.

I compiled a table (below) listing some of the differences between their popular e-mail and document storing and sharing applications. Remember though, there is a lot more to each firm’s offerings than what is being compared below – for example, both offer IM, some sort of web site space, and a growing list of additional features, for free to education. The importance of those additional features and functions is largely dependent on your environment and other factors that are specific to your institution.

If I had to make a choice based on the information presented on their web sites, and independent of a given set of tools already in place in any institution, I would probably lean towards Microsoft because of the (current) breadth of their offerings and the familiarity of the Office applications. However, these tools are constantly evolving, so it may not stay that way for long.

Anyone looking to decide between the two of these can do some research and make their own choice, or … just choose do what The University of Washington is doing, and use them both!

What would you do? Or, did your institution already make the decision, and if so, which offering did they go with, and why? Comments and feedback are welcomed and encouraged!

The second part of our look at the free online apps for education from these kingpins of the software industry.

One of the first things that struck me about Google’s “Education Edition” of Google Apps was that their informational pages seemed a lot less cluttered than Microsoft’s. You get a cleaner, more precise overview, and while there is some depth to the information and links provided, I didn’t find myself with the sensation I had on the Microsoft Live@edu pages, where I was quickly lost, clicking from link to link across a seemingly endless set of pages, link, goofy videos, etc. The functionality available in Google’s Apps for Education were easy to learn about.

Applications in the Google Apps for Education tool set

• Communication Tools: Email, Messaging, and Shared Calendars
• Collaboration Tools: Google Docs, Google Sites (team website creation), Google Video
• Infrastructure Solutions: Host your own domain, API’s for Single Sign-On, Centralized Admin console, and more

Looks like these offerings are pretty similar to those from Microsoft in their Live@edu environment, and much like Microsoft’s tools these also work with many common operating systems and browsers. So, how do we dig a bit deeper and learn more?

Learning More
This list of FAQ’s provides organized insight into the tool set, answering many of the questions interested parties might ask. Likewise, the Resource Center is a nicely tailored set of resources providing useful information without an overload of materials. The Resource Center includes a “Just Launched!” section, listing the last few updates to the application set (you can get update notifications via email as well if you wish), a few Webinars (a 30 minute tutorial, and a couple implementation stories from large institutions who have been there and done that).

Another element in the Resource Center is a link to a Lesson Plans tool set, which struck me as a unique and very useful idea. You can look up Lessons by product, subject, and grade level. For example, here’s an example of a Lesson Plan for Google Docs, for Science, for 7 to 9th Grade.

One other easy way to learn more is to check out the Video Overview below. While it is not focused specifically on the “Education Edition”, it provides a good overview of the advantages of using Google Apps in any organization. One key benefit discussed - freeing up your IT team to focus on work that is specific to your organization and adds value (as opposed to time spent providing core “commodity level” functionality like email, file storage, etc.). Another benefit  - leveraging Google’s world class, ‘always on’, secure infrastructure. Of course, these benefits could easily cited for Microsoft’s Live@edu offerings as well.

 
So how do Google Apps for Education compare to Microsoft’s Live@edu?
Both of these major software companies provide a very useful set of functions for education, for free. You can hardly go wrong by choosing one over the other. Deciding which of these might make sense for your institution requires a deeper dive into both, and then weighing pros and cons against criteria applicable to your operations. [I would probably be remiss if I didn't at least mention that there is also the larger question of whether to use these types of offerings at all, as discussed in this article from InsideHigherEd.com.]

Returning our focus to the question of which these tool sets is better than the other, I just don’t think either is an undeniable winner over the other. If this is a decision you are looking to make, hopefully these two posts (this week’s and last week’s) have pointed you to some of the readily available informational materials that will help you make this decision. I will wrap this effort up on Wednesday with my midweek post, where I will layout some of the features of each app set side by side, and try to provide some additional information for weighing these free tools against each other.

What free tools are these giants of the software industry providing to Education?

Both Microsoft and Google offer an evolving set of free online tools specifically for the education community. This week and next we’ll take a brief look at these offerings. I imagine we’ll find a good deal to like about both sets of applications, given the price and ease of a hosted (i.e. Internet based) tool set. Before starting I should add that Microsoft and Google are certainly not the only providers of free applications for education – in a brief look at collaboration tools back May I discussed a similar app suite from Zoho, but since Microsoft and Google are such behemoths of the software industry, there is particular interest in what they have to offer and how these offerings compare.

We’ll start with Microsoft’s Live@edu service.

Live@edu from Microsoft
It is my understanding that  the Live@edu service started as a free email offering for students. Students can have a free mailbox with their educational institution’s domain name, and they can keep it after they graduate. Today these email accounts provide 10 GB of storage and include calendaring, spam filtering, and other features. The Live@edu services have expanded considerably from the initial functionality offered, and now includes access to the following additional applications:

• Office Live Workspace - For collaborative document editing 
• Windows Live Skydrive – Skydrive provides 25 GB of internet based file storage
• Windows Live Spaces – Provides a web ‘space’ (a web page) where you can share information and ideas using documents, blogs, discussion groups and more
• A growing number of additional applications, such as Windows Live Messaging (Instant Messaging) and Windows Live Mobile (mobile devices access to email, messaging, etc.)

As might be expected, the offerings continue to evolve. One of the latest additions to these tools is a free plug in for the Moodle learning management system, providing access to many of the Live@edu services directly within the popular, open source Moodle application.

Microsoft’s web site provides a wide variety of introductory information, with product overviews, video intros (some of which, frankly, border on creepy in their effort to be cute/goofy) and more. There are a handful of prerecorded webinars available providing information about creating a paperless classroom, deployment options, http://www.educationwebcasts.com/Webcast.aspx?i=3504, and so on. Microsoft also provides a bunch of case studies that offer insight into how various schools have leveraged these offerings. There are also MS-focused web based user communities, such as the Microsoft Education Partner Network (this link opens their EDU tech blogs page), that play a role in supporting and providing further insight into education related tools (and others) from Microsoft.

I spent a little time searching for negative reviews or bad press, to get a sense of any blatant dissatisfaction users may be experiencing with the platform, and found nothing other a few long outdated rants about early versions of some related products like MS Small Business Office Live and one “Microsoft’s plot to take over the world” enthusiast! I would imagine a lot of users and administrators may be pretty content with the growing functionality of this free software. Does a free tool set like this ultimately compel some users to embrace other Microsoft applications, including licensed software, and stick with them after this initial exposure? Sure, and that’s likely an important goal of Microsoft’s business plan for providing the free tools in the first place. I wouldn’t think that would really come as a big surprise to anyone.

I’d have to say that it certainly appears that Microsoft offers a pretty useful set of tools for education, hosted, at no cost – (talk about a ‘free ride’) - email, document collaboration, 25 GB of space for file storage, and more, and the functionality and features just keep expanding. Of course, they’re not the only one doing this sort of thing.

So, how about “the competition”?
I am looking forward to learning more about Google’s Applications for Education and trying to get a sense of any obvious pros or cons versus what Microsoft is doing. I examined some of the many free offerings from Google back in May, but did not notice the “Google Apps - Education Edition” branding at that time, so I am assuming this is a somewhat recent approach being applied to some existing functionality (presumably to answer Microsoft’s offerings). I know one obvious drawback to Google’s free word processing and spreadsheet tools is the challenge of learning a new interface for the many users already familiar with the widely used MS Office tool suite, and it will be interesting to see how that ultimately impacts adoption of one tool versus the other. But again, this stuff is free, and it works, so how much can you really constructively complain about any of it?

Feedback?
I’d love to hear more from users of either of these tools – is your institution using any of the applications available in these free suites, or others? What has your experience been? I am interested in possibly tapping further into some of the functionality these free tools have to offer. I know at least one of our professors has trialed Windows Live Spaces, and I personally have found Google Docs to be quite useful because it is available from anywhere I can get a network connection. If you have experience with any of this on an institution-wide deployment scale, please let us know your impression of these software giants’ free offerings for education. Thanks!

This is the final post in a 3 part series on web based collaboration and brainstorming tools for educational applications. In the first post, we examined some mind/idea mapping tools, last week we looked at some collaborative document editing applications, and this week we wrap up by checking out a free collaborative workgroup application for teachers and students. Edmodo.com is a tool that provides workgroup functionality specifically for education, and I am going to sign up and give it a trial run. I spent some time searching and did not find any other web based, education specific tools that provided comparable functionality, but there are a number of ways to accomplish some of what Edmodo does using other free web based tools, and we’ll consider those as well.

Edmodo.com

I have come across mention of this tool several times in my ongoing investigations of internet applications for educational and instructional use. As the banner on their main page indicates, Edmodo positions itself as a “private communication platform built for teachers and students”. When first launched, the site was frequently referred to as a “microblogging” site (like Twitter) for educators, but it has clearly evolved beyond that. I signed up for an account, and had my 8th grade son sign up, and we spent some time trying the application out.

I have to admit that I was initially frustrated by a lack of (what I perceived as) intuitive functionality, and difficulty finding useful help resources. We attempted to add Calendar entries, upload and share files, and send messages to each other. Once we realized that things had to be shared with or sent to the group (as opposed to an individual user in the group), we were able to send messages and share files, but successful use of the calendar eluded us. While signed in to the system, there is no obvious help system or tutorial to tap into to determine what we were doing wrong. I later realized that there are resources available from the main page, but once I had signed in, each time I went to the site (even if I closed the window and reopened it), I landed on my own Home page, from which few options for assistance or information were evident. There is a ‘support’ group that you can send messages to (I sent a request for help on Saturday morning, but by Sunday afternoon I had yet to receive a response). I eventually discovered the little ‘blog’ link at the bottom of the page, which opened a page that provided links to various helpful resources. I still was unable to find assistance on how to successfully add calendar entries.

Despite my struggle to use some of the functions, I ultimately came away feeling good about the application’s potential for instructional use. It worked fine for messaging and for sharing access to files, and based on the positive reviews I have seen (examples below), I have reason to believe that the rest of the functionality in the tool is quite useful once understood. In addition to messaging, calendars, and file sharing (note that these provide shared viewing of files, but not shared editing), there is also an Assignments mechanism, and an associated Grading capability. Edmodo appears to add to it’s functionality regularly. It’s education-specific orientation, and group-focused approach position it as a uniquely suited application for educational use.

Alternatives?
There are plenty of tools one could use to do things similar to what you can do on Edmodo, but they all lack some element of what Edmodo offers. For example, using Google Docs and other tools available through a Google Account, one can do much of what Edmodo allows (as well as a lot that you can’t do on Edmodo, such as editing documents collaboratively), but not all using one interface. Another alternative option is the Wiki - tools like Wetpaint allow for messaging and file sharing in a controlled group environment, and the use of integrated widgets might allow for the addition of calendar functionality, and more. In the end though, none of these tools provide the simple, focused environment that Edmodo offers.

Edmodo reviews
Here are a few recent online reviews of Edmodo from educators:

• This blogging educator speaks highly of the tool: http://teacher2point0.blogspot.com/2009/03/edmodo-review-phase-one.html.
• This review takes the approach that if a teacher had designed Twitter, it would look like Edmodo: http://education.zdnet.com/?p=2417.
• This review takes the above review one step further by labeling Edmodo as “so much more than Twitter”: http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/reviews/33632.aspx.

Conclusion
Edmodo is a very worthwhile collaborative application geared directly towards educators and their students. If any of the available functionality on Edmodo interests you, sign up and give it a trial run. If you’re already using it, or similar technologies, please comment and let us know more about your experience. Thanks!