Collaboration is increasingly emerging as one of today’s top skills. Part of the 4Cs, it is needed in K-12 classrooms, in higher education, and in the workforce. Students who leverage technology to build collaboration skills are building strong college- and career-ready skills.
More and more classrooms are going mobile, whether that is through school-issued laptops or tablets, or via BYOD initiatives that allow students to bring and use their personal mobile devices in school.
However collaboration is accomplished, it’s evident that mobile collaboration tools are as important as ever.
Here, we’ve listed a number of free and fee-based collaborative tools and apps, along with developer-provided descriptions, for students to use as they develop collaboration skills in and out of school. This is just a small sample of collaborative tools, and if you have a favorite that is not listed, please let us know in the comments section below.
Scoodle Jam
Challenge curious minds with an engaging, collaborative, Common Core-aligned product for school and home. Scoodle Jam marries powerful creation tools with imaginative content that supports critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity, turning your iPad into a flexible learning environment.
Drawp for School
This creativity tool offers built-in sharing, cloud storage, and workflow management. The tool also features a family edition, which educators could use to strengthen home-school connections.
Mind42
Mind42 allows you to manage all your ideas, whether alone, twosome or working together with the whole world. Mind42 runs in your browser, so no installation necessary for the ultimate hassle-free mind mapping experience. Just open your browser and launch the application whenever and wherever needed.
Scribble Press
Scribble Press is a multimedia creativity platform for creating, sharing, and publishing stories. Students can access the tool online or on iPads and can work together to create stories supporting classroom topics or lessons.
Whiteboard Lite
This app lets students collaborate on the same whiteboard, whether for brainstorming, art projects, or visualizing concepts.
Thinkbinder
ThinkBinder uses a simple, focused set of tools to allow users to collaborate and work more efficiently. This features chat, sharing, whiteboard collaboration, and more. Tools are designed around seamless communication and collaboration. Sign on and ask a question about calculus homework, work through a physics problem on the collaborative whiteboard, or video chat with a Spanish partner, all in one place.
Dweeber
Dweeber is a social website that connects students and helps them get homework done faster by working with their peers online.
This article appeared on eClassroom News on September 19 2014 and was written by the staff of eSchool News.