Asynchronous tools on the Web

Have you used these Web-based tools?

There are many excellent tools for collaborative knowledge development on the Web. The tools described below can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection. They are ideal tools for use in situations where an institution does not have its own learning management system. These tools can also be used to complement the tools on your LMS if you have one, as they can be accessed from within an LMS-based discussion forum, e-mail system, blog or wiki simply by including links to them on the worldwide web. 

Which of the following applications are you familiar with?

• For writing personal messages: e-mail, instant messaging (e.g. Skype IM, Gmail IM)
• For collaborative writing: wikis (e.g. PBWorks, WetPaint, MediaWiki), Google Docs
• For collaborative drawing: mindmapping tools (e.g. Dabbleboard), diagramming tools (e.g. Gliffy)
• For scheduling and organising individual and group work: online calendars (e.g. Google calendar), to-do lists (e.g. RememberTheMilk)
• For collaborative reflection: blogs with comments enabled (e.g. WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, EduBlogs)
• For meeting likeminded people or people with similar goals: social networking sites (e.g. FaceBook, LinkedIn, SAReunited.com)
• For accessing information: search engines (e.g. Google, or Google Scholar for academic references), RSS feeds that enable you to sign up and receive new articles/ messages from selected sites as they are posted (e.g. Google Reader)
• For sharing web links with friends and colleagues: social bookmarking sites (e.g. Diigo, which enables you to annotate and highlight web pages before sharing them)
• For sharing photos and videos and commenting on them (e.g. Flickr, YouTube)
• For sharing slide presentations and commenting on them (e.g. Slideshare)
• For creating sound files/ podcasts (A free and easy-to-use podcasting software programme is Audacity.)

Reflection

1. Which of the above tools have you used? If many of them are new to you, you might want to start exploring them by looking at the CommonCraft videos. (See Additional Resources below.)
2. To what extent do you think any of these tools which are available in the public domain would be:
   1. Accessible to you and your learners from a practical point of view?
   2. Culturally acceptable to your learners as learning tools? Do you think, for example, your learners might feel that FaceBook style social networking is appropriate for use in formal education?
   3. Appropriate to the nature of the content of the course you are teaching?
3. Do you think your institution might have any objections to the use of any of the above tools in your teaching? In some institutions, for example (especially workplace-based training centres), many internet-based sites are blocked for security reasons. Institutional policy can also sometimes prevent the use of some of the most useful collaboration tools. However, security settings and training policies can always be modified. If you face such obstacles, can you think of ways in which you and your colleagues might be able to negotiate for more flexibility?  

Additional resources

The Web in plain English - this section contains several excellent videos which explain many of these web-based communication tools in plain English. More videos are available at the CommonCraft site.
Whilst some of these videos have been released under a Creative Commons licence, this is not always the case. Please refer to the specific videos to ascertain the copyright position’.