Three Technologies for Collaborating

#1: Hypothesis

Hypothesis is a web-based social annotation tool that allows students to annotate web pages and PDF documents in collaboration with their peers. Students can highlight, comment in the margins, see the comments of others, and respond to these comments as well, engaging in a dialogue right on the digital page. This can offer a practical alternative to LMS discussion board assignments focused on processing reading material or it can be used for scaffolding assignments in addition to class or online discussions.

In addition to popular and scholarly articles, instructors can upload a PDF or web page link to an image such as an artwork or complex graph for students to collaboratively decipher and discuss. And with a bit of additional effort to organize groups, instructors can use Hypothesis to facilitate group or individual peer review of an essay or project. Hypothesis also integrates with several learning management systems, such as Canvas, Blackboard, and Schoolology, among others.

While the video above is a good introduction to the tool, I should acknowledge the idea briefly mentioned by the speaker to use Hypothesis to monitor students’ reading habits, such as before a class discussion or quiz, keeping the "guess work" out of who had done the reading or not. I highly recommend instructors DO NOT use Hypothesis in this way. Not only would it be a time-consuming task to keep track of students in this manner, but these types of “policing” activities are not centered on students learning. I advise instructors to focus on the most valuable part about Hypothesis: its ability to facilitate collective metacognition in an efficient way, which would only be possible in a digital space.

If one were to replicate social metacognition with reading in the classroom (and I have done this), it would simply not be as effective. Typically, students would either read in groups and verbalize their thoughts in the process or come to class prepared with their annotations and share them with others and/or use them to springboard a live conversation. In my experience, these types of activities, which are usually titled as “Read-aloud” and “Think-aloud” have been somewhat effective at best and usually just awkward for students. This attempt to collaboratively capture and reveal what is usually done independently—noting your thoughts as you read—is much more effective in a digital space as students do not need to read, annotate, and discuss synchronously.

With Hypothesis, students have sufficient processing time to read, capture their thoughts, consider the thoughts of others that are captured on the page, and respond to them as well. This also allows students who are struggling with processing the text, or who struggle with annotation skills in general, to leverage several peer examples and diverse points of view to make the text more accessible for them and build annotation skills.

#2: Google Docs, Slides, & Jamboard

Google offers a variety of free collaborative technology tools, and you can also opt to purchase extra perks with Google Workspace packages, which is simply the new name for Google Suite. This review focuses on some of the free collaborative tools valuable to educators, namely Google Docs, Slides, and Jamboard. First off, it has to be acknowledged that most students are very familiar with using Google Docs and probably Google Slides too. After all, they are free. Not like Microsoft Office. That is a plus in and of itself as it makes using Google technology tools with students a much more fluid process.

The sharing features of many Google tools make collaboration between students easy and efficient. For example, students can use Docs and Slides to collaborate on group projects and/or presentations. They can even use Sheets if creating a spreadsheet is a part of the project features or process. Instructors can leverage these sharing features to offer feedback on student work; if there is a tutor assigned to your class or if you are a tutor in a tutoring center, using Google sharing features makes communicating remote feedback practical and easy.

Google Jamboards can be a welcome addition to an instructor’s set of tools, as it allows students to collaborate on a digital whiteboard with virtual sticky notes, images, links, videos, and the like and for whatever purpose. I find Jamboards to be an effective tool for collaborative brainstorming assignments, either in groups or a whole class, as well as collaborative assignments to assist in processing course reading materials. Students can share ideas, questions, research, and other types of ruminations or contextual tidbits with each other so they can build knowledge together. Jamboards can be particularly valuable when facilitating a lesson or professional development workshop over Zoom, as it allows for participants to collaborate in a hands-on space and in real time, either as the primary activity for the lesson or as a space of collaborative reflection to return to at moments to break up and process the lecture bit by bit.

One thing to be mindful of is that the ease of access to each other's documents also can make it easy to help “too much” with reviewing work, such that, for example, a peer or tutor essay reviewer potentially writes portions of the essay instead of offering comments and leaving the actual writing changes up to the writer. Being mindful of this potential for plagiarism and training tutors and students to follow feedback guidelines to avoid such would be valuable when using Docs for peer reviewing essays or other applicable assignments. Another thing that can help is to make sure the sharing features for these types of peer review assignments are set to “commenting” and not “editing.” In this way, viewers of the document will not be able to alter or edit its content while still being able to add comments.

It should be said that students may not always know or be aware if their Google tool is set to share with others nor which mode of collaboration (viewer, commentor, or editor) as these are not the default settings. It’s a good idea to cover this with students to minimize pesky disruptions that can occur. The video below covers the various sharing settings for Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Jamboard.

#3: Miro

A handful of technology tools take the whiteboard concept and add several additional features not available in Jamboard. I've researched three of them--Stormboard, Mural, and Miro--and I've consistently found that Miro edges out the competition. Sometimes these reviews amount to very small features in functionality. While Stormboard has been around longer than the others, the fact that it doesn't integrate with Zoom like Mural and Miro does made me "X" it off my list even though Stormboard is more popular with educators, which may be so simply because it has been around longer. The one feature that gave Miro the edge over Mural was simply its "lock down" feature. Users consistently mentioned that these collaborative whiteboards can get messy with so many people working on them, and that the simple feature of locking images, text, and the like in place helps to keep group whiteboard work more clear and organized.

Miro offers users a variety of templates to choose from and snap to your whiteboard. This is something Jamboard does not have, and these handy templates can be leveraged to organize collaborative work in a way that is conducive to productivity on the particular project or goal, whether it is idea generation, mind mapping, categorizing, or crowdsourcing research. You can also create polls to vote on ideas and make group decisions quicker, and you can also transfer group whiteboard work into a document or spreadsheet, which could also be edited collaboratively and used as class notes, notes group projects, or meeting minutes, saving time on tasks routine to the context its being used in.

There are special perks for educators too as they can register for a free lifetime account, and students can get a free account for two years. The free accounts are based on registering with a school email address, so students could actually extend the time by registering for a new free account when they transfer and receive a new school email account. Schools and colleges wanting to purchase Miro for their institution can do so at 50% off the regular rate.

Some educators have touted Miro as a particularly valuable tool to increase interaction and engagement during synchronous class sessions on Zoom. For those of you who teach on Zoom or run interactive meetings, you can simply integrate the Miro app for Zoom to have easy access to the program, and you do not even need a registered Miro account to use it in Zoom.

Miro also offers robust support and training. It's "Tips for Teachers" is a good resource to start educators off with context and an account, generate ideas on how to leverage the platform for activities, and sign up for the webinar series for further training. If webinar's aren't your thing, you can always go to Miro's YouTube page and scroll through the videos for training tips.