You can reach out to anyone anywhere and find anyone by just clicking some buttons. Social media and technology has made the world smaller, easier. Educators have to find a way to leverage all of these in the classroom for a more efficient and effective learning process. Technology to this extent has to be facilitated in the right way because the world is fast going paperless. In reading further, you would find apps and tools which could enhance the learning process of students.
What is Student Collaboration?
This is simply peer learning which involves students working in small groups to examine concepts, find solutions to problems, address misunderstandings and clarify misconceptions. During the pandemic, there was a need for students even though not connected physically, to be connected by their online presence. These applications enable the students to perform tasks, have interactive discussions, carry out collaborative activities and research online learning resources.
Importance of Student Collaboration
Student collaboration goes a long way to developing a higher level of thinking, oral communication, self-management, and leadership skills. It aids in a wider understanding from a variety of diverse viewpoints. Involuntarily, it boosts student’s self-esteem and perseverance, retention, and responsibility. Research also shows that collaboration apps for students improved the development of higher-order thinking, communication and built their leadership skills. It can be of benefit to the students to collaborate within a virtual space, building a positive impact on their interaction with people and preparing them for the future where they would likely need to work with others as part of a team. Collaboration apps for students prepare one for actual life social and employment situations. When students do not collaborate with classmates, they miss out on new perspectives, new ideas, and novel approaches to solving problems.
25 Best Collaboration Apps for Students in 2022
There is nearly an endless list of collaboration apps for students. Most of them support more than one means of communication, such as chat, instant messaging, screen sharing, audio/video conferencing, and file sharing. Below are the best 25 collaboration apps for students in 2022:
1. Drawp for School
This collaboration tool makes digital sharing easy. It makes sharing assignments and giving feedbacks a snap for teachers. It can be used with any device and any operating system. It is used for creation, collaboration, content and workflow management. It includes rich design tools, swipe-to-share collaboration and cloud storage. It provides teachers with an easy-to-access repository of educational resources to download and share. It has voice stickers for voice recording. Drawp offers a 30-day free trial for the cloud –based service, which allows teachers to distribute content to, and collect content from students. To get Drawp for School, click here.
2. Makers Empire
It promotes innovation, collaboration and creation. It has easy management tools, curriculum-aligned resources, certified professional development, and support for teachers. To get Makers Empire, click here.
3. Mural
This collaboration app for students facilitates lesson presentation and group project collaboration from anywhere around the globe by making idea sharing a simple, visual process. On Mural, you can literally communicate visually using sticky notes, flowcharts, mapping and drawings. It made provisions for file storage, project management, visual collaboration, video and cat, text documents, presentations, product development, and design. To get Mural, click here.
4. Popplet
Research shows that this is one of the simplest ways to visualize ideas is through the use of this app. It is used by over 1M+ students in over 130+ countries. It has a simple interface which makes getting started and collaborating easy. They can use it in every subject area. It makes it possible to keep track of contributions during a group assignment. It challenges kids to reflect on why they organized ideas. After students finish creating on Popplet, they can export their works so they can print or use them later. It is highly recommended. To get Popplet, click here.
5. School Friendzy
School Friendzy builds around superb collaborative and assistive features. It is a great and engaging way to review content. The collaborative features encourage kids to strive for success. It is an effective way to organize and differentiate assignments, particularly for math. It assigns and grades schoolwork, saving teachers hundreds of hours.
6. Skype
Skype is a free downloadable software that allows individuals to talk or video conference with others from around the world. It can be used to set up exchanges with classrooms around the world. It has been used to meet with other classrooms, practice a foreign language, talk about the weather, practice interviews, gaming, and hold contests and even debates. It is an instructional tool that provides boundless opportunities for authentic teaching and learning. Skype has been highly recommended as a very good recommendation app for students. To get Skype, click here.
7. Zoom
Zoom makes students’ collaborations easy. It keeps students engaged in the digital environment. It allows online teachers and coaches to facilitate intimate, interactive activities that create meaningful connections among students. It makes it easy for the teacher to help students with their group discussions and check in on how they are doing as they are working together, just like a real classroom. The app is versatile and easy to use. To get zoom, click here. READ MORE: 15 Best Note-Taking App for Students & Teachers
8. Explain Everything Whiteboard
This software is basically like an online classroom with really beautiful perks. You can draw, present, animate, create videos and collaborate. Presentations and explanations here can be saved on the app. Students can comfortably connect and collaborate with other students. A teacher can teach, present, sketch notes, record videos, and work together with the students, all in the Explain Everything Whiteboard. To get Explain Everything, click here.
9. Flipgrid
This is a video tool that encourages discussion and engagement among students. The short video logs enable the students to share their ideas. It has a free version that offers limited features. The paid version offers the full experience of student’s collaboration and conversations through videos. To get Flipgrid, click here.
10. Microsoft Teams:
This is a powerful hub where students can collaborate online. It is a workspace where students can communicate, share files and meet. Teachers can send messages and announcements to individual students or whole classes at once. Notebooks can also be shared between faculty members to collect and curate resources, collaborate and develop new documents and share development materials. To get Microsoft Teams, click here.
11. PenPal Schools:
This is a safe learning community where children from 150 countries read, write and make new friends. It allows students and teachers to work together on collaborative projects. However, the limited availability of projects per subject/ age group and restrictive match dates can make it tough for students to get paired up with pals. It is a thoughtful and ready-to-go platform that facilitates authentic, cross cultural collaboration. To get PenPal School, Click here.
12. Monday.com:
This online collaboration app for students is one of the very highly rated apps. Survey shows that up to 1,273 teachers prefer to use it on a daily basis. It keeps all work very organized in one visual platform which is easy to access by everyone. You can check your progress at any time using the app. You can also integrate all of your other apps on one unified platform. To get Monday.com, click here.
13. ePals:
The site provides access to students around the world. Research shows that it is a safe way to communicate and collaborate with other students. It makes learning experience way more interesting. Its excellent learning materials help create a global youth community. Even though establishing common goals and lesson plans with a collaborating classroom can be a challenge, ePals makes it very easy. To get ePals, click here.
14. Actively Learn:
It is an easy-to-use tool with excellent standards. It helps students connect and stay engaged while teachers easily measure their progress. Within the tool, discussions about a text can develop, fostering more active participation. Students can respond to multiple-choice and open-ended questions from their teachers. It is a great app for student collaboration. To get Actively Learn, click here.
15. NowComment
This is a free and versatile app that facilitates discussions. As a teacher, you can get your students to get very busy using this app. You can evaluate their tests on it and also upload other media relevant to the lessons. It can be used with any subject. Some say that its video quality breathes life into the source materials. Its functions are very easy to understand. It is one of the highly rated apps for student collaboration. To get NowComment, click here.
16. Project Pals:
It helps students be transparent. It has features similar to consumer-grade project management software. Students can add a variety of media to the app. It made signing up for classrooms relatively easy. The dashboard helps keep students accountable. Students can explore content and actively discuss them right away. The tool has a very high rating from those who have used it. To get ProjectPals, click here.
17. CueThink:
This is an application focused on improving math-problem solving and collaboration skills. It has tools to make problem solving relatively easier. Its virtual classroom supports all students in engaging their thinking. On the application, the teacher can listen to all the students and see their problem-solving in a step-by-step manner. Students can also ask each other questions and open their minds to new varieties of ways through which a problem can be solved. To get CueThink, click here.
18. Parlay
The software is great for English Language, Social Studies, Communication and collaboration and critical thinking. It paves way for deep student discussions which are capable of widening the mind. It requires students to do a lot on devices while having a discussion. It is a great tool for both teachers and student collaboration. To get Parlay, click here.
19. Storillo
Storillo is a great tool for ensuring student accountability in group writing projects. It puts the group back in the group work. It helps students in group essay collaborations, lab reports, language practice, presentation scripts, creative writing and business plans. It allows students to collaborate maximally and gives the teachers opportunity to give feedback on their works. To get Storillo, click here.
20. Google Hangouts
This is a video messaging tool developed by Google that allows users to collaborate at a distance. It has provisions for instant messaging, video chat and sharing of photos. It is very easy to use. Students can literally communicate with each other by having a face-to-face conversation virtually. To get Google Handouts, click here.
21. Padlet
In real-time, students are able to collaborate using different media sources. They can contribute videos, images, comments on a virtual board. Each student can comment or reply to the work of another student or add a new opinion on the subject matter being discussed. After accessing Padlet, you can save your previous works and come back to it later. It is highly recommended for student collaboration. To get Padlet, click here.
22. Peergrade:
This is widely known as one of the best apps for student collaboration. The teacher can give an assignment, the students can discuss and throw various suggestions and arguments across. On Peergrade, the teacher has a complete overview of everything happening in the assignment. To get Peergrade, click here.
23. YO Teach:
Yo Teach has tools to build significant learning experiences. It can track students’ projects, showcase their work, and has a digital portfolio that the students and teachers can look at to see the progress attained. This tool is great for creativity, communication and collaboration. To get YO Teach, click here.
24. Diigo:
Diigo is an excellent tool that aids student’s collaboration. On it, students can search for online content relevant to their research project. They can organize bookmarks by tags and date. It is in these distinctive features that make it unique. Students can also add sticky notes on any part of the bookmarked website. They can then go further to discuss on the books read. To get Diigo, click here.
25. Scratchwork:
This tool is best for Math, Communication, and collaboration. It has a sleek interface. Even though its interface takes time to get used to, when it is mastered, it is totally worth it. Students can easily upload, manipulate, share and discuss mathematics projects. It is a great tool for student collaboration. To get Scratchwork, click here.
Conclusion
The shift in digital learning is here to stay. The sooner these skills start to become developed, the better. These tools listed above have been tested by several institutions and has proved to be portable, user-friendly and effective. They help to keep students informed without being there physically. These tools can readily ease the burden of both the teacher and students, not just by keeping them informed, but also by keeping them engaged.
References
www.gettingsmart.comwww.teachthought.comhttps://blog.bit.ai/students-collaboration-what-why-and-tools/https://spencerauthor.com/remote-collaboration/https://www.commonsense.org/education/top-picks/best-student-collaboration-toolshttps://snacknation.com/blog/online-collaboration-tools/https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/engaging-students/collaborative-learning
