Tool #6: Using Web Tools to Promote Discussion in and out of the Classroom

I've heard of some of the web tools listed, but I'm not very familiar with most of them. These types of things are more conducive to academic classrooms than to lab-oriented courses.

I don't like Twitter or Face Book - especially for use in the classroom.  Having teachers and students interact through social media is just asking for trouble on many levels. Using Blogger could work in some academic areas if there are tight controls and security, but it's not a feasible tool for hands on courses.  Tool Everywhere could be widely utilized IF all students had cell phones with texting.  Many of our students do not have this luxury.

There are a few times when Google Docs might be a useful tool.  Below is a Google Docs document for one of the few group projects I assign in my class.  Students could access this document from home and make changes their group members could immediately see and edit.  This pre-planning from home as a group would take some of the pressure off as the students would have more class time for the hand-on part of the project.